‘Resilient’ Pacers vow to respond after falling flat in Game 5
NEW YORK — The Indiana Pacers played their worst offensive game of the postseason in Thursday night’s 111-94 loss to the New York Knicks, but despite missing a chance to close out the series, star guard Tyrese Haliburton emphasized there was “no need to panic.”
“We’re a resilient group,” Haliburton said after the game. “We always want to respond when things don’t go well after a game like that. We understand what the stakes are. … We’re fine. There’s no need to panic or anything.”
The Pacers still lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 on Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Indiana never led in Game 5 as New York pulled off a wire-to-wire victory with its season on the line. Meanwhile, the Pacers’ offense never got started. Their starting five combined for just 37 points, the second-fewest by a team in a game this postseason, and as a team the Pacers had 20 turnovers, their most in a game during these playoffs.
Thursday’s loss also marked the first time this postseason that the Pacers were held to under 100 points.
“To start the game, we just didn’t have the right level of force, the right level of attitude necessary in this environment,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “It was a bad start; we never had a lead in the game. There were a multitude of things that were going wrong. There were stretches in the game where we got a little bit of traction, but never enough.”
Bennedict Mathurin scored a team-high 23 points off the bench, and Pascal Siakam led the starters in scoring with 15. But Obi Toppin, who had 11 points off the bench, was the only other Pacers player in double figures.
After putting up a historic stat line in Game 4, Haliburton struggled to stay involved on offense Thursday night, scoring eight points on 2-of-7 shooting with six assists. His seven shot attempts were his fewest in any game this postseason, and he scored or assisted on 24% (23 of 94) of the Pacers’ points, according to ESPN Research. In Games 1-4, Haliburton scored or assisted on 41% of his team’s points.
“I got to be better, and I’ll be better in Game 6,” Haliburton said. “We got to be better as a group. Our pace has to be better. That starts with me. I got to be better there. As a group we’ve shown that we can have some success this playoffs. This was a rough showing for us tonight. So we’ll watch the film, see where we can get better and be great.”
The Pacers acknowledge the Knicks established themselves as the more aggressive team in Game 5, bu they have prided themselves on responding after losses this postseason. Forward Aaron Nesmith did not mince words when asked how the Pacers get their intensity back for Game 6.
“You get punched in the face like this,” he said. “Sometimes you got to lose to get better. That’s what happened today.”
Knowing they were returning home with a 3-2 series lead was a big reason why the Pacers were not discouraged despite Thursday’s loss. Indiana has not dropped back-to-back games since March, and Siakam said he was looking forward to a chance to bounce back at home.
“You’re going to have bad games,” Siakam said. “This is the NBA, and there’s going to be times where a team is going to play hard. In fact, they’re going to beat you.
“It is just all about us, man. It’s always been us against the world, and I don’t expect it to change. … We are 3-2 in a series and we have an opportunity to go back home and show what we’re made of.”
Source: espn.com