Knicks Pounded By Pacers in Mother's Day Massacre

Brunson, Hart, Thibs, DiVincenzo, and Hartenstein had been able to persevere through several devastating injuries to other key players this season as long as OG (The Glue Guy) is active...

Final Score: Knicks 89 - Pacers 121 
Series Record: 2-2

Well, stressed-out Knicks fans have been begging/pleading for a stress-free game that didn't come down to the final few possessions! Your team delivered! Just not in the way you had hoped… 

In what was an absolute blowout almost from the opening tip, New York was embarrassed by Indiana in Game 4 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse Sunday afternoon. The Knicks were down by 20+ points 10 minutes into the first quarter, and the home team never looked back. 

The 'Bockers trailed by 30 points at halftime and didn't get within 25 the rest of the way. (I have a feeling that some Knick-fan husbands out there used the old "Hey hun, you are such an incredible mom. And to show you how grateful I am, I'm not even gonna watch the second half of the Knicks game!!!! I'll watch the kids - you go get your nails done!!" trick). 

While it was shocking for folks who've watched the vast majority of NY games this season, and especially so in the playoffs, come down to crunch time, blowouts in the postseason are relatively common. We usually see at least one per series. 

When a team capable of offensive explosions, like the Pacers, gets red hot, it can run away and hide. That's what happened on Sunday. Sometimes, basketball is tough to analyze. Sometimes, it's not. Occasionally, it's as easy as acknowledging the NBA is a "make or miss league." 

New York shot below 34% from the floor, below 19% from downtown and 71% from the charity stripe.

Indiana shot 56.8% from the floor, above 45% from downtown and 87.5% from the free-throw line.

I think there are three primary factors explaining why the Pacers' offense was a thing of beauty and why the Knicks' was a pile of flaming trash.

First and foremost, New York finally ran out of gas. The core four of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Isaiah Hartenstein have played their guts out for the better part of six weeks straight. 

Over the first three games of this series, Hart and DDV were averaging 44+ minutes a night. Brunson and iHart were at around 38 MPG. Conversely, Tyrese Haliburton (36 MPG) was the only Pacer logging more than 34 minutes per contest. 

When Bojan Bogdanovic went down in Game 4 of the Sixers series, we noted at the time NY was nearing an unmanageable crisis. They were running out of healthy bodies, let alone reliable contributors. 

The breaking point may have occurred the moment OG grabbed his left hamstring. Knicks fans, who fully understood OG's importance, shuttered when Anunoby limped to the locker room. 

This brings us to our second determinant… Brunson, Hart, Thibs, DiVincenzo, and Hartenstein had been able to persevere through several devastating injuries to other key players this season as long as OG was active and available. However, as we saw in February, this team cannot sustain success against elite teams without their Glue Guy. OG holds the team together on both ends of the floor.