Game 7 Awaits

The Knicks came up with a disappointing effort in Indy, and will now play for their season on Sunday.

Good morning. Tough night. This will be a shorter than usual recap, but I wanted to get something out even though it’s a weekend. Hope everyone has a relaxing Saturday and gets their mind off of hoops for a bit before armageddon tomorrow at 3:30.

Game 6: Knicks 106, Pacers 113

In a New York minute…

Things started off well enough for the Knicks, who got perhaps the best quarter of Deuce McBride’s career out of the gate, but defensive and rebounding issues reared their ugly head early, and New York led by just one after the first. Things went steadily downhill from there, and a rough shooting half from Jalen Brunson combined with an inability to nail rotations and stay in front of Pacer drives resulted in a 17-2 run late in the second. The Knicks came out of halftime with a quick burst, but Indy hit back immediately, and the lead stayed above double digits from midway through the third until the end of the game.

Three Things

1. A Step Slow. Take Tuesday’s performance, spin it around 180 degrees, and you’ll get what we saw last night in Indianapolis.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as what we saw in Game 4, but compared to Game 5, Game 6 was night and day.

After getting to every 50/50 ball (and every 40/60 ball…and every 30/70 ball…and a bunch of 20/80 balls) on Tuesday, the Knicks were out-rebounded by a dozen yesterday, which is the largest negative margin of their postseason run.