Knicks 109, Pacers 105: Born to play basketball
A yellow road met a blue-and-orange road at MSG last night and diverged: the promising Pacers went the way of the L, while the more-promising Knicks keep climbing the ladder one W at a time
There are quite a few similarities between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks. They both have greatly exceeded expectations this season. Both are led by a star guard who has also exceeded expectations. Both have a second star who is by turns brilliant and bruising and tough to watch, both for fans of their team and of their opposition. Both team’s third-best player is a perennial Defensive Player Of the Year candidate who plays boring but complementary ball on offense. Both teams have maximized a bevy of players on their second (or even third) chance who fit the team’s ethos. And both have coaches who, when they have a team with whom they connect, can galvanize and surprise in spite of stubborn decision-making habits.
They are also teams who have, for this season, melded distinctly opposing identities. Even after the acquisition of Pascal Siakam, the Pacers remain an offense-first, -second, and -third team. They lead the league in offensive rating, and bringing in Pascal has given them another creator and more skilled size – two traits their already turbo-charged offense needs if they want a respectable playoff debut. The current iteration of the Knicks, on the other hand, have turned MSG (and orange-and-blue-filled opposing arenas) into prisons. They held the Pacers to well below their season average of 121 points per game, two days after halting the Utah Jazz’s streak of 10 straight games scoring 120+ points. It should be noted, however, that this team identity reaches well beyond the stars, beyond the coach, and beyond the starting lineup:
That identity characterizes quite literally every player on the bench, all of whom are considered defensive studs who can pull their weight on the glass, put the ball on the deck and pummel a shoulder into your chest. Beyond the bench, that identity even permeates across time itself: the great Knicks team of today does not have to emulate the great Knicks teams of yesteryear . . . and yet they do. Those two qualities – the lineup depth and the history that animates fans young and old into a religious frenzy during a game where New York couldn’t throw a baseball into the Bronx River – drove the Knicks to one of the most rewarding wins of the season.
That being said, Erica and Rick, allow me to apologize: I’ve gone three paragraphs without uttering the words “Jalen Brunson,” blasphemy of the highest order on a night where he earned his first All-Star berth, carried his team to victory and showed more visible emotion than at any other point is his already remarkable Knicks tenure.
Jalen, like most of the Knicks, actually kind of stunk up the joint in the first quarter. The Pacers came out running and gunning, and both the Knicks’ transition defense and pick-and-roll defense (vs. the best PnR operator in the league in Tyrese Haliburton, no less) were in complete shambles. The speed with which Indiana moved from one option to another, called audibles and continued moving all over the court clearly knocked the Knicks off-balance to begin the game. The balance was never quite there for the Knicks all night on offense, and in the first quarter they missed a number of easy dunks and wide open threes – tough sledding, though not unexpected when playing without our All-Star Julius Randle, our savior OG Anunoby and our sniper Quentin Grimes.
The Pacers also came out with more energy, grabbing five offensive rebounds from their first nine missed shots. Since acquiring Pascal, the Pacers are actually third in the league in offensive rebounding rate, right behind the Knicks; Siakam slotting in at the 4 means guys like Aaron Nesmith (who started off very hot) are no longer small-balling up a position, allowing them to hit the glass with gusto.
The other notable feature of the first quarter was unfortunately the referees. What began as a rough whistle evolved into an outright catastrophe, peaking with Brunson taking a fourth quarter fist to the face, giving Jalen Smith a free dunk and costing the Knicks a timeout, all with nary a glance from refs.
Even Mike Breen, chief referee defender among NBA color commentating regulars, was aghast throughout the game – something I truly do not remember ever happening before.
