Siakam helps Pacers beat Knicks to increase series to Game 7

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle challenged his team to play more physically and more tenaciously Friday night.

His desperate team responded with one in every of its most inspired performances all season.

Pascal Siakam finished with 25 points and 7 rebounds, Myles Turner added 17 points and eight rebounds, and the Pacers turned the tables on the Latest York Knicks with a 116-103 victory to even the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals at 3-3.

The decisive Game 7 might be played Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

“I believed Game 5 was our least aggressive game within the playoffs,” Carlisle said. “We played hard tonight, which was a must. They got here out really hard tonight, which was evident, but we moved the ball higher, we got more rebounds and that’s obviously been a giant part on this series.”

READ: NBA: Pacers hope home crowd helps force Game 7 vs Knicks

Pascal Siakam gives the @Pacers an enormous boost in Game 6 with 25 PTS to force Game 7 in Latest York!

25 PTS | 7 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 52.4 FG%#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel pic.twitter.com/8APtheGWQ9

— NBA (@NBA) May 18, 2024

Indiana had two days to work out learn how to contend with the Knicks’ hustle plays and their strength on the glass, two things that led to Tuesday’s 30-point blowout in Game 5 and put the Pacers on the point of elimination.

This time, the Pacers held a 47-35 rebounding edge and even had a slight 14-13 advantage on the offensive end. And so they had balanced scoring, too, which unfolded the Knicks defense.

Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard each scored 15 points, with Nembhard flattening six rebounds and allotting six assists. Haliburton had nine assists as Indiana kept its perfect postseason home record intact at 6-0, in front of a raucous sellout crowd that helped re-energize the Pacers during key moments.

“We knew they were going to play hard coming off the last game, and that’s what it’s about,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We’re just going to need to play so much higher.”

Even Jalen Brunson, the All-Star who has been the league’s top postseason scorer. Yes, he finished with 31 points and five assists while shooting 11 of 26 from the sphere, but that got here after he missed his final 11 shots in the primary half.

READ: NBA: Jalen Brunson fires 44, Knicks rout Pacers for 3-2 edge

Deuce McBride added 20 points and Donte DiVincenzo had 17, however the short-handed Knicks can have suffered yet one more blow when Josh Hart left within the fourth quarter with what the Knicks called abdominal soreness.

“I expect him to play,” Brunson said when asked about Hart. “It’s Game 7.”

The excellent news for the Knicks is that they don’t need to return to Indiana, where they’ve lost nine straight playoff games. As an alternative, they’re heading back to the Garden against a bunch of many players making their first playoff appearances or playing key roles for the primary time within the postseason.

And now, they’ll be playing on national television on the league’s biggest stage.

“It’s exciting,” Haliburton said. “We’ve got nothing to lose. I believe we understand it’s time to empty the clip. We’re able to go from start to complete.”

The Pacers sure looked prefer it Friday as they repeatedly won the battles to loose balls and turned them into quick points, taking a 42-41 lead on Haliburton’s second 3-pointer of the sport. The following 16-7 run helped the Pacers take a 61-51 halftime lead and so they never trailed again.

Brunson rebounded within the second half, getting the Knicks inside 61-56 after making two baskets and a free throw, but after a timeout Nembhard and Haliburton answered with consecutive 3s and the Pacers rebuilt an 11-point margin.

The Knicks never really recovered, losing for the third time in 4 games and leaving them one win away from reaching their first conference final since 2000. Indiana hasn’t played within the conference finals since 2014.

And after playing three games to single-digit margins, the last three to double-digit margins and the house team winning all six, they’ll square off again Sunday — in a win-or-go-home scenario.

“It’s the last word game and it’s an important opportunity,” Carlisle said. “Aside from Pascal and possibly James Johnson, I’m undecided if any of our guys have been in a Game 7. But this team has been through lots of recent experiences within the last 3 1/2 weeks and this might be one other recent experience. So we’ll do every little thing possible to get them ready.”

Latest York again played without 4 key players due to injuries — forwards OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic and Julius Randle, and backup center Mitchell Robinson. Only Anunoby, who injured his left hamstring within the second half of Game 2 and hasn’t played since, appears to have a probability to return Sunday.

Thibodeau said Anunoby continues to do “light work” as he tries to recuperate. He said Anunoby was considered everyday.