It wasn’t easy but the New York Knicks ended their road trip by avoiding some March Madness in Indianapolis.
New York is bringing a quantum of vengeance home by ending a lengthy road trip brought about the annual Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament with a 101-92 victory over the Indiana Pacers. The win allowed the Knicks (43-25) to muster a winning record on this five-game road trip, which also worked through Denver, both Los Angeles locales, and Salt Lake City.
Jalen Brunson reached 29 points without hitting a three-pointer on three attempts (his best scoring output without a sunk triple since November 2024) while a career-best rebounding night from master Mitchell Robinson (22, including nine of the offensive variety) allowed the Knicks to avoid disaster against the lowly Pacers.
Also enjoying a busy night for OG Anunoby (pairing 25 points, headlined by a posterizing two over Micah Potter, with eight rebounds and five assists), New York played without both Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns, both of whom sat due to knee issues.
Indiana, which has infamously ended each of the last two Knicks seasons, continued to play contending New York well after their first two split meetings were decided by a combined couple of points. Though continuing to miss franchise face Tyrese Haliburton and All-Star Pascal Siakam, the Pacers enjoyed the respective returns of ex-Knick Obi Toppin, deadline addition Ivica Zubac, and recurring foes TJ McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith.
Behind 23 first half points from Brunson and early capitalizing on second chances (scoring the first 11 such points thanks primarily to Robinson exceeding his already-lofty expectations) and Indiana turnovers (matching that tally off the mistakes in the first half), the Knicks made several threats to run away with the game.
A buzzer-beating triple from 29th birthday boy Landry Shamet just before halftime, for example, created an 11-point lead at the break. That advantage reached as high as 15 in the early stages of the third.
But, always perked up to play the Knicks, the Pacers and their re-energized rebounding game went on a 22-7 run over the last eight minutes of the third to muster a tie and even took the lead on a Nesmith triple with just over seven seconds left in the frame. Jordan Clarkson, granted more minutes after his vengeful breakout in Utah, gave the Knicks the lead back off the feed from Brunson but the Pacers had made their presence felt.
Fully shaking off the Pacers proved somewhat futile, as the lead remained stationed at one possession as late as 2:42 left in the fourth. The sealer, however, came from an unexpected, if not wholly welcome, source.
On a night where the Knicks struggled from deep (hitting just eight), Mikal Bridges followed by a Robinson rebounds off a Mesmith miss by hitting a clutch triple off the penultimate of nine assists from Brunson. The last came on a driving double from Anunoby, who capped off a 10-point fourth quarter and boosted the lead to nine and led to a de facto surrender from Indianapolis.
Bridges’ shot allowed the embattled starter to close a bumpy trip on a high note: Bridges had scored but 21 points total over the first four stages, none coming in Sunday’s SoCal sleeper. He would finish the night with 11 points and four boards as the Knicks moved a game behind idle Boston for the second seed on the active Eastern playoff bracket (though the Celtics carry two games in hand).
The valiant effort was not enough for the Pacers (15-52) to avoid their 12th consecutive loss as they play out the Haliburton-less stretch. Jarace Walker led the hosts with 18 points in defeat and they’ll get one last go at the Knicks on Tuesday night in Manhattan.
Just before that, the Knicks will get a grand stage upon their return home, as they’ll face the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET, NBC).
