Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner dunks the ball over New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday night. The Pacers won, 114-109, to take a 2-0 lead in the series. (Adam Hunger/AP)
NEW YORK — A week after the New York Knicks dismissed the Boston Celtics to set off a party that felt like a precursor to a championship parade, the blocks surrounding Madison Square Garden felt like any other Friday night in the big city, mixed with anger and apprehension.
A city whose occupants are known for a pride that borders on arrogance is suddenly fretting that this Knicks outfit that has reignited so much passion — and restored the franchise’s relevance beyond the five boroughs — doesn’t have enough to keep up with an Indiana Pacers squad that keeps delivering fourth-quarter PowerPoint presentations on execution and winning plays.
The vibes were immaculate for the Knicks, who were favored to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 when these Eastern Conference finals began — until Tyrese Haliburton mimicked Reggie Miller’s infamous choking gesture following an unprecedented New York collapse in Game 1. And then Pascal Siakam had a 39-point reminder that he is the only player in this series with a history of getting buckets on a championship-winning team in the Knicks’ 114-109 loss in Game 2.
No longer shocked, the Knicks faithful has been silenced. It went from climbing light poles and crowd surfing in celebration, to having Mayor Eric Adams temporarily co-name streets in Manhattan after Knicks players hours before the first conference finals games in this building in 25 years. But those good feelings have disappeared into the ether. No team that has lost the first two home games in the conference finals has ever come back to win the series.
“What I told y’all about history,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I’m not here to repeat it. We’re here to make it.”
But before the Knicks can concern themselves with making history with an improbable comeback of their own, they must first find a way to win again. The locker room after Friday’s loss was as quiet and somber as it’s been all season. A little skepticism would be understandable after two defeats that showed the varying ways the Pacers can wear their opponents down. After rallying from 14 points down in the final three minutes of regulation in Game 1, the Pacers entered the fourth quarter of Game 2 tied at 81 and got greedy. They aren’t in awe of the Garden, and they never feared the Knicks after beating them in seven games in the second round last year.
Indiana has already grinded its previous two playoff opponents — a four-years-removed champion in Milwaukee and a 64-win team in Cleveland — into submission with heart-snatching victories, unrelenting depth and an “act-like-we’ve-been-here-before” attitude. The subdued visitors’ locker room after Game 2 captured the mood of Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle, the only coach remaining in the postseason who has led a franchise to a championship. “I thought our guys held their composure well,” Carlisle said after his team won its sixth straight road game this postseason. “It’s Day 3 of 13 days. No one’s getting ahead of themselves. There’s a lot of work to do.”
The Knicks also have a lot more work, but no obvious fixes, as the series shifts to Indiana on Sunday for Game 3. They are 5-1 on the road this postseason, winning all three games in Detroit in the first round, and rallying from 20-point second-half deficits in two wins in Boston in the second round. But changing locations isn’t all that’s needed for a different outcome. New York’s starting five of Towns, Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart has struggled with slow starts all postseason, and the group has been outscored by a combined 29 points through the first two games of this series. “Maybe we’re just playing too soft at the beginning,” Bridges said after the Knicks faced an early 10-point deficit Friday.
“Obviously, we can finger-point and say this is wrong, that’s wrong,” Brunson said. “It’s this person’s fault, that person’s fault. But collectively, we’ve got to get it together. That’s really it.”
Brunson won the NBA’s clutch player of the year award, but he has been unable to spare the Knicks from an unfathomable loss in Game 1, in which he lost a pass off his fingertips late in overtime, or from a depressing loss in Game 2, when he helped rally New York from a 10-point deficit in the final three minutes to get within one, only to later miss a deep and rushed three-pointer that could have tied the score with eight seconds remaining.
Brunson can’t do much more than he already has, amassing 79 points through the first two games. Unless he can find someone else to carry the offensive load — or someone he is willing to share it with — Brunson could get swept up in the same Pacers dustpan that already includes first-team all-NBA players Giannis Antetokounmpo and Donovan Mitchell, who both served up statistical haymakers only to have that hero ball end in early vacations.
“We’re in the conference finals,” said Brunson, who finished with 36 points and 11 assists Friday, his seventh postseason game with at least 30 points and 10 assists. “Nothing else matters right now. We have a game every other day. We’re playing in a high-stakes moment. The mental focus — everything — has to be there. There’s no question about it at this point.”
Towns was brought to New York this past offseason to spare the franchise from relying too much on the undersized Brunson, whose injured ankle limited him in the seven-game loss to the Pacers last postseason. Although the third-team all-NBA big man contributed 35 points in Game 1 and added another 20 points in Game 2, Towns was on the bench for much of the fourth quarter as Knicks Coach Tom Thibodeau instead went with Mitchell Robinson, mostly for defensive purposes. The Knicks trailed by nine when Towns sat. He returned about seven minutes later, with the deficit the same.
“The group that was in there gave us a chance, so we were just riding that, searching for a way to win,” said Thibodeau, who didn’t rule out a change to the starting lineup for Game 3.
Towns admitted it was tough to lose, whether he was on the floor or not, but tried to hold out hope for another vibe shift. “If I’ve learned anything, especially last year,” said Towns, who reached the conference finals with Minnesota last season, “quick as you win two games is as quick as you can lose two games.”