Redemption was the theme for the New York Knicks in their NBA Eastern Conference finals Game 3 win over the Indiana Pacers. Here’s how they got back in the series.
Tom Thibodeau has done a lot of coaching in his NBA career, but he’s made it clear how fondly he looks at his first few years with the Chicago Bulls, his first head coaching job.
While Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah were the defining players of that era, fans of the early 2010s NBA might remember the Bulls also used the “Bench Mob” to start second and fourth quarters. It was typically four bench players and Luol Deng, the team’s second-leading scorer, and their job was to make their opponents miserable with effort and a cohesiveness that made them greater than the sum of their parts, at least for a few minutes at a time.
In Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, with the entire series on the line, Thibodeau, now known mostly for playing his starters so many minutes that Kenny Smith said at halftime, “Thibodeau wouldn’t play nine guys in a baseball game,” went with a bench mob.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Thibodeau finally trusting some bench players counts as desperate measures. But those desperate measures proved to work, as they keyed a major run for the New York Knicks in their 106-100 Game 3 win against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night. It was redemption for Thibodeau who has mostly been outcoached by Rick Carlisle so far in the series.
Redemption was the theme of the night, or at least the fourth quarter, for the Knicks. Their reputations took a major hit through 11 quarters of this series. But narratives can change, and they have for the time being. The question is, will the redemption arcs that emerged be a footnote in the 2025 postseason or the main plot?
Eight Isn’t Enough
Cameron Payne wasn’t playing well through two games of this series, and it made sense for the Knicks to go in a different direction for Game 3.
But there weren’t any players on the bench Thibodeau trusted or else they would’ve already been in the rotation. Thibodeau also surprisingly benched Miles McBride, who struggled with his shot in the first two games, for the majority of the first half as well. In place of McBride and Payne, he played Delon Wright and Landry Shamet.
The returns weren’t immediate. Both players looked a bit out of sorts in the first half. But instead of grinding his starters to dust in the second half (which was hard to do anyway because of Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns’ foul trouble), Thibodeau kept both players in the rotation and reintroduced McBride as well.
It was the key move of the game. A lineup of those three with Josh Hart, who was moved to the bench for this game after starting games 1 and 2 and Towns provided the spark the Knicks were looking for the entire game. The group went on a 16-4 run that started in the third quarter and bled into the fourth and turned what looked like a Pacers blowout into a close game down the stretch.
Knicks bench stats
While the bench quartet didn’t put up big offensive numbers, they finally threw a wrench in the Pacers’ offensive plans. The starters haven’t been successful in keeping the Pacers from getting to their spots, but all four players of the bench gave multiple efforts on every possession during their key run. Finally, the Knicks had life on defense.
KAT’s Meow
Thibodeau deserves some credit for finally pushing the right rotation buttons and the bench players deserve credit for their efforts, but it all would’ve been futile without the best quarter of Towns’ playoff career.
It looked like it might be another demerit on Towns’ playoff resume through three quarters. He had just four points and the team was down 10 points.
But Towns was resilient and finally was aggressive in the right way. He knew the lineup the Knicks were using would only work with him as the offensive hub, and he delivered in a big way with 20 points in the fourth quarter. Before tonight, his high for a postseason quarter in his career was 14.
Towns shot chart
Towns scored 15 of the Knicks’ first 17 points in the fourth quarter. The lone basket by a different New York player was a Delon Wright layup that came off a Towns assist.
In prior playoff games, when Towns’ team needed aggression from him, he’d often go about it in the wrong way, committing obvious offensive fouls or throwing up poor shots. Tonight, he stayed in control while he was aggressive. He even had a perfectly timed cut that ended in a dunk plus a foul.
Towns has a long way to go to rewrite his postseason reputation, but he took a big step in the right direction. Game 3 wasn’t his best postseason game start to finish, but, when it mattered, he was the player the Knicks needed him to be.
Same Story, Different Ending
Towns’ explosion to start the fourth quarter got the Knicks back in a game that seemed over, but it wasn’t the end. It just made for another clutch game against the team that has dominated the clutch in the postseason.
They also had to navigate much of the fourth quarter without Brunson, who picked up his fifth foul with 7:03 remaining and didn’t come back in until the 1:37 mark.
That changed the complexion of the game. The Knicks aren’t better without Brunson, but the Pacers strategy was to attack Brunson and Towns as much as possible on offense. McBride had a better game defensively than Brunson and navigated screens much better. It was similar to the start of the fourth quarter in that it gave the Pacers a different look and one they didn’t solve right away.
Brunson checked back into the game between two Pascal Siakam free throws that tied the game. The Knicks’ point guard immediately went deep in his bag and hit a floater to give the Knicks a lead on his first possession back in the game. The Pacers would never tie the game again.
There was still drama at the end. Brunson airballed a fadeaway with 37 seconds left and that airball, strange as it sounds, may have helped the Knicks. Because it didn’t hit the rim, it caused a shot-clock violation which allowed Thibodeau to get Mitchell Robinson and McBride into the game for Brunson and Towns on a key defensive possession.
The Pacers did get a good look from Myles Turner, but it rimmed out and Josh Hart flew in for a rebounding attempt and drew the foul. The Pacers had to play the foul game down the stretch after that and, for once, could not get a key turnover or 3-pointer.
It was a game the Knicks had to have, and it sets up a crucial Game 4. But it was still just one game. The Pacers spent too much time in the fourth quarter with Tyrese Haliburton on the court but not initiating possessions. That changed after a timeout and challenge by the Pacers with just over three minutes left and Haliburton instantly got some good looks for himself and his teammates down the stretch. The Pacers will likely be mindful of getting him the ball early in possessions when the offense is struggling moving forward.
Thibodeau played some cards the Pacers might not have been prepared for tonight but will be moving forward. They’ll be more aggressive getting the ball away from Towns if he’s in there with all bench players again, and they’ll adjust their attack when Brunson is on the bench.
It’s still an uphill climb for the Knicks to rewrite the narrative of these playoffs. But because of their play in the fourth quarter of Game 3, it’s still a possibility.
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