While the New York Knicks almost mounted a comeback before taking a loss to the Indiana Pacers on May 23, there was one notable absence from the court for the majority of the fourth quarter: Karl-Anthony Towns. However, the big man didn’t seem too concerned with playing time after the loss and expressed confidence the Knicks could still take the series.
“What did I tell y’all about with the word ‘history’? I’m not here to repeat it, we’re here to make it,” Towns told reporters after the game. “If I’ve learned anything, especially last year, as quick as you win two games is as quick as you can los two games. So I just think on my experience, and we just got to execute at a higher level.”
Earlier in the day it had been announced that Towns had made the All-NBA Third team for posting averages of 24.4 points, corralling a career-high 12.8 rebounds and shooting a career-best 42% from deep during the regular season.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Pacers and Knicks were all tied up at 81 points apiece. Towns was absent from the court for nearly seven minutes during the fourth quarter, and everyone around the NBA took notice. So the question after the game was of course why he wasn’t on the court. Well, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau simply said it was the team’s best chance at getting a win.
“Just, we got in a hole, and then the group that was in there gave us a chance,” Thibodeau told The Athletic. “So we were just riding (that lineup). We’re searching for a win.”
Once Towns came back into the game for the final two minutes and twenty five seconds of the game with the Knicks down nine, the team managed to make it a one-point game. Ultimately, the team lost by five and has sunk into a 2-0 series hole with the series heading to Indianapolis.
Siakam’s Big Night
When the Pacers traded for Pascal Siakam last season, this was the type of performance the club envisioned from their All Star forward. Despite not running many plays for him, Siakam had a playoff career-high 39 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
The scoring mark represented the most points scored in the playoffs by a Pacers player since Paul George.
The Pacers rode Siakam’s momentum throughout the first half where he scored the first 11 points of the game for Indiana and finished with 23 points at halftime. With the series shifting from the bright lights of New York to Indiana, the Pacers sit just two games away from their first NBA Finals appearance since the 2000 season where they lost to Shaquille O’Neal’s Los Angeles Lakers.
