Australian Johnny Furphy had a rare one-minute cameo on Friday as the New York Knicks kept their NBA championship dream alive with a 111-94 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5.
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Indiana, having already taken the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals series, returned to Madison Square Garden needing just one more win to book a date with Oklahoma City.
But the Knicks, led by star guard Jalen Brunson (32 points) and Karl-Anthony Towns (24 points, 13 rebounds) had other ideas as Tyrese Haliburton (eight points) had a night to forget.
While the Pacers rallied late, they never really looked a genuine chance of having another one of their famous comebacks, instead emptying the bench as Furphy saw his first playing time in the series.
The Knicks came out with the kind of energy and desperation on both ends you would expect from a team fighting to keep its season alive, opening up an early 23-13 lead.
Brunson was in everything too, getting his mid-range game going with their first two buckets of the game while also dishing out an alley-oop to Mitchell Robinson.
The All-Star guard had eight of New York’s first nine points and kept it going with two consecutive 3-pointers along with an assist on a Towns layup as the Knicks forced the Pacers into a quick timeout, trailing 23-13 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
At one point, Brunson had 14 points compared to Indiana’s 15 as a team and no matter how many players the Pacers threw at him, New York’s star guard just couldn’t be stopped.
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And the Knicks needed every one of Brunson’s 14 first-quarter points, holding onto a 27-23 lead as the Pacers closed the period on a 10-2 run.
But the Knicks quickly re-established their dominance early in the second on the back of an aggressive Towns, who was aggressively attacking the rim despite entering Friday questionable with a knee injury that seemed to be bothering him at times in Game 5.
Indiana took a timeout as New York pushed out to a 40-32 lead, capitalising on the non-Haliburton minutes before the Pacers guard checked back in with seven minutes left in the quarter.
Brunson was also out of the game in the early stages of the second, joining Haliburton on the floor when he came back in.
While the Knicks’ offence could have stagnated with Brunson on the bench, Towns took control and was already up to 15 points midway through the third quarter with Myles Turner struggling to contain him.
Turner, meanwhile, already had three fouls and was substituted off alongside an ineffective Obi Toppin as Pacers coach Rick Carlisle experimented with an ultra-small line-up.
That experiment lasted just 15 seconds though as Jarace Walker checked in but by halftime Carlisle was still left searching for answers, with the Knicks leading 56-45.
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If there was any hope of Indiana getting back into the game, Brunson quickly extinguished it early in the third with a pair of layups and 3-pointer that put the Knicks ahead 64-48 early.
Mitchell Robinson, meanwhile, was in everything and had a highlight block on Haliburton as the Pacers’ star guard continued to struggle to get any easy shots, finishing the third quarter on just six points with five field goal attempts.
A lot of that came back to a Knicks defence that was locked in from the jump as New York went ahead by as many as 20 points, which made it easier to deal with an unnecessary fourth foul from Towns late in the period.
The Knicks took a 90-73 buffer into the fourth, but the Pacers went on a quick 9-1 run early to force New York into a timeout.
With the lead cut down to 12 points, Thibodeau went back to his original starting line-up of Brunson, Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges in a bid to regain control. It worked.
An and-1 from Hart ended Indiana’s run and then he added another bucket soon after, putting New York back up 16 and from there the Knicks were able to close it out.
The series returns to Indiana on Sunday where the Pacers will be looking to seal a Finals berth at 10am AEST.