I Want My Mommy

The Knicks get Whupped.

Good morning. Hope everyone at least had a nice meal on Mother’s Day.

Game 4: Knicks 89, Pacers 121

In a New York minute…

The final score is not indicative of how this game went, because it could have been much, much worse.

The Knicks went down by scores of 14-4 and 34-11 in the first quarter, 47-19 and 66-37 in the second quarter, and 80-45 and 101-63 in the third quarter, although that last margin came a few minutes after Thibs pulled the last of his starters.

Nothing (outside of another decent offensive game from Alec Burks) went well for New York, from the opening tip to the final buzzer. They couldn’t hit a shot. They were a step slow on defense. They exuded exhaustion in every phase of the game.

This was over before halftime.

One Thing: Critical Mass

Borrowing today’s “One Thing” from my KFS colleague DJ Zullo, who has been using this term ever since Bojan Bogdanovic went down with a season-ending injury in Game 4 of the Philly series.

“Critical mass” refers to the amount of a thing needed to produce a particular result. In this instance, it’s the number of injuries a basketball team can sustain before they are no longer able to produce relatively replicable results when compared to their normal standards.

DJ first used the term after the Bogey injury, thinking that it would reduce the Knicks to seven playable rotation players, and only five non-centers. Since then, they’ve only gotten more banged up. Mitchell Robinson was lost for the season. OG Anunoby has missed the last two games, and is in line to miss a third, if not a fourth. Isaiah Hartenstein sustained an apparent shoulder injury in the second quarter yesterday, and seemed compromised afterwards (although he says he’ll be ready to go on Tuesday).

And more detrimental than any of those, and maybe more than all of those put together, Jalen Brunson is not Jalen Brunson, not since he gutted out the second half of Game 2 on adrenaline, muscle memory, grit and guile. The man who was putting up playoff numbers not seen since Michael Jordan has been a shell of himself in the last two games, and yesterday put up shot after shot that came up short, including a point blank attempt at the rim that barely touched iron.

As all of these players were dropping like flies, the Knicks continued to find a way to win games, but it’s fair to wonder if the Brunson & Anunoby injuries combined to form the final 1-2 “critical mass” punch that’s too much to overcome.

Yes, they nearly won Game 3, but they were also 13-of-20 from deep at the time they built a nine-point four quarter lead. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that they finally ran out of gas when the threes stopped falling.

That cold shooting continued yesterday, when New York went 1-for-8 from deep in the first quarter, 1-for-5 in the second, and 1-for-13 in the third. The Pacers, meanwhile, were hitting everything - in part because they’re a gifted offensive team, in part because they were hot, but most of all, because New York had completely lost the ability to put up a decent fight.

It’s hard to blame them, or at least blame them too much. On one hand, the played like crap. Every Knick to a man fully acknowledged that their short-handedness was not an excuse for a Fizdalian display of basketball. On the other hand, there is now a larger portion of their payroll in street clothes ($83 million) than in uniform ($76 million), including four of their five highest paid players. The fifth - Brunson - is nowhere near at full strength.

Forget running on fumes; the gas tank has been removed. In its place is an “Out to Lunch” sign, except the last few letters of “Lunch” are illegible because its author got a cramp before he could finish writing.

The only question is what comes next, and how indicative Game 4 was of what lies ahead in the series.

The Pacers are playing with full and complete confidence. If they’re rattled by the Garden, they didn’t show it in Games 1 & 2. They will be ready to take a commanding 3-2 lead, and be a home Game 6 win away from their first Eastern Conference Finals in a decade.

That means step one for New York will be slowing down their attack. It’s fair to assume Indy’s shots will not fall at Sunday’s rate, but their process will still be sound. The Knicks will need to be far more connected, and in perhaps a more difficult ask, far more energetic. Might that come down to a starting lineup change to get more speed on the floor? Tom Thibodeau started the second half with Deuce McBride in place of Precious Achiuwa, so perhaps it’s a consideration.

That would hurt their ability to rebound (no small matter; the Pacers out-boarded the Knicks by nine yesterday after grabbing one more rebounf than New York on Friday) but it would also juice the spacing for a team that has just 195 points over its last eight quarters.

But really, the offensive improvement must begin and end with one man. Yes, the Knicks can do things to make Jalen Brunson’s life easier. Other players can step up, as DiVincenzo and Burks did on Friday night. But without Brunson being some approximation of the man who was playing like an MVP before this injury, they do not have hope. If he can’t put significant pressure on Indiana’s defense, there’s simply no way to generate enough good looks to keep up with a high-powered Pacer offense.

That’s where we’re at. At the very least, they should be rested, with every starter playing between 22 and 32 minutes yesterday. They will also be ready to put their worst loss of the year behind them, and give the home crowd something to cheer about.

At the end of the day though, we have to wonder where they will summon the requisite energy from. In Brunson’s case, can the league’s master chef of creating something from nothing make a gourmet meal from condiment packets and some canned goods? Or at least an edible one?

We’ll find out on Tuesday. In under 72 hours, this series flipped on its axis.

Let’s see if New York has one more table turn in them.

Quote of the Day

No play warrants inclusion here, but I really appreciated some of the postgame quotes. I wrote recently about the importance of accountability to the Knicks’ culture that we’ve all fallen in love with. That was on full display yesterday (which is good, because positive play certainly wasn’t):

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

I broke the rules once in this series, so I hope no one minds that I’m breaking them again. I’ll either double up the stars from Game 2’s incredible effort, or I’ll reserve them to be distributed at a later time, but no one gets any love today. Sorry.

Tip-Ins…

🏀 It should be emphasized how light’s out the Pacers were, and in general, how great they played on both ends tonight. Yes, New York had some good looks that didn’t go down, but Indiana made the Knicks work for every opportunity. There were a few moments in the first half where it seemed like New York kinda sorta maybe had vague notions about making a run, but it felt like the Pacers drained a tough bucket to end their mini-spurt every time. They never once let up.

🏀 Maybe it was the refs having pity, but they started to ding the Pacers for some of the physical play they’ve largely gotten away with on Brunson, as Jalen attempted nine free throws in 31 minutes. On the down side, they missed a blatant landing space foul on Aaron Nesmith early in the game, and JB seemed to aggravate his injury when he landed on Nesmith’s foot.

🏀 Josh Hart sat for more minutes in this game (24) than he had for the entire playoffs combined.

🏀 At least Alec Burks is in a groove. He led the team with 20 points and got to the line 10 times, sinking eight.

Up Next…

Game 5 at the Garden, 8 pm, Tuesday night.

Final Thought

Lose by one, lose by 50…it only counts as one loss.

This series is far from over.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”