Knicks-Pacers: 5 takeaways as Pacers shoot down weary Knicks in Game 7

Tyrese Haliburton set the tone for the Pacers in the 1st quarter, scoring 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting.

NEW YORK — They said that anything can happen in a Game 7.

On Sunday, the Indiana Pacers proved them right.

Game 7s favor the home team? Whatever.

Game 7s are supposed to be low-scoring? Ha!

How about a 130-109 thrashing of the New York Knicks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

The Knicks, a top-10 defense in the regular season, couldn’t get stops. The loudest arena in the NBA was kept quiet for most of the afternoon, especially the city’s favorite player was lost to (another) injury. The Pacers set an all-time playoff record by shooting 67.1% from the field, and they’re going to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 10 years.

“If you win a Game 7 in Madison Square Garden,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle told his team afterward, “you’ve made history.”

Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the Pacers advanced to face the Boston Celtics in a series that begins Tuesday in Boston (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) …

1. An offensive onslaught

The Pacers had the league’s second-ranked offense in the regular season, and they had the No. 1 offense in these playoffs prior to Sunday. But what they did in Game 7 was still stunning.

They scored on their first four possessions and had 23 points after their first 11 trips down the floor. After the Knicks got a couple of stops, the Pacers got going again, scoring 16 points on their next six trips.

It was like they were playing a video game on easy mode: 39 points on 19 possessions, shooting 7-for-9 from 3-point range.

Tyrese Haliburton missed his first two shots, one of them an easy put-back, and the Pacers had scored 23 points before he got going. But then he really got going.

His scoring began with a simple catch-and-shoot 3 via a timely flare-screen from Myles Turner. And then Haliburton got a little more audacious with every shot, draining three side-step or step-back 3s from the left wing to cap the 16-4 run that put the Pacers up 15 late in the first quarter.

On the second of those, he gave the ball up in transition, but then raced to the left side of the floor to get it back in his spot …

“That was a huge play,” Carlisle said. “Those kinds of shots and those moments give a team confidence.”

With that confidence, the Pacers’ offense never let up. And it if wasn’t for an uncharacteristic 14 turnovers, they might have had the most efficient postseason performance we’ve ever seen.

Instead, they’ll have to settle for shooting 53-for-79 (67.1%), the highest mark in any playoff game in NBA history.

2. Winning with offense is allowed

After the game, Carlisle tried to play up his team’s defensive improvement as the key to this victory.

“I know we shot well,” he said, “but we beat them on the boards and at halftime, we had one more loose ball than they did. This team was very, very much maligned for their defense early in the year. And they have flipped the script.”

The Pacers certainly were an improved defensive team after adding Siakam. They were certainly tougher on defense and on the glass in Games 6 and 7 than they were in Game 5, when they lost in this same building by 30 points. T.J. McConnell was a pest in the backcourt all series, and Aaron Nesmith was terrific in navigating screens and staying attached to Jalen Brunson.

But this was obviously an offensive victory. And that’s OK!

“We shot well” is an understatement, and this remains a make-or-miss league. The Pacers made some tough shots on Sunday. Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith probably aren’t going to combine to shoot 16-for-18 ever again.

But the Pacers are also a pain in the *** to defend. While we glorify the Knicks’ relentlessness on the glass, we should also glorify the Pacers’ relentless with their pace, ball movement and player movement. New York did a great job to keep up with it in Game 5, but ultimately, the Indiana offense was too much.

The Pacers’ 123.8 points per 100 possessions over the seven games was the sixth best mark for any team in any playoff series in the 28 years for which we have play-by-play data (and probably NBA history). The Knicks’ 119.3 per 100 was the third best mark for a losing team in that same span.

Overall, the Pacers ranked 24th defensively in the regular season, the third-lowest rank for any team that reached the conference finals over these last 28 years. Only the 2017-18 Cavs (29th) and the 2009-10 Suns (25th) ranked lower.

Yes, you have to defend at a certain level to win a championship. But there’s nothing wrong with winning a Game 7 with one of the best offensive performances in NBA history.

