Mateo’s Hoop Diary: “I’m going to be all over the film”: The Pacers dropped Game 5 in New York

The Pacers were outhustled and outmuscled, plus Jalen Brunson turned into Rambo in Game 5, shifting the series back to Indiana. He scored 32 digits on 66.7% shooting, which included a 16-point blaze in the third quarter on blow-bys and jumpers.

Coach Rick Carlisle said his team didn’t play with the force needed, and they couldn’t generate enough traction to get out of the hole. One of the early warnings that the Pacers weren’t sharp was Andrew Nembhard aborting a layup for a pass to the corner that missed. 

The Pacers never led, were shut down at the rim, and were beat in two key areas: paint points 60-34 and second-chance points 13-7. Brunson and Mikal Bridges also made six shots at mid-range. 

Tyrese Haliburton was pressured and unable to hit shots on the move. Pascal Siakam was outplayed by Karl-Anthony Towns, who bulldozed into the lane for nine baskets. New York also won the 50-50 balls and, at one point, was in such control that they played Landry Shamet and Precious Achiuwa, their 10th and 11th men in playoff minutes.

The Pacers emerged from halftime down 11 and didn’t help themselves by recording more turnovers (8) than field goals (7) in the third quarter, four coming from poor passes. On top of that, the Knicks extended their edge to 22 as Deuce McBride nailed a step-back jumper over Bennedict Mathurin on the baseline at the end of the period.

A 12-point deficit was the closest the Pacers could get in the fourth quarter, but Josh Hart drove left on Andrew Nembhard for a two-footer and cut up the baseline for a layup, freezing Indiana’s progress. 

It didn’t matter that the Knicks weren’t a factor from a long-range because their inside action was like repetitive shots to the spleen, kidneys, and liver, which eventually caved the Pacers in. On the other side, the visitors were impeded in the half-court to 89.3 points per 100 plays, good enough for the 31st percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. 

Siakam was off target on drives and jumpers, but he was the only visiting starter to break double-figures (15) and no other logged above eight points. Their five-man unit only splashed three trifectas, too. 

The Pacers lost 111-94. They had their most turnovers of the playoffs (20) and made only a third of 3-point attempts.

After the game, Siakam said, “We fought tonight, and they were the better team…”

Haliburton said, “We gotta be better as a group. I think our pace has to be better, and that starts with me.”

Game 6 is on Saturday.