Pacers' late run ruins Tim Hardaway's 37-point night
The Knicks' Tim Hardaway Jr. and Allonzo Trier look on late during the fourth quarter against the Pacers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Victor Oladipo ascended the ramp from the bus to the floor of Madison Square Garden dressed in a Black Panther costume, recreating the look he broke out for NBA All-Star Weekend last season.
For much of the night, costume or not, the power belonged to Tim Hardaway Jr. With his upper lip still split from the elbow he took two nights earlier and glue holding it together, if Hardaway Jr. resembled a movie character it might have been something from the Rocky series. It was a better look than the group of fans dressed as Knicks reserve Ron Baker.
Hardaway poured in 37 points with a career-high seven three-point field goals, but it still wasn’t enough as the superhero was the one in the costume — Oladipo coming up big in the final minutes to carry the Pacers to a 107-101 win over the Knicks. The Knicks dropped to 2-6 on the season.
With the Knicks down by just two, Bojan Bogdanovic air-balled an open three-point attempt. But Thaddeus Young saved it to Oladipo in the corner and the Pacers All-Star guard calmly drained the three-pointer with 21.6 seconds left to secure the win.
“He pulled it off for them,” Knicks coach David Fizdale said. “Every time. Tough shots. That’s what All-Stars do. We just couldn’t get to him for whatever reason. On our traps, we couldn’t get him trapped when we were trying to trap him. Once a guy like that hits a couple he can really get it going.”
Hardaway’s output was a season-high point total for any Knicks player this season and most for Hardaway since he scored a career-best 39 last season. He became the first Knick to score at least 24 points in seven of the team’s first eight games since Patrick Ewing in 1990-91 (when Ewing did it in all eight games).
“He’s competing his butt off,” Fizdale said. “He’s trying to win every game. He’s doing a great job of leading this group. Really been happy with the way he’s competing defensively. I think he’s playing at an All-Star level despite our record. Hopefully can he sustain this throughout the year.
“He’s our guy. Some of those are going to be tough shots and he had a good thing going. And the way our offense stalled, somebody had to get some kind of a look at the rim. But we just, for whatever reason, we just froze up there in the last three or four minutes where we didn’t get into anything.”
The Knicks have seen similar efforts fall short with close losses to Milwaukee and Boston and a tight game against Golden State that turned into a blowout in the last few minutes. On this night, they pointed to a lack of communication — players not seeming to hear the play calls in a boisterous arena.
“Coming out of the timeout we have to know our plays, know what our defensive concepts are,” Hardaway said. “It’s huge. . . . We’re battling with these playoff teams down the stretch. All their guys are healthy and we’re battling with them to the end. We’ve got to keep on fighting on each and every possession. When those last four minutes come down to that crunch time we’ve got to be able to close out.”
The Knicks needed Hardaway’s offense to try to counter Oladipo, who finished with 24 points, as well as the performance off the bench from Domantas Sabonis, who hit all 12 of his shots from the field, finishing with 30 points before fouling out with 1:17 remaining.
The Knicks took a four-point lead into the fourth quarter, but Indiana quickly ran off six straight points to take an 83-81 advantage. New York was clinging to a 95-94 lead when Hardaway converted a jumper with 3:08 to play, giving him 35 points on the night. Sabonis countered with a pair of free throws and Oladipo then stripped Hardaway and went the distance for an uncontested layup and the lead with 2:43 remaining. A missed three by Lance Thomas and a Thaddeus Young layup stretched the Indiana lead to 100-97 with 1:55 left.
Hardaway misfired from there and Oladipo delivered again, hitting a three-point field goal to push the lead to six with 1:23 left. Hardaway hit a pair from the line and after an Oladipo miss Allonzo Trier hit an acrobatic layup to close the gap to 103-101 with 44 seconds remaining.
