Tom Thibodeau explains Knicks’ Game 3 starting lineup change, but another decision may have rescued the season

The New York Knicks were two quarters away from staring at an early vacation on Sunday night, before yet another rousing comeback led to a crucial 106-100 Game 3 victory over the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the Eastern Conference finals. The Knicks, who were in danger of digging themselves into a 0-3 hole, now have a chance to even up the series in Game 4 on Tuesday.

After losing each of the first two conference finals games at home, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau elected to make a starting lineup change for Game 3. Those unfamiliar with the Knicks — and Thibodeau’s coaching style — may not understand what a remarkable development that was. Keep in mind that New York’s regular starting lineup of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns, logged 940 minutes together during the regular season. The next-most used five-man unit played over 200 fewer minutes.

So when Thibodeau inserted Mitchell Robinson into the first five on Sunday in place of Hart, who said he approached his coach about making the change, it could either be looked at as a masterful adjustment or a desperate attempt to find lightning in a bottle. When they trailed by 20 in the second quarter it was looking like the latter, but ultimately the Knicks pulled out the win, and Thibodeau explained his reasoning for the change after the game.

“It really didn’t impact either guy from a minutes standpoint,” Thibodeau said. “So, to me, when Mitch was coming off the bench, he’s a starter coming off the bench. When Josh comes off the bench, he’s a starter coming off the bench. Their minutes are gonna be the same. Both guys mix and match. Both guys are comfortable with both units.”

It’s pretty sound from a logic standpoint. If neither player is going to miss out on minutes, it makes sense to put them in the combinations that are going to lead to the most success. Entering Game 3 it had been a trainwreck for the Knicks’ regular starters, who had played to an abysmal minus-43 net rating in 43 minutes over the first two games against the Pacers.

On Sunday, with Robinson filling in for Hart, the starting lineup had a pretty much dead-even net rating in 14 minutes. That’s not going to knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s certainly a dramatic improvement over minus-43. The biggest difference came on defense, where the Robinson lineup held Indiana to just 96 points per 100 possessions, compared to the 127 they’d averaged over the first two games.

Another critical Game 3 decision came in the fourth quarter, when Brunson picked up his fifth personal foul with just over seven minutes remaining. Thibodeau took him out at that point, but the unit on the floor played well in his absence, and Thibodeau didn’t put Brunson back into the game until the 1:37 mark. During that stretch, with Miles McBride in Brunson’s place, the Knicks allowed just eight points as they set themselves up for victory.

Had Thibodeau put Brunson back in earlier, he surely would have been hunted by the Pacers on virtually every offensive possession in an effort to exploit his foul trouble. Instead he stuck with McBride — not an easy choice given Brunson’s proven clutch ability — and Indiana simply couldn’t get anything going.

“They had a lot of their better defenders in the game in the second half, and that makes it harder,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said after the loss. “So, you’ve got to grind defensively to get rebounds, and there’s a different element of grinding when you’re going against their better guys.”

Surely Thibodeau won’t contemplate starting McBride in Brunson’s place in Game 4, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him play the Robinson card again. You should also expect to see McBride, who picked up three early fouls on Sunday, play more than 15 minutes.

None of this is possible, however, without selfless players who are committed to winning. McBride happily plays his role off the bench for whatever amount of time he’s given, while Hart — who led the NBA in minutes this season — voluntarily gave up his starting spot and finished as a plus-five for the game.

“The thing that I love about Josh is the unselfishness,” Thibodeau said after the game. “Like, you’re concerned because you’re not only impacting him, but you’re impacting other guys in the starting lineup. So you’ve got to make sure that that’s all good. And then you’re also impacting the second unit in a different way. So then you’ve gotta figure out, how could we put this all together where we could make it work. And so, that also factored into those other guys working in, so we could get all the things that each guy provided for both units.”