The Pacers bounced back from an embarrassing Game 5 loss to force a winner-take-all Game 7 against the Knicks. With a 116-103 win over the Knicks, the Pacers have pushed New York to the brink of elimination.
Indiana was helped by a standout performance from Pascal Siakam, who dropped 25 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Siakam added seven rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals. Elsewhere, Andrew Nembhard scored 15, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. All but one of Indiana's starters scored in double digits, and the Pacers as a team shot 49-of-91 from the field. They also won the rebound battle 47-35.
For New York, it was another big night for Jalen Brunson. His 31 points led all scorers, but the Knicks' resiliency in the face of injuries was tested early and often. Playing without Mitchell Robinson, Bojan Bogdanovic and Julius Randle was already hard enough, but the Knicks had to make do without OG Anunoby again. Even more frightening is the status of Josh Hart moving forward. Hart struggled all night with an injury to his abdominal area before finally leaving the floor altogether. Hart has been a major cog for the Knicks, and his absence in a Game 7, and potentially beyond should New York advance would loom large.
Game 7 is set for Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Knicks vs. Pacers: Game 6 score
Pacers 116, Knicks 103
Here are the biggest takeaways from Game 6:
What to expect from Josh Hart in Game 7?
The Knicks survived without Julius Randle. They survived without Bojan Bogdanovic. They survived without Mitchell Robinson. They've even survived without OG Anunoby. Their absences haven't mattered in large part because Josh Hart has seemingly absorbed all of their minutes. Well, maybe not that many, but he's played 48 or more minutes four times this postseason. The Knicks need a jack-of-all-trades wing that never rests because their specialists are all hurt.
Well, Hart seemingly joined them in Game 6. He played much of the game with an apparent abdominal injury before ultimately exiting in the fourth quarter. The Knicks called it abdominal soreness. It's hard to imagine Hart leaving a possible elimination game with "soreness" of any kind. Regardless of the exact nature of the injury, the turnaround for New York is extremely tight. Game 7 will tip a bit more than 40 hours after Game 6 ended.
It is exceedingly rare for a player to suffer an abdominal injury without missing a single game. Even if Hart can suit up on Sunday, any injury painful enough to knock him out of Game 6 is sure to compromise him to some extent in Game 7, and without Hart, the Knicks are just running out of warm bodies to turn to. Deuce McBride and Alec Burks have already stepped up. Precious Achiuwa has really struggled in the postseason. Everybody else is already playing 40 or more minutes. Eventually, teams hit the point of no return where injuries are concerned. The Knicks might be there.
Pascal Siakam's gravity in mismatches
The best play of Pascal Siakam's night came on a dunk he didn't even finish. Just watch the buildup to this Myles Turner monster jam.
Siakam has McBride guarding him. McBride is seven inches shorter than Siakam. As soon as Andrew Nembhard's entry pass is made, both Donte DiVincenzo and Hart jump over to Siakam to protect against the mismatch. In doing so, they effectively part the red sea for Turner, who glides into one of the easier dunks of his career.
This is the conundrum the Knicks now face with Anunoby injured. Siakam scored 25 points in Game 6 because the Knicks just don't have a big wing defender anymore. Hart has done his best to hold his own in that matchup, but even he is too small. McBride has no chance, but because the Knicks have chosen to play smaller and start McBride to guard Tyrese Haliburton, he has become a target on both switches and transition cross matches. The Knicks could adjust by playing Achiuwa more as they tried earlier in the series, but he compromises the offense, and McBride is still their best chance at defending Haliburton.
Anunoby is the perfect Siakam defender. Randle and Bogdanovic at least have the size to challenge him. But right now, the Knicks are too depleted to properly defend him. They can either let him rack up points one-on-one or compromise the integrity of the rest of their defense to keep him away from the rim.
Indiana's latest Brunson adjustment
The Pacers have tried a bit of everything against Jalen Brunson in this series. Most of it hasn't worked. Tonight's primary coverage adjustment? Having the screener's defender, often Haliburton, the player the Knicks have hunted most aggressively in this series, hedge and recover. These soft-doubles made it harder for Brunson to generate any downhill momentum, and the results were mostly positive. Brunson finished with 31 points, but most of them came after the outcome was in hand. He was inefficient all night.
Will that adjustment hold up in Game 7? It depends on what the Knicks get out of the rest of their roster. McBride's 20 points are an example of how that scheme can come back and haunt you. If you're sending even soft doubles at a passer like Brunson, it's going to create open looks elsewhere. But McBride is still a pretty up-and-down scorer, and the Knicks are so thin right now that they lack the ability to cycle through role players and see who's hot. The Knicks could go back to making Isaiah Hartenstein their primary screener and hopefully pulling Myles Turner away from the rim, but that strategy isn't as valuable if Hart isn't in the game to attack the rim.
The Knicks will have counters in Game 7. Brunson will adjust personally. No defensive tactic has worked against him for long this postseason. But the Pacers found something that worked in Game 6, and they'll likely make the Knicks prove they've solved it before switching things up.
