Knicks-Pacers: 5 take-out dishes while New York relies on the defense to force match 6

NEW YORK – New York Knicks defended as their season at stake on Thursday.

Faced with the elimination for the first time this qualifying series, the Knicks found a means of slowing down the Indiana Pacers offensive which had burned them for most of the finals of the Eastern Conference. In what may have been their best defensive performance of the season, the Knicks stopped early and often on the way to a 111-94 victory with a wire 111-94 at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks marked on their first five possessions and never dragged. Jalen Brunson (32 points and five assists) and Karl-Anthony Towns (24 points and 13 rebounds) paved the path offensively, and we are ready for a huge match 6 in Indiana on Saturday (8 and, TNT).

Here are some notes, quotes, figures and films because the pacers were held under a point by possession for the first time in these qualifying series …

1. The defense of the Knicks plays desperate

Pacers do not have as many offensive talents as other teams, but they may have the most difficult offensive to defend. They entered match 5 at the top of the playoff series in the players’ movement and ranking second in the ball.

During the first four games, the Knicks were unable to follow, granting 121.1 points by 100 possessions, their worst defensive section from the stars break.

“In this series, we have not lacked score,” said Towns. “It was more than we prevented them from scoring.”

In match 5, the Knicks succeeded, holding the Pacers at 94 points out of 97 possessions, their worst offensive performance of the playoffs by healthy margin.

Indiana has taken some bad shots by choice, but also by necessity, because the Knicks forced them in situations of no more at the end of the clock.

Indiana was still great at the start of the clock, marking a top of 31 transitional points out of 22 possessions, according to Synergy Tracking. But when the Knicks were able to settle, they locked them.

There were individual efforts that made the crowd of the garden light, as when Mitchell Robinson put pressure on Myles Turner in a turnover at the start of the third quarter. But to keep the Pacers under a point by possession for 48 minutes, you need several efforts from several defenders.

When Indiana began to get some traction offensively at the end of the first quarter, the Knicks had one of their best defensive goods in the game. It started with Miles McBride on a screen for Tyrese Haliburton and Josh Hart ending at Obi Toppin and staying in front of his journey. Hart then went to TJ McConnell and prevented him from reaching his place …

Brunson covered a screen for Haliburton, allowing Ben Sheppard to open up to the top of the arc, but Mikal’s bridges were running on the weak side and McBride rushed to the bridges man. The bridges then prevented Sheppard from withdrawing with a clean blow in the paint …

Defense has more control over how the opponent draws in the painting than the way he derives from the perimeter. And Thursday, the Pacers drew 17 for 37 (46%) in painting, their worst brand in the playoffs and their third worst brand all season.

2. Brunson and the cities continue to cook

The problems of the Knicks during the first four games did not include the offensive of Brunson and Towns. But they still need these guys to score abundantly and effectively to stay alive in this series.

It was not a problem on Thursday, when the Knicks stars outclassed all the training of the Pacers, 56-37, with these 56 points on a real percentage of shooting of 67%.

Brunson came out hot, scoring six points before the Pacers pulled a blow. Aaron Nesmith was BrunS’s most difficult defender in this series, but Brunson did not seek the switches early, and rather took him to Nesmith for two of these three buckets.

When the Knicks laid screens for him, Brunson didn’t need a lot of advantages to get where he wanted to go. The smallest tracks of the Knicks in the second half were 10 points, and their leader made them more separation from them twice, he got closer.

The second of these buckets was a hard float on the glass with Benédict Mathurin on his hip …

Towns, on the other hand, continued to attack Turner as if he was not close to seven feet high …

With his 32 and five, Brunson only became the fourth different player in the history of the NBA – joining Michael Jordan (three times), LeBron James (three times) and Shai Gilgeous -Alexander (also this year) – with 10 games or more of at least 30 points and five assists in a single qualifying series.

Towns has his best series of offensive playoff series in the nine he played in his career. Its 25.4 points are its highest average by a healthy margin in these nine series, while its real percentage of shooting of 64.0% is its third highest note.

3. Knicks go deep on the bench

With his team in the face of elimination, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has not shortened his rotation. Instead, he played enough guys to align a baseball team … with a DH.

For the third consecutive match, Landry Shamet and Delon Wright obtained a real rotation time. And Thibodeau played a 10th man – Precious Achiuwa – with cities in disagreement and Mitchell Robinson being intentionally dirty by the Pacers.

The bench minutes were not great; New York was upgraded by nine points in the cities at 12:14 pm out of the ground. But the reserves have done enough to keep at least the fresh starters in a game where they clearly exerted additional energy in defense. Shamet scored five points, his summit for these playoffs, and he and Wright both obtained key defensive stops.

In the regular season, Knicks Reserves had on average only 63.5 minutes per game, the lowest brand for any team in the past 15 seasons. Through match 2 of this series, they only included 52.0 per game. But in the last three games, Knicks Reserve has an average of 76.7 minutes.

When these two teams clashed in the semi-finals of last year’s conference, the Knicks lost the war of attrition and had only three of their eight best players available at the end of match 7. And although it seems doubtful that Achiuwa, Shamet or Wright go a game with their game if another Groud-Pacers will take place.

4. Pacers come empty

While the defense of the Knicks has been improved, the quality of the Pacers shots was not their worst in the series. It was actually worse in games 2 and 3, according to the second follow -up of the spectrum. They missed a little beautiful look.

“I thought there were stretches where we had good shots and that we did not convert,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “But overall, it was not good enough.”

The Pacers were not as offensive as in the first four games. Brunson was the defender of the Screaser in just 13 ball tickets, against a 29 career summit in match 4.

The pacers’ attack begins with Haliburton, who only totaled eight points in his 32 minutes in match 5. He now has an average of 21.3 points (out of 48% shooting) in the 11 victories in pacers playoffs and only 11.5 (out of 39%) in their four defeats. He took responsibility for the lower performance Thursday.

“Difficult night for me,” he admitted. “I must be better, give the tone, get descendants. I think I didn’t do a great job. ”

5. Can Knicks start again?

The slowdown in the Pacers offensive has a lot of energy. The Knicks were able to do it once, extending their season for at least 48 hours overtime.

“They played stronger than us, cowardly bullets, rebounds, all that,” said Pascal Siakam. “We were able to win this battle.”

The Pacers will have another chance on Saturday, when the Knicks will have to invoke an equally formidable performance. It is a uniformly suitable series, with the Pacers Up 3-2 and the Knicks having an advantage (582-576) in total score. Four of the five games could have taken place in both directions.

The Knicks are 6-2 on the road in these playoffs, but the Pacers have not lost two consecutive games since March 10.

Oklahoma City Thunder is waiting for the winner.

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John Schuhmann is analyst of senior statistics for NBA.com. You can send him an email herefind His archives here And Follow him on x.

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