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Brunson Scores 44 as Knicks Rout Pacers 121-91 to Take 3-2 Series Lead

Have you heard any good fairy tales recently? Here are three that I heard: "The Pacers have all the momentum," "The Pacers have figured out how to stop Jalen Brunson," and "The Knicks are tired because Coach Thibodeau forces his key rotation players to play too many minutes."

Here is the nonfiction story: the Knicks beat the Pacers 121-91 to take a 3-2 lead in their best of seven series. The Pacers dropped to 1-5 on the road in the 2024 playoffs, and even if they win game six at home by 40 points they would have to win game seven on the road to survive this series.  

The playoffs are about matchups, not momentum; that is why I picked the Knicks to win this series in six games, and that is why--even after Indiana's 121-89 win in game four--I predicted that the Knicks would win game five.

The fairy tale about the Pacers figuring out Brunson is brought to us by the same geniuses who asserted during last year's playoffs that the L.A. Lakers "found something" by putting Rui Hachimura on Nikola Jokic. What the Lakers found was the wrong end of a 4-0 sweep, and they followed that up by being on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss to Jokic's Denver Nuggets this year. 

Brunson dropped 44 points on the Pacers, shooting 18-35 from the field in 43 minutes while passing for a game-high seven assists and amassing a gaudy +31 plus/minus number. Brunson set a Knicks playoff record with 28 first half points. This is Brunson's fifth playoff game this year with at least 40 points and at least five assists, tying Michael Jordan (1990) for the fourth most such games during one postseason. LeBron James (2018) and Jerry West (1965) share the record (seven), while Jordan (1989) ranks third.

The notion that playing 40 minutes or even 48 minutes in an NBA game will cause irreparable harm to the best conditioned athletes in the world is, too put it mildly, nonsense. There are 31 players in ABA/NBA history who averaged at least 40 mpg during their playoff careers, topped by Wilt Chamberlain (47.2 mpg). "You saw the Knicks tonight? Does this look like a team that is worn out and finished? Not even close," TNT's Stan Van Gundy declared during the waning moments of game five after lambasting the foolish media members who keep criticizing New York Coach Tom Thibodeau for how many minutes his key players are playing at a time when the Knicks are missing three starters and a key rotation player. Van Gundy did not call out anyone by name, but I will: the chorus of nonsense featured usual suspects "Screamin' A" Smith and Mike Wilbon, with TNT's Draymond Green uttering similar sentiments during the pregame show. Van Gundy made a point of mentioning that Green once played at least 40 minutes in seven straight playoff games.

The supposedly worn out and worn down Knicks demonstrated a lot of energy and hustle in support of Brunson's scoring explosion. Josh Hart added 18 points and 11 rebounds, Alec Burks scored 18 points off of the bench, Miles McBride chipped in 17 points after being moved into the starting lineup, and Isaiah Hartenstein had seven points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Hartenstein's 12 offensive rebounds tied Charles Oakley's franchise record for offensive rebounds in a playoff game (offensive rebounds have been an official NBA statistic since 1973-74, after Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell retired).

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 22 points and eight rebounds, while Myles Turner had 16 points and five rebounds, and Tyrese Haliburton managed just 13 points and five assists. 

The Knicks' advantages--other than having Brunson--are their physicality, their defense, and their energy level. In game five, they outrebounded the Pacers 53-29, outscored the Pacers in the paint 62-36, and held the Pacers to 91 points on .431 field goal shooting. During the regular season, the Pacers led the NBA in scoring (123.3 ppg) and field goal percentage (.507). Teams that win game five in a 2-2 series win the series over 80% of the time, so in the most important game of this season for both teams the Knicks held the Pacers to 32 points below their scoring average. 

Offense, three point shooting, and "pace and space" get the headlines and enrich some writers and "stat gurus"--but defense wins championships.

Labels: Indiana Pacers, Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks

posted by David Friedman @ 12:47 AM

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