INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Brunson isn’t here for a pity party.
The New York Knicks were unlike themselves on Sunday when they morphed into a different entity, a collection of lethargy that didn’t compete for offensive rebounds, fell behind on loose balls and moved away from streakers in transition.
The Indiana Pacers obliterated them 121-89 in Game 4 of the second round of the playoff series and are currently tied 2-2. For the first time in the midst of the playoffs, which cut years off fans’ lives and added miles to players’ mileage, the games were never close.
Indiana University’s lead, which at one point ballooned to 43 points, was clearly irreversible, and New York head coach Tom Thibodeau is still reeling from the trauma of lead blowouts and lead recoveries he’s witnessed in the past. The starter was removed during the third quarter.
“We can talk about fresher legs and give us all the sympathy we want. Yeah, we’re understaffed, but that doesn’t matter right now,” Branson said. “We have what we have, so we need to move forward with it. So we’re not saying we’re short-staffed.” No excuses. There are no excuses. If you lose, you lose. ”
Sunday, they lost. And they did it unusually.
The Knicks tend to keep fighting even if they don’t play well. Until Game 4, they had not lost by more than 11 points since March 5th.
However, the Knicks are missing four rotation players in OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mitchell Robinson, and Julius Randle, so they’ve been able to hang on to their ace lately. And on Sunday, it showed in all four quarters.
The Pacers beat them on loose balls and put them on top on the board early. Every time a Knicks jumper went over the hoop, Indiana would fly down the court and create a layup or wide-open three. Even when the Pacers made a mistake, they got the rebound. Just 10 minutes into the game, the lead increased to 34-11.
One team in this matchup was the best team in the NBA during the regular season. The other finished near the bottom of the league. On Sunday, those positions were reversed as the Pacers outscored New York while outscoring the Knicks during the break.
According to Cleaning the Glass, Indiana scored 1.87 points per transition play in this game. That’s more efficient than Stephen Curry, the most accurate free throw shooter of all time, taking two shots to the line. New York scored just 0.58 points in transition.
“I have to take this L,” Brunson said. “There’s no excuse.”
The usually energetic group looked exhausted.
As injuries continue to pile up, the Knicks’ top players are also under strain. Due to a blowout, Josh Hart missed more time Sunday than he did in the first nine playoff games combined. Heading into Game 4, Donte DiVincenzo had played at least 43 minutes in four consecutive games.
However, DiVincenzo scored just seven points and made just one 3-point shot during the game. Hart, who had two points and three rebounds, said he took the Game 4 loss “on my shoulders.” Because he’s a guy who “brings energy, he brings hustle, something I wasn’t able to do today.”
The anxiety isn’t just among players who are left out of the lineup.
Isaiah Hartenstein’s left shoulder was hit on the court during a fall in the second quarter. He quickly grabbed it and winced in pain, but said after the match that he believed the injury was “probably more like a pinched nerve.” He added that the X-ray test was negative. But Hartenstein continued to play and he said he would be fine for Game 5.
Brunson is dealing with a foot injury sustained in Game 2. He insists he is no longer injured and is “okay,” even though he has struggled to create separation with the Pacers’ defenders, led by physical winger Aaron Nesmith. Brunson scored 18 points in Game 4 on 6-of-17 shooting and 0-of-5 from three.
What’s even more concerning is that he missed all eight of his jump shots. Six of those misses were failures. His two long shots were both 2-pointers in the first quarter when his legs were still strong.
“That’s not an excuse at this point,” Hartenstein said. “I think everyone’s going through something, but I think we’ve got to find a way. That’s probably what they did a lot better than us in these two games.”
The Knicks will be limping back to New York for Game 5, but the Pacers won’t wake up Monday morning feeling good. All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton struggled to descend three flights of stairs after finishing his Game 3 press conference, leaning heavily on the railings on either side of him and staggering five feet to the ground. Ta.
The Pacers said he is battling lower back spasms, a sprained right ankle and a sacral contusion. However, in Game 4, he recorded 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists in just 27 minutes.
Halliburton found a way to look like himself. The Knicks didn’t, and it wasn’t just because the energy flattened. This team also fundamentally wasn’t itself.
No play in the afternoon exemplified the Knicks’ disarray more than their eight-second violation in the first quarter, when they were already trailing by 14 points and starting to let go of the ropes. Rarely used backup center Jericho Sims, who received the inbounds pass, attempted to run up the court himself, but almost traveled, picked off the dribble, and immediately committed a turnover. He’s going to be criticized for that play, but that moment was as much about who didn’t have the ball as it was about who had it.
At the time, the Knicks had two point guards on the court: Brunson and Miles “Deuce” McBride. Both were in the backcourt with Sims but weren’t open. If Hart told Sims that, they should have known to hurry. Sims is not a ball handler. He’s not beating the press.
He stood there and waited for the guards to wrap around him. No one approached. By the time he started dribbling, McBride was out of play and up near half court. Brunson trotted upcourt without looking at the big man.
In your most exhausting moments, it’s not just your body that can give you strength. Focus may also become unstable.
“Do I feel that? Yeah. But I think everyone does,” Hart said. “At the end of the day, it’s the playoffs. You have to will yourself and your body.”
The Knicks will spend the time until Game 5 trying to figure out what to fix.
Maybe they’re trying to get Brunson more open off the ball, running him around screens and encouraging Hart or DiVincenzo to start the offense. Or maybe he’s messing with the starter. McBride started the second half of Game 4 in place of Precious Achiuwa, further expanding his offense. According to Cleaning the Glass, the lineup of Brunson, McBride, DiVincenzo, Hart, and Hartenstein was small but dominant during the regular season, outscoring opponents by 33 points per 100 possessions. It is said that
But the best adjustment the Knicks can make, better than any plan or tweak, is to make it more like themselves.
“We have to get back to our basketball,” Hartenstein said. “I think it’s just being a more physical team, doing little things, jumping on the ball, making that second effort. I don’t think we’ve done that in the last two games.”
(Photo of Donte DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson and Mamadi Diakité: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
