Knicks 128, Pacers 115: Close, until it wasn’t
The dynamics of the Knicks-Pacers rivalry have changed since their playoff tilt last season, and perhaps in the Knicks’ favor.
The Knicks beat the Pacers 128-115. The game was close for a while, before it wasn’t.
If you’re a cynic — and there are many of them in Knicksland these days — Knicks wins feel like the team often plays about 2-3 quarters of shaky basketball followed by about 15 minutes of explosive offense that eventually wins the day. The good stuff gets us across the finish line, but the bad stuff is the aftertaste that remains despite that, thanks to recent agita about the team’s lack of wins vs. the truly elite teams.
If you’re not a cynic, or at least less cynical, it means you have probably fully internalized how a lot of modern NBA games go: teams probe at each other, throw body blows and soften each other up, try different attacks and coverages until something sticks, and when the armor finally breaks and one team exposes a significant weakness or two in the other team, the game is effectively over.
There is no love lost between these two teams. In some ways, they are foils. Last year they were foils because the Knicks were a defense-first team headed by an unstoppable scoring perimeter player, while the Pacers were an offense-first team headed by a guy whose selflessness and passing was the hallmark of his game. This year, they are foils because they are both offense-first teams, but while the Knicks do their scoring via a very top-heavy roster, the Pacers utilize a deep rotation, over 10 players strong. The Pacers also started the year slow, carried by the relatively unsung Pascal Siakam — who has improved yet again this year — while Tyrese Haliburton rested unpeacefully, before getting hot and healthy and turning in a 13-4 record in the new year. The Knicks, meanwhile, got off to a quicker start this year, and have been a bit shakier in 2025 dealing with injuries and inconsistency.
Outside of Obi Toppin, these teams do not like each other. Haliburton’s celebrate-only-while-winning habits and the Pacers’ gimmicky physical-yet-ineffective defense visibly grates New York’s two main ball handlers, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns’ ability to impose their will, and draw fouls, also visibly draws the ire of the Pacers. Coach Rick Carlisle regularly and publicly complains about the refs after Knicks-Pacers games. After the Pacers eliminated the Knicks last year in the playoffs and were summarily eliminated by the Celtics, Hart and Haliburton chirped at each other on social media. This is not lost on the fans of each team, who have often reflected these attitudes and alliances.
The first half had 14 lead changes. It was one of the weirder halves of Knicks basketball this season. The Pacers were without rim protection with Myles Turner and Isaiah Jackson both out, and the lion’s share of center minutes going to Pascal Siakam and Thomas Bryant. As a result, Brunson and Towns both saw red and played to score first, second, and third. Brunson began the game with several waves of iso ball, dealing with the usual handsy Pacers defense. It had mixed results — he was only 3-10 shooting in the half, and dealt with some foul trouble, resulting in him playing less first half minutes than the other starters.
Towns however, was essentially unstoppable. No Pacer was able to physically stop him from imposing his will driving speedily and powerfully to the rim, to the tune of 24 first half points on 12 shots. He really got going after Thibs got a rare technical foul, irate about lack of fouls called on the Pacers.
The other first half storyline was shockingly competent bench play from the Knicks, countervailing some truly heinous basketball from erstwhile starter Precious Achiuwa (2-6 in the first half, and spent much of it birdwatching the Pacers on both ends). Deuce McBride went 3-3 from deep and had 12 points total with his right arm taped up enough that he resembled Marvel’s Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Cam Payne, forced into extra point guarding due to Brunson fouls, made all two of his shots and had five assists in eight first half minutes. Landry Shamet, who has been largely ineffective for the Knicks despite his motor running hot every game, even gave some solid minutes on defense. After an insanely inadvisable four-minute stretch of Hukporti-Hart-Precious where the Knicks scored zero points, the Knicks’ bench not only kept the team afloat, but found strong chemistry with KAT and began to cement their lead.
In the second half, Brunson picked up two quick fouls, including one out of sheer frustration, giving him five total with over 20 minutes left to play. To the bench he went, and back came Payne, setting an unusual stage for the two teams.
At this point, the Knicks had discovered only one of the Pacers’ weaknesses of the day, their lack of size, but they were about to discover another. Josh Hart scored 12 third quarter points on 6-7 shooting, with hardly any half court dribbles. He was peak Hart, a flurry of off-ball cuts and transition rim runs. The Pacers’ lack of rim protection and lack of attention off-ball proved to be their demise. Even Shamet got in on the fun, scoring two backdoor cuts. The passing came from everyone, even the aforementioned maligned Achiuwa delivering dimes from the center spot while KAT rested en route to his 40-piece. The manner in which the Knicks scored so easily was visibly demoralizing to both the Pacers’ team and the Indiana crowd. After all, the Knicks were out-running and out-transitioning the Pacers. Nobody likes a taste of their own medicine.
On the other end, the Pacers searched for an answer, but lacked the scoring juice to really take advantage of the Knicks’ shaky pick-and-roll defense. After a brick-laden terrible 3-point shooting first half, they only took five threes in the third quarter, opting instead to force the issue in the paint, with mixed results. Peddling twos while the Knicks racked up baskets of all varieties and free throws was tough math for Indiana.
There was a stretch where they targeted KAT in the pick-and-roll for four straight possessions, attempting to follow the scouting report and expose the Knicks’ biggest weakness. It didn’t quite work as planned. Boston scored 1.7 points per possession (PPP) over 45 PnR possessions vs. the Knicks on Saturday; the Pacers scored 1.08 PPP over 41 PnR possessions on Tuesday. Why? Haliburton was more happy to pass out of the initial action if there wasn’t a clear lane, and did not seem interested in taking a ton of shots from midrange or on pull-up threes. The teams that take advantage of KAT’s terrible pick-and-roll defense — and it was pretty bad in the first half yesterday — usually feature players who are shameless about taking a very high volume of drop killer shots (Jayson Tatum, Cade Cunningham, and Malik Monk come to mind of late).
The Pacers then even let Haliburton and Siakam spot up off-ball to keep Mikal Bridges and Precious out of the action while Andrew Nembhard could bring Thomas Bryant — and therefore KAT — into the action, hoping Nembhard could score from the midrange (his favorite area) while flanked by the two best Pacers. Nembhard was not quite up to the task. He doesn’t always have that kind of scoring juice.
Ultimately, none of the Pacers’ ball handlers or scorers were able to impose their will. After a spicy first half, Pascal’s first possession in the second half was a lifeless isolation vs. Towns, which resulted in a midrange brick. Precious did a bang-up job in the second half on him as well.
And that, friends, was — and remains — the main difference between these two teams. Though they have parallels aplenty, including strong strengths and glaring weaknesses, the Knicks ultimately have a higher-end class of firepower that was tough for the Pacers to match, at least without Myles Turner. Overcoming a huge size disparity on the glass (the Knicks won the rebound battle 48 to 36) and a huge size disparity in the paint (the Knicks scored 68 points there), was too much to ask of Indiana.
For our Knicks, the game did not answer the season’s lingering questions about top-end competitive ability, even with the Pacers sporting a 19-6 record in their previous 25 games coming into the contest. Thibs made some very weird rotations, ones that probably bite him in the ass vs. better teams. But the game did offer a level of bounce-back seriousness and redemption for Towns and Hart. Their 70 combined points came in utterly dominant fashion, days after being the main culprits behind the Celtics’ dismantling win over the Knicks. They were supported by the Knicks’ bench in a surprising show of timely support. On the whole, the New Yorkers had almost 50 rebounds, almost 40 assists, shot over 50%, and mustered just enough defense to win the day — this is the Knicks’ formula right now, and they were able to get back to it.
