The Knicks needed their finisher more than ever.
A 20-point lead had turned to 10 in a matter of minutes, and the Indiana Pacers’ first big run in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals had a sellout Madison Square Garden crowd holding its collective breath.
But on a night the Knicks required all hands on deck, their captain helped them stem the tide.
Jalen Brunson’s third-quarter heroics, including a timely four-point play, helped secure the Knicks’ 111-94 win on Thursday night, keeping their season alive for at least two more days.
Brunson’s five-footer with just under four minutes left in the third quarter snapped a Pacers 10-0 run.
Two possessions later, Brunson drilled a stepback 3-pointer through contact from Obi Toppin, falling to the ground as the ball rattled through the hoop. When he completed the four-point play with a free throw, the Knicks’ lead was back up to 17 points with 2:56 left in the third.
Brunson scored 16 points in that third quarter and finished with a game-high 32 on 12-of-18 shooting with five rebounds and five assists.
The Knicks now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Only 4.4% of the teams to fall behind 3-1 have come back – but 16.1% have overcome 3-2 deficits.
Karl-Anthony Towns, on an ailing left knee, contributed 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting and 13 rebounds.
That was more than enough offense on a night the Knicks delivered their best defensive effort of the series.
They limited the Pacers’ high-powered offense to 40.5% shooting, including 33.3% from 3-point range.
Mikal Bridges repeatedly met Tyrese Haliburton in the backcourt, helping to hold the All-Star point guard to eight points on 2-of-7 shooting with six assists.
A lineup of Towns, Josh Hart, Landry Shamet, Miles McBride and Delon Wright gave the Knicks quality defensive minutes, holding up even as the Pacers repeatedly attacked Towns.
The crowd chanted Shamet’s name after he forced a turnover on T.J. McConnell with 9:38 left in the fourth.
After the Pacers cut the deficit to 96-84 with 8:15 left in the fourth, the Knicks stopped Indiana on five straight possessions.
The Knicks rolled with the same revamped starting lineup as Games 3 and 4, with the rim-protecting Mitchell Robinson in for Josh Hart. Towns started despite suffering an ugly-looking left knee contusion late in Game 4.
Slow starts plagued the Knicks throughout the series, but they punched first Thursday. Brunson scored on the Knicks’ first three possessions and assisted on the next one with an alley-oop lob to Robinson.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Brunson gave the Knicks a 23-13 lead with 4:23 left in the quarter.
The Knicks’ defense also started better — Towns’ work off of a screen contributed to a Haliburton airball in one telling sequence — as the Pacers began 5-of-16 from the field.
Brunson scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first, but the Knicks led only 27-23 after Indiana ended another quarter on a run, continuing a trend from Game 4.
With Brunson on the bench to start the second, Towns took over.
He scored the Knicks’ first seven points of the quarter and was lining up to complete a three-point play — for his 10th point of the period — when Brunson checked back with 5:42 left before halftime.
The Knicks led 56-45 at the break. Towns had 12 points in the second quarter and a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting at the half.
Yet the story of the half was the Knicks’ defense.
The Pacers shot just 37.5% and managed only seven fastbreak points in the first half. Haliburton finished the first half with four points on 0-of-3 shooting.
Brunson caught fire again to begin the third, scoring the Knicks first eight points, including a three-point play and a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions.
A pair of OG Anunoby free throws put the Knicks up 72-52 at the 6:32 mark of the third.
The Pacers responded with a 10-0 run, but the Knicks answered with baskets on their next five possessions — including Brunson’s four-point play — to open a game-high 22-point lead with 2:12 remaining. Brunson’s play had fallen under scrutiny in the conference finals.
He got into foul trouble in Games 1 and 3. Towns led a fourth-quarter comeback in Game 3 with Brunson on the bench. Brunson was a -16 in the Knicks’ Game 4 loss.
But the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year came up big with the Knicks’ season on the line.
Thursday marked a return to the Garden, where the Knicks blew a 17-point lead in a back-breaking Game 1 loss and faltered defensively down the stretch of their Game 2 defeat.
The Knicks split the games in Indiana, unleashing a 20-point comeback in their Game 3 win before being burned badly by turnovers in their Game 4 loss.
But the Knicks bounced back at home on Thursday and avoided — at least for now — suffering a season-ending defeat at the Garden to the Pacers, who eliminated them there in Game 7 of their second-round series last year.
With Thursday’s win, the Knicks improved to 4-5 at the Garden this postseason.
The Knicks are trying to become the 14th team in NBA history (out of 297) to come back from a 3-1 deficit. They seek to become the first team to win a conference finals after losing Games 1 and 2 at home.
The Knicks can even the series in Game 6 on Saturday night as the series shifts back to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
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