INDIANAPOLIS – Jalen Brunson is not here for the pity party.
The New York Knicks didn’t look like themselves Sunday as they transformed into another being, a hodgepodge of lethargy that doesn’t run for offensive rebounds, is late to turnovers and breaks away from sequences in transition.
The Indiana Pacers annihilated them 121-89 in Game 4 of their second round playoff series, which is now tied 2-2. For the first time in a playoff series that shaves years off the life expectancy of its fans and adds miles to its players’ odometers, a game has never been close.
Indiana’s lead, which reached 43 at one point, was so clearly insurmountable that New York head coach Tom Thibodeau, a man still clinging to the trauma of every lost or regained lead including he witnessed, removed his starters during the third quarter.
“We can talk about fresher legs and we can give each other all the pity we want. Yes, we are shorthanded, but that doesn’t matter right now,” Brunson said. “We have what we have and we have to move forward with it. So there’s no “We’re short-staffed.” There is no excuse. There is no excuse. If we lose, we lose.
On Sunday, they lost. And they did it in an unusual way.
Even when the Knicks aren’t playing well, they tend to struggle. Until Game 4, they hadn’t lost by more than 11 points since March 5.
But the Knicks — who are missing four rotation players in OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanović, Mitchell Robinson and Julius Randle — are holding out these days with an ACE bandage. And on Sunday, it showed during all four quarters.
The Pacers beat them to turnovers and dominated them early on the stripe. With every Knicks jumper that hit the hoop, Indiana would jump down the court and create layups or wide-open 3s. If the Pacers missed, they grabbed their rebounds. They took a 34-11 lead after just 10 minutes of play.
A team in this game was the NBA’s best on the glass during the regular season. The other finished bottom of the league. Those roles were reversed on Sunday when the Pacers cruised past the Knicks while blowing out New York on the break.
Indiana scored 1.87 points per transition play in this one, according to Cleaning the Glass. That’s better efficiency than Stephen Curry, the most accurate free throw shooter of all time, going to the line for two shots. New York scored just 0.58 in transition.
“We have to take that L,” Brunson said. “There is no excuse.”
A typically lively group seemed exhausted.
As the injuries have piled up, so has the burden on the Knicks’ best players. Due to the blowout, Josh Hart rested more minutes on Sunday than in his first nine playoff games combined. Before Game 4, Donte DiVincenzo had played over 43 minutes in four straight games.
But DiVincenzo scored just seven points and made just one 3-pointer in the blowout. Hart, who had two points and three rebounds, put the Game 4 loss “on my shoulders” because he’s “someone who brings energy, energy, the kinds of things that I didn’t do it today.”
Discomfort is growing and not only among players excluded from the squad.
Isaiah Hartenstein’s left shoulder hit the field during a fall in the second quarter. He immediately grabbed it, wincing in pain, and said after the match that he thought the injury was “probably like a pinched nerve.” He added that the x-rays were negative. But Hartenstein continued to play and says he will be ready to compete in Game 5.
Brunson is dealing with a foot injury he suffered in the second game. He insists he’s “fine,” no longer injured, even as he struggles to create separation from the Pacers’ defenders, led by physical wing Aaron Nesmith. Brunson scored 18 points in Game 4 on 6-of-17 shooting, including 0-of-5 from 3.
Even more worrying, he missed all eight of his jump shots. Six of these failed; the pair he catapulted long were both within two points in the first quarter while his legs were fresher.
“It’s not an excuse at this point,” Hartenstein said. “I think everyone goes through something, I think you just have to find a way. That’s a bit of what they probably did, much better than us these last two games.
The Knicks will limp back to New York for Game 5, but it’s not like the Pacers will wake up sharp Monday morning. All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton struggled down three steps after finishing his Game 3 press conference, leaning heavily on the railings to his right and left as he limped five feet to the ground level.
He suffered lower back spasms, a sprained right ankle and a sacral contusion, the Pacers said. But he finished Game 4 with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists in just 27 minutes.
Haliburton found a way to look the same. The Knicks didn’t — and it wasn’t just because of flattened energy. This team wasn’t fundamentally itself either.
No play of the afternoon better embodied the Knicks’ bewilderment than an eight-second violation they committed in the first quarter when they were already down 14 and starting to let go. Rarely used backup center Jericho Sims, who received the inside pass, attempted to maneuver the court himself, almost traveled, collected his dribble and returned it moments later. He will receive criticism for his play, but this moment was as much about who didn’t have the ball as who did.
The Knicks then had two point guards on the court, Brunson and Miles “Deuce” McBride. Both were in the backcourt with Sims but were not open. Once Hart got to Sims, they should have known to hurry. Sims is not a ball handler. He doesn’t beat the press.
He stood there, waiting for a guard to wrap around him. No one came near. By the time he started dribbling, McBride had drifted out of play, nearly halfway across the court. Brunson trotted down the field, not looking back at his big man.
In the most exhausting moments, it’s not just the body that can go; the focus can also float.
“Do I feel it?” Yeah. But I think everyone does it,” Hart said. “So at the end of the day, it’s the playoffs. You have to do it yourself, your body will do it.
The Knicks will spend the time before Game 5 looking for fixes.
Maybe they try to open Brunson up more on the ball, running him around screens and encouraging Hart or DiVincenzo to initiate the offense. Or maybe they’re playing with the starters. McBride started the second half of Game 4 in place of Precious Achiuwa, which further spread the offense out. The Brunson-McBride-DiVincenzo-Hart-Hartenstein lineup is tiny, but it also dominated during the regular season, outscoring opponents by 33 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass.
But the best adjustment the Knicks can make, the one that would trump any draft or adjustment, is to look more like themselves.
“We just have to get back to playing basketball,” Hartenstein said. “I think it’s being a more physical team, doing the little things, diving on the ball, making those second efforts. I don’t think we’ve done that in the last two games.
(Photo by Donte DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson and Mamadi Diakite: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
News Source : theathletic.com
Gn sports
