First Thoughts: Indiana 82, New York 71
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
Let’s take a quick look at how the Indiana Pacers shut down the New York Knicks 82-71 on Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference second-round series. The Pacers now lead the series 2-1.
WHY IT HAPPENED: The Pacers struggled offensively but used a torrent of offensive rebounds to overwhelm the Knicks by volume of opportunity. Roy Hibbert stood out all game long with 24 points and 12 rebounds. He pulled down eight of Indiana’s 18 offensive rebounds. Paul George quietly enjoyed a nice all-around night with 14 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and five steals. Nobody on New York played well, not even Carmelo Anthony, who scored 21. The Pacers limited New York to 35 percent shooting. Though the home team also checked in at 35 percent from the field, the Pacers took nine more shots and forced New York into an uncharacteristic total of 15 turnovers. Indiana is now in solid control of the series and has an opportunity to carry a 3-1 lead back to Madison Square Garden.
WHAT WE LEARNED: George Hill and Lance Stephenson won’t draw any headlines. They didn’t shoot all that well. But they keyed Indiana’s dominant defensive effort because they held the Knicks’ guards in check. Raymond Felton, so good in the first two games, had six points on 1-of-8 shooting. Pablo Prigioni was scoreless and wasn’t able to set up teammates very often. Hibbert, though, was the story, absolutely dominating his battle with Tyson Chandler. The Pacers are hard to stop if he controls the interior offensively as he did tonight. This was arguably Indiana’s best defensive performance in a playoff game in a long, long time. Simply brilliant. The Knicks had nowhere to turn, no one to rely on. And only a sliver of sustained success in the final five minutes of the first half. New York was held to 20 points or fewer in every quarter.
KEY NUMBER: The Pacers attempted 33 3-pointers, while New York, which launched a record-setting 29 3-point tries per game in the regular season, only got off 11 looks from downtown.
TURNING POINT: After New York closed to 65-57 in the fourth quarter, the Pacers responded with a 7-0 run that all but sealed the outcome. George made two free throws, then found Augustin for a crowd-pleasing triple. Hibbert closed the spurt by putting back a missed shot of Augustin’s, and just like that, the lead was 15 with 6:46 to play.
NEXT: On Tuesday night, Game 4 is here in Indianapolis. The Pacers will be going for what has historically been a near-insurmountable 3-1 advantage.
