Knicks fall to 0-2 in NBA Cup with 106-104 loss to Pacers

Quenton Jackson came off the Indiana Pacers‘ bench Friday night, buried a third-quarter 3 and put his fingers in Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson’s face.

That was the poke. Jalen Brunson is the bear.

The sequence was expected to set the scene for one of Brunson’s trademark late-game scoring eruptions, especially after the Knicks captain had words for Jackson shortly after the third-quarter exchange.

Instead, Karl-Anthony Towns missed a falling 2 with under a second left in regulation, and the Knicks rallied from down by as many as 14 to lose, 106-104, to the Tyrese Haliburton-less Pacers on Friday.

Here are the takeaways from the failed comeback attempt.

It all hinges on shooting

When the shots fall, these Knicks look like the team that was supposed to run the East. In the first quarter, the ball moved, the threes dropped and they played with pace. When the game slowed down and the offense got stifled in the second quarter, they stagnated and fell behind by double digits. Mike Brown went searching for anything that worked, even turning to Pacome Dadiet for a couple of minutes in the first half. The Knicks aren’t used to seeing that. Even OG Anunoby’s fourth-quarter three, buried with under 11 minutes left after a 1-for-6 start from deep in a rough 3-point season, felt more like an exception than a turn. The Knicks’ case rests on the idea that the shooting comes back. For one possession, it did. The Knicks ultimately shot 16 of 46 from 3-point range, but the makes were too little, too late.

Whistle evened out, glass never did

Indiana went 16 for 20 from the line in the first half, while the Knicks went 3 for 5 and committed 10 fouls in the second quarter alone. Then the Pacers didn’t take a single free throw in the third quarter. The whistle stopped working against the Knicks, and they still couldn’t take control, because the Pacers kept getting second chances. Indiana led second-chance points 16-7 deep into the game, even though the Knicks came in as the league’s second-best rebounding team and the Pacers came in among the worst on the offensive glass.

Final free throws: New York 10 of 13, Indiana 18 of 25.

Turnovers continue

The fourth quarter got away from the Knicks one giveaway at a time. Right after Brunson checked back in at 8:25, they coughed up a costly turnover. At 7:23, Kelly Oubre stripped Bridges at half court, drew a foul and did push-ups on his way to the line to make it 101-89. T.J. McConnell picked Brunson’s pocket. Brunson threw an alley-oop pass that never had a chance, and Bridges lost the ball again. Every possession the Knicks handed away was one fewer chance to finish a comeback that needed all of them.

Final turnovers: Indiana 15, New York 13.

Brunson cant hide the ugly

The half-court offense has lived on volume. Through 11 games, the Knicks ranked fourth in the league in attempts at the rim and last in field-goal percentage there, so when the pace dies, everything runs through Brunson — and now Towns. The rotations keep shifting, with Bridges benched late in four of the first nine competitive games. And Miles McBride keeps producing in a shrinking role. He’s averaged 9.2 points on 51.3% shooting over his last six games while playing 18.9 minutes a night, down from 28 last season before his sports hernia surgery. Friday, he finished with nine points on 3-of-7 shooting from deep.

Final line

Brunson led the Knicks with 33 points on 11-for-22 shooting, including 4-for-9 shooting from 3 and 7-for-8 shooting at the line, along with 11 assists and two steals in 36 minutes. Towns added 23 points and 15 rebounds, shooting 9 for 18 with five assists and three steals. Mikal Bridges scored 18 on an efficient 8-for-12 night, and OG Anunoby had 11 points on 4-for-13 shooting, 2-for-8 shooting from deep. McBride hit three of his seven 3-point attempts for nine points in 22 minutes off the bench. Josh Hart went scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting in 23 minutes but grabbed five rebounds and handed out four assists. Andre Drummond had six rebounds in 14 minutes, and Tyler Kolek added five points and six rebounds.

Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 19 points, going 7 for 12 from the line. Aaron Nesmith scored 18 on 7-for-10 shooting with seven rebounds, and Kelly Oubre Jr. added 16 points and two steals. Ivica Zubac posted 12 points and 13 rebounds, nine of them on the offensive glass. Andrew Nembhard had 12 points and six assists but committed six turnovers, and T.J. McConnell added six points, six assists and two steals off the bench.

The teams matched each other at 39 for 90 from the floor. The Knicks made 16 of 46 threes to Indiana’s 10 of 29, but the Pacers won at the line, 18 for 25 to 10 for 13, and on the offensive glass, 17-8. The Knicks committed 13 turnovers to the Pacers’ 15.

Next up

The Knicks visit the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. They stay in Toronto for a rematch with the Raptors on Tuesday. The Knicks close the road trip at Minnesota on Thursday. They return to Madison Square Garden to host the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, Nov. 21, then welcome the Pacers on Sunday, Nov. 22.