INDIANAPOLIS — With the New York Knicks teetering on the brink of a third consecutive playoff loss and Jalen Brunson stuck on the bench with five fouls after three quarters, Karl-Anthony Towns took matters into his own hands.
The Knicks needed everything he could muster — even on a sore knee.
Towns scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as New York erased yet another 20-point deficit, and Brunson helped close out the 106-100 victory Sunday night to take Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals — making it three straight wins for the road team.
“It’s a true test when you’re down 20-plus,” Towns said. “Tonight was the kind of night where he had to have that never-say-die attitude.”
New York still trails in the series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Tuesday night in Indianapolis.
But with the Knicks trailing by 16 midway through the third quarter and still down 10 entering the fourth, the dreaded 3-0 deficit looked like a real possibility — until Towns asserted himself by driving to the basket and muscling his way into position for more scores. He opened the fourth with a 3-pointer before making two layups to get New York within 82-79.
Brunson’s layup with 7:10 to play finally gave New York an 89-88 lead and New York trailed only two more times the rest of the night. The Knicks never led by more than four until the final free throws with 2.6 seconds left. Brunson finished with 23 points despite spending most of the night in foul trouble.
“They put me in great spots to succeed, and I just wanted to capitalize on the opportunity,” Towns said after also grabbing 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. Myles Turner added 19 points as Indiana dropped to 0-4 all-time when playing on the same day the Indianapolis 500 was run. Two of those losses came to the Knicks.
Andrew Nembhard of Aurora, Ont., had nine points and four rebounds for the Pacers, while teammate Bennedict Mathurin of Montreal had two points and two rebounds.
Team officials handed out gold-and-blue T-shirts with the words “Vroom Baby” to celebrate the rare Pacers and racers doubleheader, and the winner Spain’s Alex Palou. made the short trek across town where he received during the second quarter — as Indiana started pulling away to a 55-35 lead late in the first half. Six players from Indiana’s 2000 Eastern Conference champs, including Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, also were inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
But after rallying twice from fourth-quarter deficits to take the first two games in New York, and losing their top defender, Aaron Nesmith, with a sprained right ankle in the third quarter, Indiana failed to seal this one.
Nesmith returned in the fourth quarter but coach Rick Carlisle said he wouldn’t know more about Nesmith’s chances to play Game 4 until 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,” he said. “We just simply did not execute as well as we needed to.”
