If there was a consistent talking point out of the Knicks from the start of the series through the end it was this: No stupid turnovers. The Pacers thrive on turning those into easy buckets the other way that decide games.
In Game 6, with their season on the line Indiana cranked up their defensive press and the Knicks, well…
And
Indiana scored 34 points on 17 Knicks turnovers (15 of those through three quarters when the game was in doubt) and that combined with 31 points from Pascal Siakam, and 21 points with 13 assists from Tyrese Haliburton, is sending the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals for the first time in a quarter century.
Indiana wins Game 6 125-108 and takes the series 4-2. The Pacers advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years — since Larry Bird was the coach.
Indiana will travel to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night (8:30 PM Eastern on ABC).
Pascal Siakam — who scored 30+ points in three of the four Pacers wins— was named Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
“After a bad Game 5 we wanted to bounce back and I have 100% belief in my teammates. Whenever we’re down we find a way and we did that tonight,” Siakam said, holding the trophy at center court.
It was a bounce-back game. It was also the kind of game where everything seemed to go right for the Pacers — even Obi Toppin and Thomas Bryant were draining multiple 3-pointers.
While everything was going right for Indy, it was a rough night for the Knicks’ stars. Jalen Brunson had 19 points but needed 18 shots to get there, plus he had five turnovers in the face of ramped-up Pacers pressure. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 22 (on 19 shots) with 14 boards, but he had a number of ugly defensive plays, like going under the screen on Haliburton and watching him drain 3s.
With a lot on the line, both teams were tight in the first quarter, as evidenced by the 10 total turnovers and Towns’ 1-of-6 shooting. Still, the game was tight, 25-24 Indy after one quarter.
The second quarter was more of the same. The Knicks got a great stretch of play from Landry Shamet and Delon Wright off the bench. OG Anunoby had 14 first-half points, but the Knicks’ 10 turnovers, which led to transition opportunities for the Pacers, had them up 58-54. Siakam was the only Pacer in double figures in the first half with 16.
In the third quarter, the Pacers broke the game open and took control. It started with a 9-0 run to open the frame, capped off by a Siakam and-1 on a leak out. Indiana wasn’t done, their run stretched out to 20-9 behind Bryant’s 3s. From that point on the rest of the game, any time the Knicks would make a run — they had a 7-0 one out of a timeout in the third — the Pacers would answer with a bigger run, 9-0 to answer the Knicks with that one. Indiana led by 15 after three quarters, and this was the key stat: 15 Knicks turnovers became 30 Pacers points (New York had six points off Pacers turnovers at that point).
That was the ballgame. That was the series. And the deeper team that trusted that depth from the start of the series is moving on to the NBA Finals.
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