INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton scored 20 factors, T.J. McConnell added 15 factors and 10 assists and the Indiana Pacers rolled to their second-biggest playoff victory ever, beating the New York Knicks 121-89 on Sunday to even the Jap Convention semifinal collection at 2-2.
Haliburton additionally had 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 3-pointers because the Pacers led by 43 factors throughout a start-to-finish romp. They fell simply in need of their most lopsided playoff victory, after they beat Cleveland by 34 factors in April 2018.
Recreation 5 of the collection can be performed Tuesday at Madison Sq. Backyard.
The Knicks put simply three gamers in double figures. Alec Burks completed with 20, Jalen Brunson scored 18 — his fewest on this postseason — and Deuce McBride had 16 on a day they shot 33.7% from the sector, 18.9% from 3-point vary and confronted the biggest deficit by any group on this postseason.
It was the fourth-largest margin of defeat within the postseason for the Knicks, who misplaced to the Bulls by 41 in 1991, 40 to the 76ers in 1978 and 35 to the Pistons in 1990.
And, naturally, the Pacers fed off the vitality of a virtually full Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the place they’re now 5-0 with Recreation 6 coming to Indianapolis on Friday. These watching from courtside included Indiana-born singer John Mellencamp, Indianapolis 500 winners Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti and former Pacers stars Dale Davis and Derrick McKey.
They witnessed probably the most dominant efficiency in what had been an in depth collection via the primary three video games.
New York produced its lowest-scoring quarter (14) and lowest-scoring half (41) on this 12 months’s postseason and led solely as soon as, 2-0, for a complete of 44 seconds.
Enjoying with out 4 key gamers due to accidents — forwards OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic and Julius Randle, in addition to heart Mitchell Robinson — the Knicks seemed fatigued in a brief turnaround following Friday evening’s Recreation 3 to the afternoon begin.
And whereas Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo stored the Knicks aggressive in every of the primary three video games, each struggled Sunday. Brunson missed his first 5 pictures and the backcourt duo was a mixed 9-of-30 from the sector and 2-of-11 from 3-point vary.
Indiana took the lead for good on Haliburton’s first 3 of the sport and took management with a 29-7 first-quarter spurt that gave the Pacers a 34-11 lead.
New York by no means recovered. It minimize the deficit to 36-19 early within the second solely to see Indiana reply with 10 straight factors and lengthen the cushion to 69-41 at halftime.
From there, issues solely obtained worse. Indiana prolonged the margin to 101-63 after three, a deficit that was so giant each groups rested their starters your entire fourth quarter. Indiana has led by 43 or extra factors 3 times this season, handing the Knicks their first 43-point deficit since Dec. 5, 2019, towards Denver, a span of 388 video games.
