

The hostilities in Manhattan are totally understandable. The New York Knicks have struggled mightily with the Indiana Pacers when things matter most. We all know this as a basketball truism, but consider each of their four playoff series since the turn of the century — a conference finals loss to close the Patrick Ewing era in 2000, a second-round upset to spoil the Carmelo Anthony iteration in 2013, the seven-game heartbreaker last spring and now down 2-0 in historic fashion.
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Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and the Pacers pulled off back-to-back ultra-close wins at The Garden. They now return home with a chance to go up 3-0. Jalen Brunson’s bunch has been excellent on the road this postseason, and the Knicks will be eager to reciprocate come Sunday.
How to watch New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers Game 3
- Venue: Gainbridge Fieldhouse — Indianapolis
- Time: 8 p.m. ET, Sunday
- TV: TNT
- Streaming: Max
- Watching in-person? Get tickets on StubHub.
Knicks at Pacers Game 3
Pacers lead series 2-0
Series odds: Pacers -550, Knicks +400
New York simply can’t stop this rolling, steely Indiana offense. Through two games, it’s shooting better than 51 percent from the floor and above 41 percent on 3s. It has just 17 turnovers to 52 assisted buckets. Three Pacers are averaging more than 20 points per game (Siakam, Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith) and three more are in double-figures (Myles Turner, Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell, who is doing it in 14.3 minutes per game).
Mitchell Robinson has been putting in a heroic defensive effort, but the Knicks are largely getting destroyed in pick-and-roll coverage and crossed up on switches. On Friday night, Siakam had a Garden game for the ages with 39 points on 15-for-23 shooting. He and Turner were a frontcourt mismatch for Karl-Anthony Towns, who was reduced to a playoff low of 28 minutes. Tom Thibodeau’s faithfully-used starting five bled out points in consecutive home spots.
The Knicks will likely keep rolling with Robinson to pull a Game 3 upset. He’s hauled in eight offensive rebounds so far; no Pacer has more than three. NY will also need more from OG Anunoby, the 3-and-D specialist who is just 4-of-14 behind the arc and has watched both Nesmith and Nembhard heat up. Indiana will all but certainly keep pushing the pace — truly, is any team more befitting its namesake right now? And it should continue going deep after deploying 10-man rotations in Games 1 and 2.
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A road win for the Knicks on Sunday would increase the mayhem and partially reset the vibes. It would at least put pressure on Tuesday’s Game 4. But a third consecutive Pacers W here would carve out a historically insurmountable hole. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
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On this day (May 25) in NBA Playoffs history
2002 — Nets 90, Celtics 94: Boston staged a 21-point comeback to steal Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. Paul Pierce outscored New Jersey in the fourth quarter, 19-16. From Ira Berkow in the New York Times:
“‘In the fourth quarter,’ Pierce said, ‘I’m a different player. That’s when a great player steps up.’ No one was refuting that now. Then Pierce had a moment’s contemplation after this very high high.
“‘I still can’t believe it,’ he said. ‘I still can’t believe it.’ Took the words out of all of our mouths.”
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(Photo of Pascal Siakam and Jalen Brunson: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
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