The past two playoffs, the Knicks lost to the Pacers despite Jalen Brunson’s heroics. Tonight the Knicks beat beat them 136-110 despite Brunson’s absence due to ankle and cervical owies.
Interviewed after the final buzzer, Josh Hart said he was able to have a big scoring night because Brunson wasn’t around to hog the ball. When you become just the fourth Knickerbocker ever to score 30+ points shooting 90% or better, you can say whatever you want. 33 points on 12-of-13 shooting for Hart. For you Knick numerologists
out there, that’s a holy trinity of digits: Patrick Ewing, Dick Barnett and Malik Rose. Amen y amen.
Hart was joshing, but the Knicks let many hands make light work of the captain’s absence. Six Knicks scored in double-figures with five dishing four or more dimes. It all added up to a Pleasantville-like frictionlessness: 38 assists to nine turnovers. If this were a video game, you’d have raised the difficulty level a few. Not that Indiana didn’t make it a game for most of the night; the fifth law of thermodynamics states the Pacers will always be more of a problem for the Knicks than it seems they should. For Knicks fans of almost any age, any win over any Pacers team goes down smooth.
That’s four straight wins for your favorite team’s favorite team. Russell Richardson’s got your recap a-comin’. Cleveland’s in a dogfight late with the Giannis-less Bucks. Go Giannis-less Bucks!
