The New York Knicks will now be playing their first elimination games of the postseason moving forward. After securing a huge comeback win in Game 3, they were unable to even the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, losing 130-121 and falling into a 3-1 series deficit.
Turnovers killed the Knicks in Game 4
Turnovers ultimately proved costly for New York in Game 4, and the Pacers capitalized on their mistakes, converting them into points. The Knicks turned the ball over 17 times to which Indiana scored 20 points off of.
New York also recorded just 17 assists as a team, struggling to hold on to the basketball and make good plays. Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges accounted for 11 of those 17 turnovers.
NBA: Playoffs-New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers
Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
With how fast the Pacers like to play, turning the ball over against them is guaranteed to haunt you. New York couldn’t get stops for most of the night and was getting carved up by Tyrese Haliburton, who recorded 32 points, 12 rebounds, and 15 assists in Game 4.
The Pacers shot 51.1% from the field and 40.6% from three. New York gave them no resistance on the defensive side, and the Pacers made them pay for their lackadaisical defense.
Tom Thibodeau inexplicably avoided using the bench in the second half
In Game 3, Delon Wright and Landry Shamet helped shift the momentum and set the stage for a comeback to be made. They saw the court again in the first half of Game 4 with the Knicks down by as much as 10, and their impact allowed them to grab a one-point lead just before the half.
However, head coach Tom Thibodeau inexplicably avoided using his bench for most of the second half. Wright played just one minute in the entire second half after playing eight impactful minutes in the first half, and Shamet saw the court for just five minutes in the second half.
NBA: Playoffs-New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers
Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
Furthermore, Mitchell Robinson, who got the start for the second consecutive game, didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter despite grabbing six rebounds in the third quarter alone. Thibodeau’s rotations were non-linear, and he went away from using the guys in lineups that have proven to work this postseason.
Coaching is not solely the reason the Knicks went down in this one, but it is interesting to wonder if the outcome would have been different if the bench had been used more in Game 4. The starters continue to struggle while on the floor together, and now adjustments have to be made with no margin for error the rest of the series.
Overview
The Knicks are now in dire straits, with them being down 3-1. It is not impossible to come back, but a series comeback of that size has statistically been a very rare occurrence. Game 5 will be played at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.