Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers are just a win away from their first trip to the NBA Finals in decades.
The Pacers, thanks to a dominant performance from Haliburton on Tuesday night, fended off the New York Knicks and grabbed a 130-121 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. That gave the Pacers a 3-1 series lead, and put them on the cusp of clinching their first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years.
Haliburton finished with a 32-point triple-double in the win. He had 15 assists and 12 rebounds to go with it, and he didn’t commit a single turnover in the process. Haliburton is now the third player, along with Oscar Robertson and Nikola Jokić, to put up a 30-15-10 triple-double in the playoffs. He’s also the first to do that without a turnover.
Tyrese Haliburton’s historic first half
Haliburton came out firing. He dropped 15 points in the first quarter alone while leading the Pacers to an early lead. He accounted for half of their six made 3-pointers, too, which already surpassed the amount they made as a team in their Game 3 loss on Sunday night.
Haliburton had six assists and five rebounds in the first period. That made him just the second player, and the first since LeBron James, to have at least 15 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff quarter in the play-by-play era.
The Knicks, though, tied the game just a few minutes into the second quarter after going on a quick 9-2 burst. It wasn’t anywhere near as high-scoring as the opening period, but the Pacers still carried a five-point advantage into the locker room after they successfully fended off the Knicks’ push in the final minutes. Haliburton entered halftime just two rebounds away from his triple-double, and he set another NBA milestone.
Pacers fend off Knicks late
The Pacers remained a step ahead throughout the third quarter, and repeatedly shut down the Knicks defensively. Haliburton at one point came up with a perfect steal on Jalen Brunson in the corner of the floor while they fought to maintain the double-digit lead they regained early on in the period.
The Pacers then ended the third quarter on a 9-4 run to take an 11-point lead. That carried over into the early minutes of the fourth period, and a huge corner 3-pointer from Pascal Siakam sent the arena into a frenzy and gave the Pacers a 15-point advantage — their largest of the game at the time.
Though the Knicks mounted one last push — they went on a 10-2 run and briefly made it a two-possession game again — it came too late. The Pacers successfully held on, and held the Knicks without a field goal for a three-minute span late, to jump back ahead and grab the nine-point victory.
Karl-Anthony Towns bangs his knee
Towns went down twice with a knee injury in the loss, and the second one looked significant.
After banging knees in the opening minutes of the game, Towns collided again late in the final quarter with Myles Turner and went down grabbing his left knee. He was down on the baseline for quite some time, slamming his hand on the floor and was seen covering his face on the bench while the Knicks challenged the play. The call ended up being successful, and Towns drew the offensive foul.
Towns eventually limped back onto the floor and finished the game. He was favoring his left leg significantly the rest of the way. His status going forward isn’t clear, but finishing the night — even minimally — is a good start.
Towns finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds on the night. Brunson led the Knicks with 31 points, though he was largely shut down in the fourth quarter and scored just once in those 12 minutes. The Knicks had 17 turnovers as a team, too.
Can the Pacers close out the series at MSG?
While they are now up 3-1 in the series, which is a hole very few teams in NBA history have come out of, the Pacers will now have to attempt to close out the series at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
The first two games in New York were both tight. The Pacers won Game 1 only after Hailburton hit a wild bucket at the buzzer in regulation to force overtime. They snuck out a five-point win in Game 2 a few days later, too.
Like the Pacers, the Knicks are trying to end an equally long postseason drought. The franchise hasn’t been to the Eastern Conference finals since 2000, though the Pacers beat them in that series 4-2. The Knicks were last in the NBA Finals in 1999, though they’ve not won a title since the early 1970s.
The Knicks now have their backs against a 3-1 wall. If they are going to pull this off, they’ll have play better. Actually stopping this Pacers group has been just about impossible for anybody in the East.
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