Knicks ignore 0-2 hole and focus on winning Game 3 in Eastern Conference finals against Pacers
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) and New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges (25) and New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) react as they head to the bench in the 4th quarter as the New York Knicks play the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden on May 23, 2025 Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
INDIANAPOLIS — For the Knicks, it comes down to this simple math.
One game.
Need simpler?
One quarter. One possession. One defensive stop.
If the Knicks look at the big picture, the daunting task and the historic odds facing them, they might curl up in their hotel rooms and not show up at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday night.
No team has ever lost the first two games of the conference finals at home and come back to win the series. It rarely has happened in any round, with the Celtics and Cavaliers the latest to fall after dropping the first two at home. Even adding in losing the first two anywhere, the odds are long. Approximately 7% of the more than 400 teams in that hole have come back to win.
So the Knicks will shield their eyes from those numbers and instead think of last season, when they were up 2-0 on Indiana and lost the series in seven games to end their season.
“Don’t worry about that,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I told y’all about history: We’re not here to repeat it; we’re here to make it. If I learned anything, especially last year, as quick as you win two games is as quick as you lose two games. So just bank on my experience, and we just got to execute at a higher level.”
History already has been made in this series. No team had ever squandered a lead of at least nine points in the final minute of a playoff game before the Knicks became the first team in 1,415 tries to do it. That’s another reason it’s understandable why they might not want to think about history.
But the Knicks had better dim the lights and study the film from these two games, because the constant errors have become alarmingly familiar. They have fallen in deep holes, with the starting five struggling at the start of the game as well as the start of the third quarter. On Friday, they were down 19-9 at a point when the 19,812 fans in attendance expected the team to be as dialed in and physical as the crowd was.
“I think we just have to talk to each other off the jump,” Mikal Bridges said. “I think maybe we just play a little too soft in the beginning.”
Unlike the Celtics and Pistons, who tried to chase Mitchell Robinson off the floor by hacking him and benefiting from his struggles at the free-throw line, Indiana has forced the Knicks to make a decision on Towns by repeatedly attacking him on defense, luring him into defensive miscues with screens that either place him on a quicker, smaller player or simply leave him indecisively lost. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau played Robinson more than Towns on Friday. It was the first time all season a center had played more than Towns.
But turning to the bench didn’t work wonders either. With Brunson resting at the start of the fourth quarter, a tie score turned into a nine-point deficit in just three minutes, and the Knicks were left to try to dig their way out of a self-inflicted hole again.
The defense has been an issue. The starters have been a minus as a group and the bench has provided inconsistent results.
“Yeah, obviously we can finger-point and say this is wrong, that’s wrong, and say it’s this person’s fault, it’s that person’s fault,” Jalen Brunson said. “But collectively we’ve got to get it together. That’s really it.”
The same arguments that the Knicks made after the historic failure in Game 1 could be made now. It feels like the end of the world, or at least the end of the season, but win one game and they are back on track. History would tell you that the odds are against them, but the Knicks have been better on the road than at home in this postseason. They are 5-1 on the road and 3-5 at home.
Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it can’t happen. See Game 1 for evidence.
“Just taking one game at a time,” Bridges said. “I know it’s 2-0, but it’s a long series. [It was] 1-1 first series. Up 2-0 the next series. Now we’re down 0-2. We just have to find different ways to advance. We just have to be better defensively as a team and offensively make the right play. And sometimes when we don’t and they get out in transition and we have to get back in transition.
“We just have to finish games. That’s pretty much it. We just have to finish games. They are a hell of a team and very well-coached. They are not going to stop and they play well. Just got to win.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
