Tonight, the New York Knicks (19*-7) were at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse to face the Indiana Pacers (6-21). Coming off their Tuesday night NBA Cup win and due to play the Sixers tomorrow, Mike Brown rested Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart and fielded an opening lineup of Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Ariel Hukporti, and Mohamed Diawara (in his first NBA start). It made sense to give the guys a break, with such un-imposing competition. The Pacers are missing a slew of players and started
Andrew Nembard, Quenton Jackson (a two-way guy playing just his seventh game of the season), Bennedict Mathurin, and Pascal Siakam.
Indy jumped out strong, building a double-digit lead with efficient shooting while the Knicks struggled to score and maintain control of the ball. The Hoosiers continued their lead straight through til halftime, 62-59. In the third, the Knicks came out of the locker room lethargically and fell behind by double-digits again. But Tyler Kolek was cooking, OG Anunoby hit some timely buckets to close the gap, and Jalen Brunson sank a triple with four seconds left to steal the win, 114-113.
New York is scored efficiently overall at 43-of-92 FG (47%), powered by volume threes (17-of-43, 40%). They stunk at the free throw line (58%) and coughed up the rock 16 times. Brunson led the box score with 25 points (10-23 FG, 3-8 3PT) plus seven rebounds, seven assists, and three steals. Despite a slow start, Bridges finished with 22 points (9-19 FG, 4-9 3PT), eight boards, five assists, and a +9. Anunoby added 16 points on 5-13 FG, 2-7 3PT, plus six boards and +11. Hukporti played a season-high 27 points, tallying four points, five rebounds, two blocks, and a steal. And Diawara scored five points in a rocky 19.
Tyler Kolek continues to shine as the season rolls on. Coming off an impressive performance in the Cup final on Tuesday, the sophomore was a table-setter tonight with a career-high 16 points (7-10 FG, 2-4 3PT), 11 assists, and a +13. Jordan Clarkson dropped 18 points on 6-of-12 FG, 5-0f-9 3PT. The roughest stat-line went to Guerschon Yabusele, who scored three points, 2 turnovers, and -17.
For the losers, Nembhard scored 31, one shy of his season-high, on 12-of-19 from the floor, 4-of-5 from deep. Siakam trailed him with 26 points on (ouch) 9-of-22 shooting. And Mathurin added 16 points and eight boards.
First Half
The first quarter had us chewing a towel. With the Knicks turning the ball over once every minute-and-a-half and shooting around 20% from the field, they fell behind by 15 around the midway mark. The rookie Diawara had a nice play for every two goofs; he was drafted 51st, after all. And Bridges, who was benched in the fourth on Tuesday due to lackluster play, seemed off again. The 29-year-old iron man averages about 35 minutes per game. He might be feeling the effects of sharing lead-defender duties with Anunoby most nights.
Clarkson was a bright spot in a cloudy quarter.
An All-Star game, this was not. Every able-bodied player got to play. Indiana’s Garrison Matthews, who recently sipped a cup of coffee with the Knicks, joined the fray at 5:50. And New York’s Pacome Dadiet took the floor for just the tenth time this season. Trey Jemison played, too, logging two turnovers and no points in six minutes.
Guerschon Yabusele couldn’t buy a minute on Tuesday. We were reminded why tonight. He logged 8-first half minutes and was a team-worst -14 . . . perhaps playing the hefty French forward will not help to increase his trade value?
By the time the first quarter was put out of its misery, the Knicks had committed seven turnovers and were behind, 36-25.
In the second quarter, Tyler Kolek (a surprising star in Tuesday’s win) drilled a three to start the action. He spearheaded an 18-6 run that was capped by an Anunoby offensive board and a Bridges jumper.
Little by little, the Knicks chipped away at the deficit, reducing it to three late in the quarter. The Brunson-Kolek minutes were great. The latter has demonstrated increasing assertiveness and confidence as his sophomore season progresses. By halftime, Kolek had a tidy stat-line of nine points and four dimes in 13 minutes. His assist to Brunson in the corner became a four-point play when Ethan Thompson fouled the captain.
When the buzzer sounded, New York trailed 62-59. Through the half, the teams shot nearly identically from the floor (Knicks 46%, Pacers 48%), with New York holding the edge from three (8-of-22, 36% vs. 5-of-18, 28%). Our heroes had more assists (17–12), steals (6–3), fast-break points (10–5), and offensive rebounds (9–7). After a sloppy first quarter, the Knicks committed only one turnover in the second. Brunson led everyone with 18 points. For the Pacers, Nembhard had scored 17.
Second Half
Through the first part of the third quarter, Indiana steadily pulled away by winning the Mathurin-Siakam minutes, dominating the offensive glass, and capitalizing on Knicks turnovers (two by Anunoby, and one apiece for Brunson and Bridges). New York piled on the bricks while the Pacers mounted a 15-4 run over four-plus minutes. When Nembhard canned a triple, the Hoosiers went up by 16, their largest advantage yet.
Playing in his fourth game of the season, Jemison scored his first points of the season with under a minute to go, and he made a free throw that went with it. Congratulations, Richard Lee Jemison III!
Kolek’s passing continued to sparkle (e.g., see the previous clip), and Bridges began to show more signs of life. Mikal drew a charge with 14 seconds to go, and Tyler rifled a triple with 3 seconds left that cut the score to 92-86.
The pace picked up in the fourth. Kolek drew a charge from Siakam, then hit a jumper to give New York their first lead since the opening of the game.
After that, Siakam scored nine, Nembhard and Jackson added treys, and the Pacers regained a seven-point advantage. The oh-so-streaky Clarkson whiffed on two from deep. The Knicks benefited from Isaiah Jackson’s flagrant foul on Herr Hukporti, but the big German missed one of two and Anunoby followed that with another turnover. New York had their opportunities, they simply blew them. Anunoby redeemed himself, hitting his first triple after missing five attempts, and Brunson made it a one-point game with three minutes left. The Pacers bungled their possessions, and OG (suddenly with a hot hand!) drilled another triple to knot the score at 111.
Anunoby factors into the story again, when he fouled former Toronto teammate Siakam with 17 seconds left. The Cameroonian made both. Knicks timeout.
Indiana had a foul to give, so Nembhard shoved Brunson to the floor. The refs thought that was cool. No worries. When the play resumed, Captain Clutch swished from yard to take a one-point lead with four-point-four left. Indiana tried to inbound, but Anunoby stole the ball, and that was all she wrote.
Up Next
The Knicks jet home to face Philly tomorrow night. Safe travels, Knickerbockers.
* Should be one more, but the Cup final doesn’t count.
