New York. The Indiana Pacers are heading home halfway to their first NBA Finals berth in nearly a quarter-century, though they’ve been playing like they'd rather stay on the road.
Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 39 points to lead the Pacers past the New York Knicks 114-109 on Friday night, giving Indiana a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Game 3 is set for Sunday night in Indianapolis, which will be buzzing all day with the Indianapolis 500 earlier that afternoon. The Pacers hope to maintain their momentum at home after winning six straight on the road since losing Game 3 of the first round in Milwaukee.
“We have a long way to go, and it’s only going to get tougher for us,” Siakam said.
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Myles Turner added 16 points, while Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who are chasing just their second trip to the NBA Finals. Their only appearance came in 2000, when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Siakam shot 15 of 23 from the field, easily leading a high-powered Indiana offense where no other player made more than five field goals.
“A special game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “In the first half, he was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches.”
Jalen Brunson had 36 points and 11 assists for the Knicks, who need a quick turnaround or risk being swept in their first conference finals appearance since 1999. New York played with more defensive urgency after a 138-135 overtime loss in Game 1, but couldn’t keep pace after a poor start to the fourth quarter.
Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each had 20 points and seven rebounds for the Knicks. Towns, however, played just 28 minutes as coach Tom Thibodeau leaned more on backup Mitchell Robinson, a stronger defender who grabbed nine rebounds.
No team has ever come back from losing the first two games at home in the conference finals.
“Going into the fourth quarter, it’s a tie ballgame. We’ve just got to make better plays, more winning plays,” Thibodeau said.
The game was tied at 81 after three quarters before the Pacers opened the fourth with a 13-4 run, capped by Siakam’s 3-pointer with 9:17 remaining to make it 94-85. Each time the Knicks threatened, Indiana responded, and Siakam’s bucket with 2:45 left stretched the lead to 110-100.
New York rallied with nine straight points, cutting it to 110-109 on Josh Hart’s layup with 14 seconds left. But Aaron Nesmith hit two free throws, Brunson missed a 3-pointer badly, and Turner sealed the win with two free throws of his own.
Friday’s matchup was the 50th playoff meeting between the Pacers and Knicks. Indiana now leads the series 28-22, all since 1993, and this one looked more like their gritty 1990s battles than the Game 1 shootout.
Indiana jumped to a 19-9 lead, but the Knicks quickly responded behind Robinson and Deuce McBride. The rest of the game remained tightly contested, with the margin rarely exceeding single digits.
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