First Thoughts: New York 105, Indiana 79
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
Let’s take a quick look at how the New York Knicks blew out the Indiana Pacers 105-79 on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in Game 2 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference second-round series. The series is tied 1-1.
WHY IT HAPPENED: The Pacers held a slim 64-62 lead when coach Frank Vogel curiously used a timeout with 3:04 left in the third quarter. At the time, Indiana was in the middle of runs of 10-4 and 30-15. New York had blown a 13-point lead. Top scorers Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith were still missing most of their shots. And yet Vogel, for some odd reason, decided to stop the action, inserting Jeff Pendergraph to compound his momentum-killing mistake. The Knicks, given a chance to refocus and speak with coach Mike Woodson, went on a 30-2 run over the next 10 minutes spanning the end of third and first seven minutes of the fourth. Indiana didn’t score a point in the final period until Tyler Hansbrough hit two free throws with 4:48 remaining. It was a truly epic collapse. Paul George led Indiana with 20 points, though 15 of those came before halftime.
WHAT WE LEARNED: The Pacers collapsed like a cheap lawn chair when the Garden crowd got into the game and Anthony started drilling 3s and dunking in the face of defenders. Anthony posted 32 points on 13-for-26 shooting to end his playoff slump. Iman Shumpert chipped in with 15 points and Raymond Felton had 14. New York shot 44-of-89 (49 percent) from the field and competed with much more energy, urgency and fire than in Game 1. The Pacers shot 46 percent and still were routed. New York sent an undeniable message that this is going to be a long series. Indiana was not able to control the paint as they did on Sunday, and the Knicks’ offense rotated the ball and found open shots on a consistent basis in the first half and then again when they made their game-breaking run.
KEY NUMBER: The Pacers turned the ball over 21 times, 12 in the first half, leading to 32 points by New York.
TURNING POINT: Tyson Chandler slammed the ball through the hoop with 2 seconds left in the third quarter after the Pacers failed to box out Jason Kidd on an offensive rebound. Not enough effort from the men in gold. And a tremendous crowd-energizer to keep the Knicks’ surge going past the quarter break. That gave the home team a 72-66 lead.
NEXT: The teams retreat to neutral ground before the battle resumes Saturday night in Indianapolis for Game 3. New York hopes to use the three off days to get reserve forward Amar’e Stoudemire ready for his first action after a two-month layoff from knee surgery. The Pacers will likely use practices to tighten their ballhandling issues.
