There’s no secret to how the Pacers play. They look to pressure ball-handlers with full-court presses for 48 minutes. In return, opposing offenses start their possessions later in the shot clock and at times cough up the ball, which leads to points on the other end.
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle sustains this tiring play style by deploying a 10-man rotation, allowing his players to stay fresh throughout high-intensity games. Its afforded them a commanding 3-1 series lead entering Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
The secret for Game 5, though, was the Knicks were the ones to execute that exact gameplan. And they did it better than the Pacers did, leading to series-worst performances by Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam in Thursday’s 111-94 Game 5 loss.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau beat Carlisle at his own game. And it saved the Knicks’ season.
“There were some different things they did defensively, but for the most part I think their base stuff was the same,” said Haliburton, who received the brunt of the Knicks’ full-court pressure for the majority of his 32 minutes in Game 5. “They picked up the pressure a little bit more. Tried to apply more as the game went on.”
Like the Pacers have done all season, the Knicks picked up the main ball-handler — Haliburton — 94 feet on Thursday. The star guard was mostly met by two of the Knicks’ better defenders — OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges — holding him to his worst game of the series: eight points on 2-of-7 shooting and a -23 plus-minus.
“Just picking him up, trying to be physical with him,” Josh Hart said of the team’s effort on Haliburton. “[Bridges] did a great job. We’re asking a lot from [Bridges]. He’s picking him up, running around with him. Tyrese is someone who never really stops moving. He’ll bring the ball down, he’ll hit, he’ll run off of it, he’ll get the hand back, he’ll throw it back to the big, he’ll run back.
“[Bridges] did a great job today trying to be physical, trying to be on his body and not give him anything easy. I think we didn’t have any plays where we had a miscommunication or left him open for three, which I feel like we did a couple times last game. He’s a hell of a player and sometimes you’ve got to tip his cap to him. [Bridges] did a great job today.”
The adjustment slowed down the team’s overall pace and limited Haliburton from getting downhill.
It affected his teammates’ production as well.
Haliburton was kept to a series-low in assists (six) while no one in the Pacers starting lineup scored more than Siakam’s 15 points (5-of-13 shooting). And only three Pacers scored in double figures.
Game 5 was a complete opposite of Siakam’s Game 2 success: a playoff career-high 39 points. Haliburton couldn’t get him the home run passes that led to easy looks at the rim. And without the star guard getting in front of defenders, the Knicks did less scrambling which limited teammates — primarily Siakam — to get open shots on the perimeter like in previous games.
Haliburton couldn’t get in front of defenders and the home run passes in transition were limited. The Knicks won the turnover battle, 20-15, while scoring one less fastbreak point (16-15) in Game 5.
“They played harder than us,” Siakam said. “I think they played harder than us. Loose balls, rebounds, like all that. We gotta be able to win that battle.”
Thibodeau went all in on the scheme. And he did the unthinkable: deploy a 10-man rotation in meaningful minutes to keep up with the pacy Indiana squad. The change is rare considering the coach’s constant use of a seven- or eight-man rotation in the postseason.
“I think they did a good job applying pressure,” Haliburton said. “Just did a better job defensively than they did last game. [They] switched some things up. We saw some blitzes. Brunson shows were a little harder. They switched a little bit more down the line. They mixed things up as the game went on.”
Haliburton said it wasn’t a surprise the Knicks threw the kitchen sink at him, considering the team had their backs against the wall in an elimination game. The question now is what adjustments will Thibodeau make to force a do-or-die Game 7.
That remains to be seen.
“I mean, we’re up 3-1 [and] their season was on the line today,” Haliburton said. “So understand they were gonna come out and play hard, increase the pressure, do whatever they gotta do to win and they did a great job of that. Now it’s on us to respond in in Game 6. I think when you get here at this point, there’s no such thing as surprises. You got to be prepared for whatever is to come. Kudos to them. They played better than us today. We gotta be prepared for Game 6.”
