T.J. McConnell is bringing the ball up the ground.
It’s a tie recreation, 81-81, on the primary possession of the fourth quarter in Sport 2 of the Japanese Convention Finals. The Pacers have determined to open the ultimate body with an unrelenting flurry of pick-and-roll motion — and New York can’t sustain.
“I know one time I [messed] up the coverage. I just think we just didn’t help each other after a couple more times,” Mikal Bridges later admits. “They found the right plays. We just have to follow the game plan and help each other.”
On the primary go-round, McConnell calls his personal quantity. Myles Turner steps as much as display screen Mikal Bridges, who’s guarding the purpose of assault — however sags what appears like a mile off Indiana’s reserve guard. McConnell accepts the choose, pulls up from the foul line with acres of house, and drains it earlier than Karl-Anthony Cities can meaningfully contest.
Pacers 83, Knicks 81.
What follows is a sequence of slow-motion collapse — a collection of unlucky occasions that snowball right into a nightmare. Every possession unfolds the identical: Turner units the display screen, the Knicks miscommunicate or mistime the protection, and Indiana capitalizes. Time and again. And similar to that, New York stares down an 0-2 collection gap — the sort of deficit fewer than 8 p.c of NBA groups in historical past have come again from.
“Don’t worry about that. I told y’all about history: We’re not here to repeat it; we’re here to make it,” Cities mentioned at his locker after the sport. “If I learned anything, especially last year, as quick as you win two games is as quick as you lose two games. So just bank on my experience, and we just got to execute at a higher level.”
On the very subsequent possession — simply seconds after Karl-Anthony Cities knocked down a pair of free throws to tie the sport at 83 — the Knicks’ protection crumbled like a home of playing cards.
And once more, it was the identical primary motion — a easy screen-and-roll — that unraveled every thing. As a result of when the Pacers discover a scab, they choose at it till it bleeds.
Turner set one other display screen for McConnell on the high of the important thing. This time, Cities jumped the choose, trapping McConnell alongside Bridges effectively behind the arc. However Turner slipped the display screen and rolled free to the paint. Cities, late to recuperate, was a step behind. Mitchell Robinson rotated off Pascal Siakam to guard the rim. Cameron Payne left Ben Sheppard huge open on the high of the important thing to assist.
McConnell, cool amid the chaos, dished to Sheppard.
Each Cities and Payne lunged to contest the open shooter. Robinson, caught in between two Pacers, darted again to Siakam, then reversed course towards Turner on the rim — but it surely was too late. Turner flushed the dunk. Robinson was whistled for the foul. Payne threw up his arms in frustration. Cities was caught in no man’s land.
“We had some blown coverages, and [suddenly] I think we were down six or nine, 10,” mentioned Josh Hart, who watched from the bench because the unraveling started. “In the playoffs, a lot of games are determined by a possession or two. We can’t have those lapses. Two games in a row we did. We’ve got to figure it out.”
However “one or two possessions” sells the injury quick.
The Knicks have been out of sync for a number of straight minutes, and by the point they got here up for air, they have been observing a nine-point gap.
Bridges answered Turner’s and-one with a easy turnaround to trim the deficit to 86–85. However like clockwork, the Pacers went proper again to their bread and butter: pick-and-roll with a twist.
Turner slipped one other display screen — and this time, each Robinson and Bridges stayed with McConnell on the high of the important thing. Turner floated to the suitable elbow, fully unbothered. No Knick defender inside a broomstick’s attain.
Financial institution shot. Clear. Pacers 88, Knicks 85.
Then got here the compounding error: Miles McBride, making an attempt to push again in transition, drove coast-to-coast and misplaced the ball out of bounds beneath his personal basket. A vital turnover in a vital stretch.
“Defensively, I just remember there were a couple possessions where we had two on ball, they got a layup, Turner got the bank shot, a pick-and-pop. Just the rotations weren’t there,” mentioned Jalen Brunson, who, considerably inexplicably, opened the fourth quarter on the bench.“There are things we need to obviously help each other out [with] when it comes to defensive rotations, and they weren’t there.”
Right here got here the Pacers once more. Identical motion, identical impact. Solely this time they shifted the display screen: Turner sprung McConnell free within the deep proper nook. Cities jumped to cowl Turner. Bridges chased McConnell, who sliced into the center of the lane. And once more, the Knicks had two on the ball — once more Bridges and Robinson, this time deep within the paint — leaving somebody huge open.
That somebody? Ben Sheppard. Prime of the important thing. Unbothered. Money.
Pacers 91, Knicks 85. Timeout, Tom Thibodeau, pissed off and dissatisfied by his workforce’s defensive miscues.
“It comes down to a couple things. Going into the fourth quarter, it’s a tie ballgame,” Tom Thibodeau mentioned after the sport. “And we just gotta make better plays, more winning plays.”
It was a tie recreation. However the Pacers generated offense. In the meantime, Karl-Anthony Cities is leaning right into a side-step two off the aspect of the backboard, and Cameron Payne’s buzzer-beating heave clanks off the shot clock.
Then right here come the Pacers. Once more.
This time, the scoring motion unfolds on the alternative aspect of the ground. Turner is screening for McConnell once more in the suitable nook. On the weak aspect, Sheppard and Siakam work in tandem — with Sheppard slicing behind Siakam from the wing to the paint. Payne, whose duty seems to be Sheppard, offers Siakam a two-hand shove. Mitchell Robinson, who appears to be on Siakam, hesitates, then crashes to assist on Sheppard’s lower.
That one beat — with each Payne and Robinson committing to the perimeter earlier than recovering to Sheppard — leaves Siakam wide-open on the actual spot he began.
McConnell sees it and hits him. Siakam drains the three.
Pacers 94, Knicks 85 — a recreation determined within the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter, towards a workforce that saved working the identical motion till the Knicks lastly broke.
“Obviously they do a really good job of moving the ball, forcing you into those mistakes, and we have to be more sound defensively to guard the first action, second action, but also the third action,” mentioned Hart. “We’re down 0-2, now we’re going to a tough place in Indiana. We gotta go and fix it. We can’t have blown coverages, no matter how late it is in the shot clock.”
Initially Revealed: Might 24, 2025 at 11:58 AM EDT
