Knicks Fall as Defense Collapses Against Pacers’ Pick-and-Roll

The New York Knicks blew a two-point lead at the start of the 4th quarter to fall to the Indiana Pacers 132-121.

It was a competitive game with ten lead changes until the Pacers blew it open in the 4th quarter with an avalanche of threes.

Raining Threes in Indiana

The Knicks had a good offensive performance, scoring 121 points on 55.4 percent from the field. But their defense simply had no answer for the Tyrese Haliburton–Miles Turner high pick-and-roll.

Indiana scored 40 points in the 4th quarter, knocking down 8 three-pointers in the final ten minutes of the game. The Pacers were 21-46 from three-point range, hitting nearly half of their shots from behind the arc. In the 4th quarter alone, the Pacers hit more threes than the Knicks did in the entire game.

The defeat was reminiscent of the Knicks’ Opening Night blowout loss to the Boston Celtics, who tied an NBA record with 29 threes. In both losses, Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns struggled with rotations on pick-and-rolls.

Turner went 5-8 on threes as the Knicks could do little against his high-release, deep threes.

Knicks Offense On Fire

The Knicks had a great night on offense, scoring 121 points on 55.4 percent shooting.

Point guard Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 33 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the field. He also had 10 assists. Towns had a solid offensive performance, scoring 30 points. He was 11-19 from the field.

OG Anunoby was lights out in the first half, scoring 19 points, but was quiet in the second half with just six points.

Tonight’s game was redemptive for the Pacers’ Haliburton. He scored 35 points tonight after going scoreless in the October 25 blowout loss to New York. But the star of the game was Bennedict Mathurin, who led the Pacers with a career-high 38 points.

The Knicks are 4-5 on the season and face the Sixers next on Tuesday.