Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 39 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 114-109 victory over the New York Knicks, silencing the celebrity party at Madison Square Garden in Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals
The series is heavily tilted for Indiana, who will now host the next two games at home, with everything to make it a short series, heading to the NBA Finals
In fact, the Pacers have just set a playoff record by winning six consecutive road games. They only lost Game 3 of the first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, the first of that series. The rest of their series against the Cavaliers and Knicks have taken the rest of the road games, as part of a surprising trajectory in the current playoffs
In addition to Siakam, Myles Turner added 16 points and Tyrese Haliburton 14 points, with 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who are now looking to play in their second NBA Finals in their history dating back to 2000, when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in their only chance to win the title.
The third game will be played on Sunday in Indiana, with the New York Knicks in urgency mode, as like the Minnesota Timberwolves, they are on the verge of a sweep in their battle to reach the finals
Knicks fall short again
New York played solidly in the first half and won the first two quarters. But by the third, Indiana cut the deficit and early in the final quarter took the lead that they managed to open up to 10 points, with 2:45 to play
Jalen Brunson scored 36 points and handed out 11 assists for the Knicks, who were having a party as they arrived back in the Conference Finals after a 25-year wait, although it could be a short-lived participation
While the team defended better than in Game 1, they stopped scoring at key moments in the fourth quarter, allowing Indiana to take the lead
Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 points and seven rebounds each, but he only played 28 minutes because coach Tom Thibodeau gave more time to backup center Mitchell Robinson, who guarded the paint much better and grabbed nine rebounds.
The score was tied at 81 after the third quarter, before the Pacers opened the fourth with a 13-4 run to go up 94-85 thanks to Siakam’s three-pointer with 9:17 remaining. They quickly extended the lead whenever the Knicks gained momentum
The Knicks scored nine straight points to cut the deficit to 110-109 on a basket by Josh Hart with 14 seconds left, but Aaron Nesmith made two free throws for the Pacers, Brunson hit a three-pointer and Turner iced the game with two free throws.
The 50th playoff meeting between the two rivals (the Pacers lead 28-22, all since 1993) was more like their defensive battles of the 1990s. Two nights ago, the Knicks were up by 14 points with 2:45 to play before the Pacers caught them with a Haliburton jumper at the end of regulation and won the game in overtime.
This time, Indiana took a 19-9 lead, but the Knicks quickly caught up when Robinson and Deuce McBride came in and the game stayed within single digits for most of the rest of the night, until Indiana took a lead it could handle in the final quarter.
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