The second and third quarters were a push and pull of the Knicks bricking makeable shots, getting gutsy offensive rebounds, Brunson turning into the Punisher, the refs swallowing their whistles and a variety of Pacers (including our own wayward son, Obi Toppin) hitting timely shots and playing timely defense. About halfway through the second, Donte Divencenzo, our very own human torch (who was without his flames for the night after two early threes), got a technical foul for shoving Haliburton out of the way after Hali dunked and yelled in his vicinity. From then on, the Knicks players were visibly frustrated with the refs, but – critically – used that as motivation to go harder, defend better and be even more physical.
They stuck to the game plan, which was to put up threes (12 of their first 27 shots were from beyond the arc), defend, hit the glass and trust in Brunson, who began to percolate and force the refs’ whistles near the end of the half.
The Knicks haven’t had a bad “shot variance’’ game in some time. Most of their threes felt reasonable, if not downright good, very few were totally off target (good effort, Precious!), and yet most seemed halfway down, only to rattle out. But when you are down this many players to injury, dialing up the 3-point attempts is one way to punch above your weight, so shoot they did, going 3-of-14 in the first half.
The dismal shooting from distance continued into the second, where at one point the Knicks missed 17 straight threes until Deuce McBride went on a personal rampage, scoring 14 of 17 Knick points, some while Brunson rested.
Before Deuce went off, the Knicks continued the cat-and-mouse game with the Pacers, in large part thanks to Isaiah Hartenstein, who did a bit of everything and ended up with 19 rebounds, six assists and six baskets, including some very physical dunks and putbacks in the third. Haliburton had two very disrespectful threes to stop a Knicks run, and Siakam a big and-1 to stop an end-of-quarter run. But the tone had shifted.
After the first quarter, the Knicks defense was pretty much locked in, with Hartenstein leading the charge and Precious Achiuwa continuing to be a revelation on the glass and on opposing mobile bigs like Lauri Markkanen and Siakam the past two games. After a 36-point opening quarter, Indiana scored 69 the last three. With Haliburton reaching his hamstring-induced minutes limit, you could almost sense the tidal wave heading toward the shore. Only it wasn’t a tidal wave, it was Brunson, fully unleashed by a manic crowd, waiting to show the Pacers – the early surprise of the Eastern conference, led by the darling of up-and-coming NBA hoopers – that they were messing with a different type of animal.
Jalen went full supernova, scoring 11 of his 40 in the fourth, including the 3-pointer to tie the game at 91 and a floater to give the Knicks their first lead since early in the first. The Pacers botched coverages on him, and he made them pay. On the other end, without Haliburton, the Pacers turned to Siakam. The Knicks, on defense, turned to Achiuwa, who for many Knicks fans has quickly gone from “Will he even be here next month?” to “This is one of Thibs’ beloved sons and I will take a bullet for him.”
Despite missing all of his wide open threes, two dunks, some easy layups and half his free throws, Precious was the Knick who most channeled the blue-collar spirit of beloved Knicks present and past: two blocks, four steals, three deflections, eight offensive rebounds, eight defensive stands, four hard fouls, stingy crunchtime defense vs Pascal and a team-high 43 fucking minutes played.
Normally as stone-faced as Brunson and DiVincenzo, Achiuwa was visibly charged up in the fourth, helping seal their Knicks hardest-fought victory of the season and one of the few games in the last couple weeks they didn’t blow a team to smithereens completely. Their shooting may have been ugly, but 23 offensive rebounds? 16 deflections? That will do.
This team is full of gamers. More importantly, this team is full of talent. Guys who don’t play much here could be rotation players elsewhere, and up and down the roster there are players whose accolades arrive belatedly, if they come at all. Stretches like this – nine straight wins straight and 15 of 17 – are special, and indicative of a team whose cup runneth over not just with grit, but with skills. A team with a top-10 offensive weapon at lead guard, maybe pound-for-pound the strongest player in the league at power forward, a top-5 or top-10 defender in the league on the wing, a shooting guard who has quietly played more like a Desmond Bane than a Malik Beasley or Deanthony Melton, a bench that goes five-deep with plus defenders who can all put the ball on the deck in a pinch. And they all play hard. Just ask the Pacers.
