Pacers Hit Every 3 in the 4th. Indiana 132 NY 121

The Knicks had a 2-pt lead to start the 4th, but the Pacers were unconscious from 3 in the 4th quarter, and ran away with the game, 132-121 on a late Sunday afternoon in Indiana.

As the 4th quarter progressed, the Knicks were trading deuces for Indiana 3’s, allowing the Pacers to grab a 4-pt lead with 5 minutes left — still a close game. But then Myles Turner hit back-to-back 3’s, Ben Sheppard hit a 3, Tyrese Haliburton hit a dagger 3, Bennedict Mathurin hit a 3, and Indiana was up by 13 with 2 minutes left. Nothing NY did could stop them — even with the game decided, Haliburton hit a 21-footer, and Myles Turner hit another 3 with 1:31 left for a 14-pt Indiana lead and ballgame.

“They’re a great offensive team and we gave up way too much,” said Knick coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “If you don’t challenge shots, they’re going to make. There was too much of a discrepancy from the 3-pt line. They made 21; we made 7; that’s a problem. Our offense: score 121, shoot 55; get to the line a lot: out rebound them; but didn’t cover the line. We have to fix it, and we have to fix it fast.”

“We got to look at the scheme, we got to look at the matchup, we got to look at a lot of things,” added Thibs. “But we also have to have an awareness. We have to understand if a guy comes down and hits a 3, next time down they’re searching for him, you can’t get another one.”

1. Brunson, Towns, Anunoby, Hart Lead NY

The Knicks had crushed Indiana in their second game of the season, 123-98 at Madison Square Garden. And this was the same Indiana team of course, that upset and eliminated the injury-depleted Knicks in last year’s playoffs. NY is still injury compromised right now, with Mitchell Robinson, Precious Achiuwa, and Cameron Payne all out.

But the Knicks have plenty of healthy players, and came out on the attack against Indiana — with Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns again proving to be a lethal duo.

Brunson had a tremendous game — 33 pts on 11-17 shooting (1-2 from 3), with 10 assists.

Karl-Anthony Towns also had a tremendous game, with 30 pts on 11-19 shooting (2-5 from 3) with 9 rebounds.

And OG Anunoby joined the crew with a terrific offensive game — 25 pts on 9-14 shooting (3-4 from 3).

Josh Hart also had a nice offensive game, with 16 pts on 7-12 shooting (0-3 from 3).

2. Bridges 0-6 from 3

But Mikal Bridges drew fire from Knick fans for going 0-6 from 3 — overall he had 8 points on 4-11 shooting (going 4-5 from 2) — but some Knick fans on X questioned if the Knicks had spent too much for a scorer who is now the 3rd or 4th option on this team.

That’s not the concern if the Knicks are a team built to win a title — it will just take time for Bridges to find rhythm going from the #1 option in Brooklyn to the #3 or #4 option in NY.

3. Haliburton, Mathurin, Turner, Siakam Lead Indy

Meanwhile, Indiana kept pace with NY led by Tyrese Haliburton (35 pts on 11-18 shooting; 4-10 from 3), Bennedict Mathurin (38 pts on 13-18 shooting, 7-9 from 3), Myles Turner (26 pts on 8-15 shooting, 5-8 from 3), and Pascal Siakam (14 pts on 5-13 shooting).

While Bridges and OG had Siakam under control, the 6’5 athletic Mathurin went off against NY.

“Give Bennedict Mathurin credit as he plays with an edge but also with a confidence, make or miss,” noted NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “He stays in attack mode, always stays shot ready, fearless and understands how to move off ball along with his ability to seek and create contact. Also, defended, rebounded and competed.”

4. Knick Bench Depleted

And then Indiana had that pain in the ass T.J. McConnell coming off the bench for 16 tough minutes. He had 6 pts on 3-6 shooting and always gives Brunson a physical, tough time.

Meanwhile NY’s bench is depleted with Robinson, Achiuwa, and Payne out — not to mention Landry Shamet was supposed to be on this team but is out injured.

Miles McBride came off the NY bench for 29 minutes and 7 pts on 3-9 shooting (1-5 from 3). Other than that the only other 2 players Thibs played were Jericho Sims (9 minutes) and Tyler Kolek (2 minutes), which had some Knick fans criticizing Thibs for overplaying his starters. Much of that is due to the common misconception that 40 minutes is too long a time for NBA players to play each night; which many NBA players and coaches say is nonsense.

5. NY Leads Entering 4th

With all of that, NY was outplaying Indiana for the first 3 quarters of the game, leading 94-92 entering the 4th.

And then Indiana just caught FIRE from 3.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401704769

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