NEW YORK – The sounds heard at the end of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals echoed the reality of what the New York Knicks now face.
They’re going to Indianapolis down 0-2 in their best-of-seven series against the Indiana Pacers after a 114-109 defeat on Friday night.
Shocked. Frustrated. Disappointed. At this point any adjective will do to describe the dejection of Knicks players, coaches and the fans, who were packing the streets of midtown Manhattan just one week ago in glorious excitement, leaving Madison Square Garden.
It was the first time in Knicks history they lost the first two games in a series at home. They will need to win four of the next five if they don’t want to be vacationing in June without a championship. The last team to come back from a 2-0 series hole was …. these very Pacers, last year against, you guessed it, the Knicks.
‘There are a lot of traps here. You cannot assume going home is gonna be easier. It never is,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said, reminding his team this is only “day 3 of 13 days,” referring to how many days a seven-game series would last. “We are going to have to keep concentrating on our process, making it hard on them.”
‘We haven’t done anything. We have so much work to do, and we haven’t even played our best,” added Pascal Siakam.
But Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau had a postgame look of searching. He summed up the task at hand in the most coachspeak way he possibly could.
“We just didn’t find a way to win,” Thibodeau said. “We just have to make better plays, more winning plays.”
If New York wants to make this a competitive series, it better start finding those winning plays – starting on Sunday in Game 3 (8 p.m. ET, TNT).
The defense that let the Knicks down in a Game 1 overtime loss was improved … except for keeping Siakam in check. He had 11 first-quarter points and finished with 39 points, leading five starters in double figures for Indiana, which has won its last six road playoff games.
“Special game,” Carlisle said of Siakam. “In the first half, he was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches.”
With the score tied at 81 entering the fourth quarter, it was the Pacers who showed fight down the stretch. Siakam’s 3-pointer with nine minutes left pushed the lead to nine. The Knicks got as close as 110-109 with 14 seconds left, but again couldn’t make the winning plays.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges each added 20 points, but it was Towns’ absence in the fourth quarter that raised eyebrows.
Thibodeau was asked why Towns didn’t play much in the final 12 minutes.
“We get in a hole, and the group that was in there gave us a chance, searching for a way to win,” he said.
That group included center Mitchell Robinson, who had six points and nine rebounds in 29 minutes (one more minute than Towns) off the bench. Indiana began fouling him as soon as he got his hands on the ball, trying to send the 52% career free-throw shooter to the line.
Bridges and leading scorer Jalen Brunson were also at a loss for words as to why the Knicks find themselves down 2-0. They will attempt to become the 35th NBA team to come back from this deficit.
‘I’m not sure,” said Bridges, who played a game-high 45 minutes. “Maybe a defensive thing? Got to go back and watch and got to talk to each other off the jump, be physical off the jump. I think maybe we’re playing a little too soft beginning of halves. Just gotta finish games. That’s pretty much it.”
Brunson, who had 36 points and 11 assists, says he has the utmost confidence they can come back.
“Collectively, we have to get it together,” Brunson said. “We have been in a position where we were counted out and found a way to win. We are in the conference finals. Nothing else matters right now. “