Knicks will try to regroup and push Pacers to brink in Game 4
Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) fights for a rebound with Knicks center Jericho Sims (45) during the first half of Game 3 in an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Friday, May 10, 2024, in Indianapolis. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks’ locker room at Gainbridge Fieldhouse was nearly empty when the doors opened to reporters shortly after the game ended, with buckets of ice and piles of tape left as remnants of the fight they’d been in. But behind closed double doors, the tiny adjacent room with the trainers and doctors was crowded.
Jalen Brunson had played 39 minutes with a foot injury that threatened to keep him out of Friday night’s Game 3. Donte DiVincenzo was hobbled, as a series of hard hits and harder landings had him limping around after 44 minutes. And Josh Hart, even with what might have seemed like a night off of just 43 minutes, was packed in ice.
The Knicks took a day off Saturday, a chance to rest and heal, a time for film work and cold tubs. Maybe it also was a chance to reflect on a game that got away, a chance to go up three games to none on the Indiana Pacers that slipped away with a 111-106 last-minute loss that served as one more gut punch.
So you wonder, just how much more can the Knicks take? How many more punches can they survive? How many more players lost and muscles strained can they endure before the magic runs out?
When it was over, they spoke bravely. Brunson said, “If I’m out there, I’m playing, and there’s no excuse whether I’m hurting or not. If I’m hurting, I’ll come out.”
DiVincenzo downplayed his own bruises, shrugging it off as nothing: “Nah, I landed on my back. I’m fine. Just a little in the moment, got back up.”
Getting back up is what the Knicks have done, but at some point the 10 count catches up and the fight is over. And with a two-games-to-one lead, they need to not let any more games get away, end this fight and get a chance to go to their corner and heal up.
Some pieces won’t be back. Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic are done for the season. The team offered little clarity on OG Anunoby, who missed Friday’s game with a strained left hamstring. He accompanied the team to Indiana, but that was mostly because the medical staff is on the trip, too. There is no indication that he’ll be back for Sunday’s Game 4 or anytime soon.
The skeleton crew left could have taken the heart from the Pacers with a second-half run Friday, overcoming a 12-point deficit and silencing the crowd as they built a nine-point lead of their own in the fourth quarter. But Indiana made the plays that the Knicks have made all along — outworking the opposition for offensive rebounds and delivering the unlikely shots to secure a win. It was the Pacers that did it this time with four offensive rebounds in the final minute and a 31-foot three-pointer by Andrew Nembhard with 17.8 seconds left to break a 106-106 tie.
“I think that’s what we pride ourselves on, the identity for us,” DiVincenzo said.
“We knew that was going to be a point of emphasis for them coming into the game. We’ll go back, look at the film and see how we can clean up a few things. Ultimately just compete harder and I think it goes a different way for us.”
“We’ve got to do better,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Every game we play, you look at it the same way. Whether you win or lose, you look at the things we have to fix. And we have to fix them quick. And that’s our approach.”
If the Knicks can recover — body and mind — by Sunday afternoon, they can put this series on the brink for Indiana and look to close it out at home. But every extra stop on the schedule risks another injury, another blow that they cannot fight back from, another punch that they can’t dodge.
The Knicks don’t give away games willingly. They didn’t Friday when some thought they should have taken a recovery day, and they certainly won’t now. It still took a prayer of a shot in the end to beat them.
The next-man-up talk led to contributions from Alec Burks, who came off the bench to score 13 of his 14 points in the second quarter. And maybe Precious Achiuwa rises in this time of need or Deuce McBride has a special day.
But most likely, the Knicks need Brunson, DiVincenzo and Hart to do what they’ve done so many times in the postseason — put the team on their shoulders again.
“The goal is now to be right there,” McBride said.
“The goal is to put ourselves in a position with the lead at the end and not have to play down to the wire. But obviously, it’s the playoffs, and when these things happen, we have to be the more mentally tough team.
“We can’t talk about being tired. We can’t talk about not executing. We just have to make sure we’re mentally tough and we stick together no matter what happens out there.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.