Knicks prepare for Game 5 against Pacers and won't go without a fight
Jalen Brunson huddles with Knicks teammates during the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday. Credit: Getty Images/Gregory Shamus
On the podium or in the locker room in the late hours after Tuesday night’s frustrating Game 4 loss, the Knicks players said all of the right things, uttered all of the phrases you’d like to hear from a team facing elimination.
They have staged one improbable playoff comeback after another, twice coming back from 20 points down in Boston against the defending champion Celtics and then doing it again in Game 3 of this Eastern Conference finals matchup with the Pacers.
The Knicks were understandably frustrated after the Game 4 loss that was never really as close as the numbers could make it appear. They never led in the second half and were down by double digits much of the third and fourth quarters and down by five at halftime. They never got closer than that the rest of the way.
“We’ve been a team that kind of found a way to do the impossible,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We see the impossible and we just keep fighting. It’s been a testament to our whole playoff run. This time we happen to be in the fight for our lives, our season. And it starts the next game. Taking it game by game. looking ahead and just looking at the next quarter and the next game.”
"We're going home.” Josh Hart said. “I've never known this team to quit. I know the character of the guys in this locker room. Obviously, our back is against the wall, but we're still competitors, and we're going to keep fighting until the series is over. I would say we're disappointed with the position we're in right now, but we don't quit.”
“I mean nothing else matters at this point,” Jalen Brunson said. “You’ve got to give it your all. It’s that simple.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has less than 48 hours to figure out why that intensity wasn’t in place for Game 4 when the Knicks could have tied the series at 2-2, putting aside the memory of the Game 1 collapse and building on the comeback of their own in Game 3.
Now the Knicks need to win Game 5 at home, before the starved 19,812 fans who have been waiting for these moments, head back to Indiana and win one more game on the road and take your chances in Game 7 at home.
It’s not one of the powerhouse teams of the NBA in their way, instead a team that finished below them in the standings this season. This was a chance to reach the NBA Finals. And now their chances are dangling by a thread and even as they discussed where it went wrong they admitted mistakes that should have been solved by now and an effort that was less than befitting the occasion.
“We didn’t match their pace and the inspiration, too,” Towns said. “We just didn’t match what they came to do tonight to start the game. And in true fashion to our whole playoff run we put ourself in a deficit, got ourselves out of the deficit and usually we feel good about us in a close game going into the fourth quarter and showing our resilience.
"But you get burned if you put yourself in that position too many times. Tonight was one of those nights where we got burned. We put ourselves again in a deficit. We think coming into the fourth quarter that we are going to find that one trick to get us to that win. We just didn’t have that magic tonight.”
For Thibodeau, it’s never been magic. It’s the work and there is game film to watch, game-day preparation and a belief that the season is not over.
“It’s not going to change,” Thibodeau said. “You go into the playoffs with an understanding of what each game is. After each game, you have to analyze you either won or lost, then make your corrections and get ready for the next game. The important thing is to reset."
“You’re not playing the series, you’re playing the game. So what do we have to do to win that game? Each game is different. Have that understanding. There’s a lot of emotional highs and lows in the playoffs. You got to reset and get ready for the next game.”
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.
