Indiana threw the kitchen sink at New York’s star point guard in Game 1. It barely fazed him. Can the Knicks’ supernova be stopped?
Game 1s are ripe for clichés. They’re an opportunity for both teams to “feel each other out” or “set a tone.” For all 48 minutes of a bonkers second-round series opener between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers, the clichés were apropos for two teams that came into this matchup with dramatically contrasting styles.
The Pacers wanted to play fast. And they did, attacking off of makes and misses, sprinting up and down the floor, picking the ball up full court, and speeding their opponent up as much as they could. The game’s pace in the fourth quarter was a whopping 106. For most of the night, Indiana did a pretty great job of taking care of and sharing the ball. It was Pacers Basketball.
As for the Knicks, they wanted to grind. And they did, slowing things down and crashing the glass hard enough to finish with a monstrous 37.1 offensive rebound rate in the half court. Solid, typical Thibsian gusto. They were physical, hit big shots, and made timely hustle plays, too.
New York eventually prevailed Monday, winning 121-117, for all of those reasons. But none matter more than the fact that the Knicks employ Jalen Brunson. The Knicks are Jalen Brunson. Their lone (healthy) All-Star and fringe MVP candidate, playing with more impact than anyone else still left in this postseason, finished with 43 points on just 26 shots, surgically operating on a Pacers defense that allowed 125.8 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court.
In 44 minutes, Brunson finished with a 35.3 usage rate and a 66.9 true shooting percentage. Comical stuff. He went 14-for-14 from the free throw line, and became the first player in NBA playoff history to finish with at least 40 points and five assists in four straight games. While facing routine blitzes, full-court pressure, and every single quality on-ball perimeter defender on the Pacers’ roster, Brunson shredded everything thrown his way, scoring 21 in the fourth quarter, each midrange fallaway infusing a delirious Madison Square Garden crowd with pure adrenaline.
“I’m not thinking I need to score 40,” Brunson said after the win. “That’s not my mindset at all. My mindset is to be aggressive and to make plays for myself and for others.”
In a back-and-forth contest, Brunson consistently made the right reads. He patiently obliterated his man in the pick-and-roll. He attacked weaker defenders, including Tyrese Haliburton, who had a bull’s-eye on his back in Game 1 that’s not going anywhere:
Brunson drilled contested shot after contested shot and was eager to involve his teammates when the help was a little too antsy. Nothing bothered him. He created space with a stepback, got downhill, embraced contact, and unleashed some of his typically filthy handles whenever it was a one-on-one situation. At his best, Brunson is a bowling ball who’s mastered ballet:
By the end of the game, Indiana’s defense had no answers. “He studies the game,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “He knows how teams are going to adjust and he continues to make adjustments and finds different ways to be successful.”
On the biggest shot of the night, DiVincenzo benefited from all the respect and attention Indiana was forced to show his superstar teammate. With about 40 seconds left and the score tied, Andrew Nembhard checked Brunson near the right elbow as Aaron Nesmith shifted over to take away his left hand and coax a pass. Brunson obliged and Haliburton’s rotation up to close out on DiVincenzo was a split-second late. The rest was history:
Half a minute later, Brunson found himself at the free throw line with 10.7 seconds left on the clock and a chance to put the Knicks up four to ice the game. The Garden turned into an empty church, as quiet as it was during the national anthem. The moment lacked any tension, though. Those freebies were a formality.
Statistical superlatives don’t do justice to Brunson’s overall impact on a game. He never stops moving, perpetually slithering off screens, relentlessly making second, third, and fourth efforts in the same possession to get open or find a seam that could draw help and create a chance for someone else. It’s constant motion, a quality that really pops beside Josh Hart, who never came out of Game 1 and spent every minute personifying the word “aggression” in a way only Josh Hart can.
It sounds blasphemous to make the following comparison, but when Hart grabbed his first offensive rebound early in the second quarter, which led to an OG Anunoby 3 and an immediate timeout from Rick Carlisle, it reminded me of the way Gregg Popovich would try to break the Warriors’ rhythm whenever Steph Curry got loose for a 3. It’s a smart, distressed head coach who understands they probably won’t win if they keep letting the other team access its superpower. Unfortunately for Carlisle, his strategy didn’t quite work.
“We had opportunities to come up with balls we didn’t come up with,” Carlisle said. “And in a game that’s a one-possession game, that’s the difference.”
Hart finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, three steals, and approximately 36 and-1s that were the result of his signature full-court bull rushes, but his energy is hard to quantify or even understand as you’re watching it unfold before your very eyes. Opposing fans melt into emotional puddles—Jesse Pinkman begging for some kind of justice to be enforced—whenever he dismantles their longer, stronger frontcourt.
At this stage of the season, dramatic adjustments may not work against the Knicks. A lot of their success comes not from set plays, half-court execution, and technical skill: It’s random. It’s chaos. It’s locking the other team in a shark cage for two hours and then taking advantage of the jitters that emerge. For the Pacers to win, they have to clean up everything they can control beyond strategic acumen. Don’t commit avoidable fouls. Grab loose balls. Race back in transition. Offer a tighter band of resistance against Brunson when he’s trying to put you in rotation. Hope the NBA makes kick ball a reviewable infraction. Cross your fingers whenever Isaiah Hartenstein launches a 45-footer.
Indiana can still win this series, and there’s a lot to like about how the Pacers played on Monday night. Myles Turner punished New York’s uncharacteristically switch-heavy defense, which was designed to keep Haliburton from getting downhill off a ball screen. Pascal Siakam had success against Anunoby. The bench was fearless. All are signs for optimism going forward.
The Knicks have Brunson, though, by far the best player in this series, submitting historic production with extreme confidence. He was unstoppable in Game 1, just like he was unstoppable against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round. If he can sustain this absurd level of excellence three more times, New York will probably be headed to the conference finals. The bad news for Indiana is, at this point, there’s no logical reason to believe he can’t.