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Knicks fall apart late again in Eastern Conference finals Game 2, trail Pacers 2-0 after 114-109 loss

Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News on

Published in Basketball

NEW YORK — The Knicks failed to finish once again.

And now their season is in serious jeopardy.

Two days after they suffered one of the most dramatic collapses in NBA postseason history, the Knicks struggled down the stretch in their 114-109 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Pacers outscored the Knicks 33-28 in Friday night’s fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks now trail 2-0 in the best-of-seven series as it heads to Indiana. In the 464 playoff series since 1956, only 7.3% of the teams to lose the first two games at home have gone to come back and advance.

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 39 points on 15-of-23 shooting, while Tyrese Haliburton flirted with a triple-double with 14 points on 5-of-16 shooting, eight rebounds and 11 assists.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 36 points and 11 assists. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges scored 20 points apiece, but Towns was a -19 and played less than three minutes in the fourth

The game was tied, 81-81, going into the fourth quarter, but the Pacers opened the final period on a 13-4 run.

The Pacers threatened to put the game away after an Aaron Nesmith 3-pointer gave them an eight-point lead with 7:37 left in the fourth quarter.

Brunson responded with a 3-pointer on the other end, and a driving layup by Bridges on the next possession cut the Knicks’ deficit to 96-94.

But every time the Knicks appeared to be making a run, the Pacers answered.

 

After a Bridges jumper cut the Pacers’ lead to 100-97, Myles Turner drilled a 3-pointer.

When Brunson chipped away with two free throws, Haliburton nailed a 3-pointer over him to increase the lead to seven.

And when Nesmith missed a 3-pointer on the next time down the floor, Siakam corralled an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws, putting Indiana up 108-99 with 3:21 to play.

Brunson tried to will the Knicks back with a 3-pointer and floater on back-to-back possessions, cutting the deficit to 110-107 with 1:06 left.

A layup by Josh Hart with 14.1 seconds left made it a 110-109 game, but Brunson fouled Nesmith on the ensuing inbound pass. Nesmith and Turner both made two free throws apiece down the stretch to put the game away.

It was a far less dramatic finish than Game 1, when the Knicks led by 17 at the 6:26 mark of the fourth quarter and by nine with 58.1 seconds left in regulation, only to lose 138-135 in overtime.

Nesmith made six 3-pointers during the Pacers’ furious fourth-quarter comeback, including three in the final 51 seconds, to set up Haliburton’s game-tying stepback 2-pointer as time expired.

But Friday’s loss was just as costly for the Knicks, who led by as many as seven points.

Game 3 in Indiana is set for Sunday night.


©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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