The Knicks left their shooting problems in 2020, carried a strong defense and found their finishing touch.
Coming out of a brutal New Year’s Eve shootout against the Raptors in Tampa, the Knicks recovered and relied on their defense late to close the Pacers for a 106-102 victory Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
After briefly losing the lead in the middle of the fourth period, the Knicks (3-3) used an 11-0 stretch and ended the game with a 13-6 run to guarantee victory.
“That’s what it’s all about – whatever we have to do to get a win, it’s the only thing that matters,” said Julius Randle, who came up with a big robbery late that led to a dunk during the decisive race. “We did a great job of getting locks on the final stretch and then on the offensive side, just playing for each other.”
RJ Barrett, who was among the main culprits during a cold shooting night on Thursday, rediscovered his groove and led with 25 points. Randle got off to a rough start on Saturday – he went without goals until the final minute of the first half – and finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Randle’s defense in Domantas Sabonis, Mitchell Robinson’s big night (16 points, nine rebounds) and an aggressive Elfrid Payton (19 points) helped the Knicks to dominate the Pacers (4-2) in the painting, surpassing them by 56 -26 and overcoming the rebounds they 51-32.
“It was a big concern the way they put the ball in the paint and mark it there,” said coach Tom Thibodeau. “They are all tied up. … [The Pacers put] enormous pressure on your defense. It requires you to do more than one thing, so there are often two, three, four, five efforts in one move and that is what it takes to win ”.
Sabonis accumulated 32 points in the Pacers’ opening win of the season against the Knicks, but got 13 points on Saturday night. Malcolm Brogdon caught fire in the city center, leading the Pacers with 33 points, but the Knicks did not let him ruin his otherwise strong defensive effort.
After throwing a brutal 3-of-36 past the hoop in Thursday’s defeat, the Knicks started Saturday’s 3-of-4 game from the bottom and finished 12-to-27.
Barrett drained the first 3 he caught in the first quarter, losing 21 consecutive errors beyond the arc in his previous four games. He did 2 to 2 minutes later, picking up where he left off in Indiana, after shooting 3 in 3 earlier in the season.
After Barrett’s 0 out of 8 out of 3 on Thursday, he spent an hour on the court in Tampa putting more pitches. This seemed to help him get out of his fearful state when he finished Saturday by shooting 4 out of 5 out of 3.
“I just did an extra job, but I really took the same pictures I did in the previous games,” said Barrett. “They came in tonight.”
Although Randle did not score until he sank a tray 43 seconds from the end of the first half – after starting 0 to 6 with four turns and four assists – Robinson helped close the gap. The center was active on the edge, clearing offensive rebounds and making 6 to 6 for 12 points in the first half.
The Knicks lost 51-50 at halftime, but came out strong to start the third period, setting the tone for how they would end the game on the back of the defense.
“We feel that we give ourselves a chance to win every night and that is what we have done so far,” said Randle. “The most important thing is to finish the games. Going into the third quarter, I tried to let the guys know that Indiana is a great third quarter team. … So we had to get aggressive, go in and fight and that’s what we did ”.