Knicks 119, Pacers 113: Wobbly but winning
Fee, fi, fo, fids: the Knicks win the battle of the two rising mids.
In Monday’s loss to Milwaukee, the New York Knicks fought a heavyweight, and while they didn’t win, the Bucks felt them; when they laid down that night they knew they’d been in a fight. On Wednesday the Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers 119-113 in a game that showed they can win blowouts and tight contests, sometimes all in one game. They showed they can hang on, even if they took more punches than we’d like.
If the Knicks aren’t the best first-quarter team in the NBA, they gotta be climbing the charts. Last night they once again shot out of the gate, up double-digits in the first and 21 at the half. New York had three points and three rebounds for every two by the visitors. In RJ Barrett’s first game since lacerating his finger in Dallas he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Jalen Brunson was controlling the offense; Julius Randle was controlling the glass. Life was good.
Pacer coach Rick Carlisle made a change at halftime, replacing James Johnson in his starting five with Rookie of the Year frontrunner Benedict Mathurin. The effect was immediate: after scoring 41 in the first half, Indiana exploded for 40 in the third quarter. The Knicks went weak at the knees and before you knew it, we had a good old-fashioned slugfest on our hands.
Maybe “old-fashioned” isn’t a good describer. In 1994, when Reggie Miller famously exploded for 25 points in the fourth quarter of the Eastern finals Game 5, Indiana attempted only 14 threes, 11 by Miller; last night Buddy Hield alone took 15 of the Pacers’ 39. As the 20+ point lead lead the Knicks held much of the fight broke apart like a comet, I found myself more forgiving than is normally the case when one’s team is blowing yet another big-and-late lead. But I had Fred Katz’s piece from Wednesday’s Athletic on my mind, about how it’s de rigeur in the age of the 3-ball for teams to blow double-digit leads like never before. So as long as the Knicks stayed on top, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Instead I went hunting for the “A-ha!” moment, the one someone makes that you look back on later and say “That’s when I knew we were good.”
Reader, there were sooo many a-has.
The third quarter closed with Mathurin matched up one-on-one with Randle. As is often the case, Randle held his own defending on the perimeter, forcing Mathurin into a tough miss. Would that shutdown shut down the Pacer comeback? Not even a little. Goga Bitadze – yes, that Goga Bitadze – drained a three to cap the 11-0 run Indiana opened the fourth with, making it a three-point game.
With four minutes left, Mathurin drove baseline and appeared to have a primrose path to a lay-up. That was until Mitchell Robinson rose up like a sun god to reject Mathurin’s offering. Still, the Pacers kept coming; a Buddy Hield three capped a 7-0 Indiana run and pulled them within two. It was back to four when Mathurin again appeared to have an easy lay-in, only for this one to be blocked by a defiant Randle, leading directly to a Brunson three and some breathing room. Did this dyad denote denouement? It didn’t.
Because shortly thereafter, with the Knicks up seven and on high alert not to foul or give up a three, Barrett got cute with conjunctions by fouling and giving up a three to Hield, who was Indiana’s only dependable scorer by that point. It would take the Knicks digging even deeper to stop the madness. If they were going to win, they were not going to do it pretty. New York was gonna have to get down in the muck to pull out the W. They were gonna have to get a little . . . Grimes-y.
One of the biggest differences between who we thought this year’s Knicks would be and who they’ve been stems from Quentin Grimes not only becoming the starting 2, but becoming more than just another 3-and-D 2. The off-the-bounce creativity and blitzing of closeouts is all well and good, but Grimes’ most impressive muscle is his mind (it’s not technically a muscle, nor is this a biology paper). His ability to think ahead allows him to play ahead of the moment, so that even when he makes you gasp you grant him that grandmaster trust. It’s safe to assume a man named Quentin has considered all the angles.
Like when the Knicks rebounded a Hield three that would’ve tied the game with 45 seconds left. The Pacers were flying around pressing every Knick who held the ball, a common tactic that was uncommonly nerve-wracking this night because the Knicks struggled so much with it. After a few passes the ball ended up with Grimes, right by the Indiana basket. He could have easily made a lay-up and put the Knicks up five. He passed on that opportunity, instead choosing to dribble back out behind the arc and run more clock. The gasps from the crowd that greeted this gamble made it clear a lot of people would trade time for points. A lot of people aren’t out there making that decision, though. Grimes – who I should mention sat the entire fourth quarter until checking in for these final moments – would get the ball back late in the shot clock and let it all ride on 3.
No fighter gets far if their strategy is to stand around taking punches until the bell sounds (maybe one fighter). The Knicks took a lot of hits en route to victory. They beat the team directly ahead of them in the standings and now only need to split their last two games against Indiana to win the head-to-head tiebreaker, which could help with playoff seeding. RJ and Obi Toppin are back, the nine-man rotation remains intact and New York remains flawed but fun, wobbly but winning. It’s a beautiful thing.
