The Indiana Pacers did not want to finish the season this Friday in front of their fans and tied their play-off tie 3-3 against the New York Knicks after winning 116-103, thus forcing the seventh and final game to be played on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
The Pacers played a great game, a collective effort that the Knicks could only endure during the first quarter. They controlled the rebound (47-35) and were owners of the paint. The New York team also lost Josh Hart, a key player in Tom Thibodeau’s quintet, with abdominal pain that did not allow him to finish the game.
Pascal Siakam (20 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists) made the difference for the Pacers with Myles Turner with 17 points and 8 rebounds, Tyrese Haliburton with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists or Andrew Nembhard with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. His bench contributed 36 points, of which another 15 from T.J. McConnell, a real nightmare for the Knicks.
Jalen Brunson scored 31 points (and distributed 5 assists), of which 26 in the second half after a horrible first half. Without Hart, the Knicks simply couldn’t. The Boston Celtics are already waiting in the East final for the winner of Sunday’s game, which promises to be epic.
The first quarter of the sixth game was very even, with differences of just five points for both and with a 29-30 at the sound of the horn.
But in the second the Pacers reaped the fruits of their work, with a 13-2 run that took them to a maximum difference of 13 shortly before halftime. However, DiVincenzo, with a triple, reduced that maximum difference to 61-51, which, added to a technical foul against him on the stroke of halftime, left the Pacers with a bit of a bad taste in their mouths.
The Knicks started the second half strong, reducing the Pacers’ lead in the middle in no time, but two consecutive triples by Andrew Nembhard and Tyrese Haliburton put Indiana back in the game.
The game was complicated for the Knicks when Josh Hart, with obvious pain in his abdomen, had to go to the bench. The Pacers did not miss the opportunity to extend their difference to 18 (84-66) taking advantage of the slow defensive transitions of the Knicks, but a few solid last minutes from the New York team left the final score at 88-75, with the hope intact.
Indiana was up 23 in the middle of the quarter, a definitive blow for Thibodeau’s men, who sat Brunson and DiVicenzo and let the substitutes burn the final minutes until the final score was 116-103.