FACING a potential third consecutive playoff loss with Jalen Brunson sidelined by five fouls after three quarters, the New York Knicks found a hero in Karl-Anthony Towns.
Playing with a sore knee, Towns scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as the Knicks erased yet another 20-point deficit to secure a 106-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis on Sunday night (Monday, May 26, 2025, PH time), taking Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals and marking their third straight road win.
New York still trails in the series 2-1, with Game 4 scheduled for Tuesday night (Wednesday in PH) back in Indianapolis.
Midway through the third quarter, with the Knicks trailing by 16, and still down 10 entering the fourth, the possibility of a dreaded 3-0 deficit loomed large.
That was until Towns asserted himself, driving to the basket and muscling his way to more scores. He ignited the fourth quarter with a three-pointer before adding two layups, pulling New York within 82-79.
Brunson’s layup with 7:10 remaining finally gave New York an 89-88 lead, and the Knicks trailed only twice more for the rest of the game.
Their largest lead was four points until the final free throws with 2.6 seconds left. Brunson finished with 23 points despite his significant time on the bench due to foul trouble.
“They put me in great spots to succeed, and I just wanted to capitalize on the opportunity,” Towns said, who also grabbed 15 rebounds. “All of us are just trying to do whatever it takes to win, get ourselves back in the game. We wanted to put ourselves in a position to where at the end of the game we found ourselves with a chance of winning.”
Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers with 20 points and six assists, while Myles Turner contributed 19 points. This loss marked another instance where Indiana fell on the same day the Indianapolis 500 was run, their all-time record now 0-4 in such games, with two of those losses against the Knicks.
Team officials distributed gold-and-blue T-shirts with “Vroom Baby” to celebrate the doubleheader with the Indy 500, where Spain’s Alex Palou was the winner.
Palou even made a visit to Gainbridge Fieldhouse during the second quarter, just as Indiana was extending their lead to 55-35 late in the first half.
Six players from Indiana’s 2000 Eastern Conference championship team, including Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, were also in attendance.
However, after rallying twice from fourth-quarter deficits to win the first two games in New York, the Pacers, who lost their top defender Aaron Nesmith to a sprained right ankle in the third quarter, couldn’t close out this one.
Nesmith did return in the fourth quarter, but coach Rick Carlisle indicated that a clearer assessment of his availability for Game 4 would come on Monday.
“Regardless of who’s out there, we’ve got to be able to attack better and do the things to maintain it and finish the game,” Carlisle said. “We just simply did not execute as well as we needed to.” / From the wires