Knicks get no fourth-quarter heroics in Game 4 loss to Pacers

INDIANAPOLIS — No, they couldn’t do it.

The Knicks couldn’t come in here and win two. They couldn’t replicate the magic of Sunday night. Karl-Anthony Towns couldn’t save them this time. Neither could Jalen Brunson.

Now, this wild-and-crazy roller coaster that has been so much fun for Knicks fans to ride is just one loss away for closing down for the season as the Indiana Pacers defeated the Knicks, 130-121, to take a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

Now, all the Knicks need to do to get to the NBA Finals is win three in a row, beginning with Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

How likely is that? Only 13 NBA teams have ever rallied back from 3-1 deficits to win a best-of-seven series. The most recent is the Denver Nuggets who did it twice in one year, coming back to beat the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2020 playoffs and doing the same to defeat the Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals.

In so many times this season, Knicks fans have watched their team dig themselves out of a deep hole. They’ve come back from 20-point deficits three times in this playoff run to win games. It happened twice against Boston in the previous series, and in Game 3 against the Pacers. So it didn’t seem an impossible feat when the Knicks headed into the final quarter down by 11 points.

Brunson, the player who has come up big again and again all season, had one of his worst quarters when the Knicks needed him most. The man voted the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year scored just two of his 31 points in the final quarter and they came on a meaningless finger-roll layup with 16 seconds left and the Knicks down by 11.

Towns had brought the Knicks back from 10 down at the end of three quarters in Game 3 when he exploded for 20 in the final period. Tuesday, he also struggled in the final quarter with his only points coming on a putback layup that pulled the Knicks to within six points with a little more than four minutes to go. Towns finished the game with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

“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,” Towns said. “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.”

This time, there was only one star on the court and the Knicks could do little to stop him as Tyrese Haliburton tore apart the Knicks defense with a monster triple double, scoring 32 points with 15 assists, 12 rebounds, four steals and zero turnovers.

Haliburton set the tone of the game when he had 15 points, five rebounds and six assists in a first quarter in which the Pacers scored 43 points. After that, the Knicks were playing catch-up for most of the game, taking a one-point lead several times in the second quarter, and they never led in the second half.

Both Brunson and Towns, who appeared together in the postgame press conference, looked bewildered that their team was in the position they were in after all the team had gone through. Towns said they just have to find a way to regroup, like they have before, and pull it together for Thursday’s game.

“We’ve been a team that kind of found a way to do the impossible,” 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.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.