The Indiana Pacers took home court advantage to another level as they blew out the visiting New York Knicks 121-89 in Game 4 on Sunday to even their Eastern Conference Semifinals playoff series at 2-2.
Indiana was red hot from the field, connecting on 57% of their shots and hitting 14 3-pointers while the Knicks struggled to match their energy and keep pace with their electric shooting throughout the game.
“I’m supposed to be the energy guy of the team and I didn’t do anything,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said following the game, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “I gave nothing. I put that on my shoulders.”
The Knicks will need Jalen Brunson to continue his amazing performance throughout the playoffs to regain momentum in the series as it shifts back to New York. Brunson has struggled the past two games when defended by Aaron Neismith, who has held the Knicks star to 9-for-27 shooting when defending him.
“His ascension to what he’s become as a player, not many people have made a jump quite like him and I think we just need to make him work as much as possible and try to exert as much energy [as you can],” Pacers guard T.J. McConnell said. “He’s obviously a great player, and we just got to keep picking him up 94 feet and try to make things tough on him.”
The Pacers had an energy and intensity that seemed to overwhelm the Knicks.
“We can talk about fresher legs and you can give us all the pity that we want,” Brunson said. “Yeah, we’re shorthanded, but that doesn’t matter right now. We have what we have and we need to go forward with that. … There is no excuse. There’s no excuse whatsoever. If we lose, we lose. That’s what that was.”
“We’re disappointed,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And the thing is we can’t have a hangover, we have to fix it and we have to come with a will and a determination to respond to what happened. And this team has responded all year, so that’s what we’re expecting to do. We got to put the work into it and be ready to go.”
“We’ve already talked about how we’re going to fix this,” Knicks guard Miles McBride said. So, we’ll bounce back a lot better.”
“New York is a team that has shown that it has an indomitable will to compete and rise above anything people say they can’t do,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “And we’ve seen it throughout the season. We’ve seen it in this series. We’re believers in that, and so we got to focus on us. … Everything is going to be a situation where you’ve got your hands completely full.”