3. High-usage Knicks finally break down

The Knicks just couldn’t make it to the finish line.

After missing Games 3-6 with a strained hamstring, OG Anunoby tried to play Game 7. He was in the starting lineup and somehow made his first two shots, but he was clearly unable to move very well.

On the Pacers’ fourth possession of the game, they ran a Haliburton-Siakam pick-and-pop. Anunoby wasn’t there to contain Haliburton, who got into the paint, drew help, and found Myles Turner on the weak-side for a wide-open corner 3.

As Turner let go of his shot, Siakam crashed the glass from the top of the arc, and Anunoby clearly couldn’t move well enough to keep his former teammate out of the paint.

“I just didn’t feel like he was moving well,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It didn’t make sense.”

Jalen Brunson, who comes up short of his championship goals after the Knicks' Game 7 loss, is accountable in the aftermath.

So, after less than five minutes of action, Anunoby was done. Josh Hart, who suffered an abdominal strain in Game 6, was not himself and couldn’t make the Pacers pay for leaving him alone on the perimeter, shooting 0-for-4 from 3-point range.

And then, all hope was essentially lost when Jalen Brunson fractured his left hand in the third quarter. He said he tried to strip Haliburton and hit his hand against Haliburton’s leg.

“I thought I just jammed it,” he said afterward. “I looked down and knew something was wrong.”

So the Knicks’ season ended with five of their top eight players — Brunson, Anunoby, Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic — unavailable. Hart probably wouldn’t have been playing if this was the regular season.

“I thought guys gave everything they had and that’s all you can ask,” Thibodeau said. “A battle all year and there was nothing left to give at the end.”

4. Pacers’ depth pays off

Turner was asked after the game about the ultimate difference in this series, and he cited “the possession game,” rebounds and turnovers.

But when the press conference was ready to move on to the next question, Haliburton chimed in.

“Our depth too,” he said. “We got the best bench in the NBA. We’re the deepest team in the NBA. We got five, six guys ready on the bench at all times, ready to answer the call when need be.”

The Knicks certainly did a lot with so few available bodies. But depth still matters in this league and in the playoffs. The Pacers won Game 7 by 21 points, but their starting lineup was just a plus-6 in its 16.4 minutes.

And their bench, led by the indefatigable McConnell, was critical.

Midway through the third quarter, the Pacers’ lead was just 10 when Nesmith stemmed the tide with a pull-up jumper. And then McConnell did what he does, stealing the Knicks’ inbounds pass and finding Nesmith for an and-one layup that put Indiana up 15 …

McConnell also remained remarkably aggressive, and there were times in this series where the Knicks couldn’t stop him. He finished with 12 points and seven assists in less than 24 minutes in Game 7, pushing the pace, finding holes in the New York defense, and getting to his patented pull-up eight-footers.

“His energy is amazing,” Haliburton said of McConnell. “Part of the excitement when I was traded here was that I was gonna have the best back-up point guard in the NBA behind me.”

Over the seven games, the Pacers were outscored with McConnell off the floor, but they were a plus-11.7 points per 100 possessions in his 144 minutes.

5. A lot of positives for New York

Given that they were the No. 2 seed and where things were seemingly headed after Games 2 and 5 of this series, failing to reach the conference finals is disappointing for the Knicks. But big picture and given their injuries, they’re probably right where they should be.

And they enter the offseason with as much certainty as they’ve had in a long time. They have a star in Brunson, a strong supporting cast, and a coach they obviously has gotten buy-in from his players.

“Pound for pound, there’s no better coach in this league than Thibs,” Carlisle said. “And what he got out of that team was amazing.”

The Knicks have some business to take care of this season, mainly re-signing Anunoby (who can decline his player option for next season) and Isaiah Hartenstein (an unrestricted free agent). Both Brunson and Randle are eligible to sign extensions, and it seems academic that the former will get as much money as he wants.

We can also expect to see a contract extension for Thibodeau, under whom the Knicks have won two playoff series, more than they won over the 20 years before he was hired.

Most of all, the Knicks just need to get healthy.

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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X. 

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