Knicks’ season on the brink after dropping Game 4 heartbreaker to Pacers

INDIANAPOLIS – The perimeter was wide open. The paint was even less congested. 

There was zero resistance. 

Defense? Not from the Knicks. Not Tuesday night. This closer resembled the Mike D’Antoni Knicks than the Tom Thibodeau version. 

The team that likes to say it is at its best when its best was needed, failed to bring the required desperation. Tyrese Haliburton torched the Knicks and so did his teammates in a 130-121 shellacking that moved Indiana to within one game of the NBA Finals. 

The new starting lineup couldn’t get stops. Neither could the reserves. Another miracle comeback wasn’t in the cards, not with the Knicks committing 17 turnovers, five by Josh Hart.

Mikal Bridges was a no-show until it was too late. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns combined for 55 points, but both were turnstiles defensively. OG Anunoby didn’t make enough of a difference. 

The Pacers shot 51.1 percent from the field. They piled up 50 points in the paint. They had 22 points in transition. The Knicks had no answers.

Trailing by 15 early in the fourth quarter, they made it a game late, getting within six on multiple occasions. But the key to any successful comeback, getting stops, was nowhere to be found.

With 46.1 seconds to go, Obi Toppin, the former Knick, iced it with Indiana’s 13th and final 3-pointer, yet another shot when a Knick wasn’t close to a Pacer. 

Now, the Knicks need to reel off three straight wins to advance against a team that hasn’t lost two in a row the entire postseason. The odds are long, especially with how Thibodeau’s team has defended in this series. 

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Game 5 is Thursday night at the Garden, where the Knicks are an underwhelming 3-5 in the playoffs. It will be their first elimination game of the postseason. 

It was a defense-optional start for the Knicks, who allowed more points in the first quarter (43) than the entire second half on Sunday (42). Haliburton crushed them in the opening quarter with 15 points and six assists, and the Pacers made 15-of-22 shots from the field. 

Brunson (13 points in the period) kept them from getting blown out, and Towns hit his stride in the second quarter. Alongside reserves Delon Wright, Landry Shamet and Miles McBride, the 7-footer scored 12 of his 14 points in the quarter, keying a 17-6 run that eliminated a 10-point deficit. 

The Knicks played a terrific second quarter until the final 1:45. Ahead by one, Bridges passed on a contested layup in transition for a fadeaway jumper. The Pacers wound up scoring the final six points of the period to take a five-point lead into the break. 

Turnovers really hurt the Knicks in the first half. They had nine of them – Hart committed four – leading to 11 Pacers points. Indiana frequently got out in transition, scoring 17 fastbreak points. 

It continued into the third quarter. The Knicks turned the ball over on their first two possessions. They failed to score on their first five trips and the Pacers had a 12-point edge. Offense, however, wasn’t the issue.

Indiana kept on getting whatever it wanted. It scored 33 points in the quarter and led by 11, 102-91, entering the final quarter behind eight points in the period from Haliburton.