The Knicks left their shooting misfortunes in 2020, took on a strong defense and found their touch.
Coming off a night of brutal shooting on New Year’s Eve against the Tampa Raptors, the Knicks came back and bent over their defense late to close out the Pacers for a 106-102 victory Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
After briefly losing the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter, the Knicks (3-3) used an 11-0 stretch and finished the game on a 13-6 run to secure the victory.
“That’s what it’s all about – whatever we have to do to get a win, that’s the only thing that matters,” said Julius Randle, who came up with a big theft late that led to a sinking in the decisive race. “We did a great job of getting stops on the stretch and then in the offensive end, just playing for each other.”
RJ Barrett, who was among the main culprits during a series of cold shooting on Thursday, rediscovered his pit and led the way with 25 points. Randle got off to a tough start on Saturday – he was kept without a score until the last minute of the first half – and finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Randle’s defense of Domantas Sabonis, Mitchell Robinson’s big night (16 points, nine rebounds) and an aggressive Elfrid Payton (19 points) helped the Knicks dominate the Pacers (4-2) in the paint, beating them 56 -26 and coming back her 51-32.
“It was a big concern, how I put the ball in the paint and score there,” said coach Tom Thibodeau. “It simply came to our notice then. … [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 piece and that is what it takes to win. “
Sabonis won 32 points in the Pacers’ season-opening victory over the Knicks, but remained at 13 points on Saturday night. Malcolm Brogdon fired from the center of the city, leading the Pacers with 33 points, but the Knicks did not let him ruin his otherwise strong defensive effort.
After shooting a brutal 3-for-36 from behind the arc in Thursday’s loss, the Knicks started Saturday’s game 3-for-4 from deep and finished 12-for-27.
Barrett drained the first 3 he took in the first quarter, pushing a 21-yard straight slip beyond the arc during the previous four games. He made it 2-for-2 minutes later, taking the place where he remained in Indiana after shooting 3-for-3 from the depths of the season opener.
After Barrett’s display of 0 for 8 from 3 on Thursday, he spent an hour on the field in Tampa making several shots. Looks like it helped get him out of funk when he finished filming 4-for-5 of 3 on Saturday.
“I just worked extra, but I really took the same photos that I shot in the last two games,” Barrett said. – They came in tonight.
Although Randle did not score until the sinking of a half with 43 seconds remaining in the first half – after starting 0-for-6 with four innings and four assists – Robinson helped lift the game. The center was active around the rim, cleaning up offensive rebounds and going 6-for-6 for 12 points in the first half.
The Knicks went 51-50 at the break, but came out strong to start the third quarter, setting the tone for how they would end the game on the back of the defense.
“We feel like we have a chance to win every night, and that’s what we’ve done so far,” Randle said. “The biggest thing is to finish the games. Going into the third quarter, I tried to tell the boys that Indiana is a huge third quarter team. … So we had to enter aggressively, enter and fight and that’s what we did. “