At 8:30 a.m. Beijing time on May 15, the NBA playoff matchup is in full swing, and in the Eastern Conference semifinals G5, the New York Knicks return to their home court to face the Indiana Pacers. Before this game, the two teams drew 2-2, and the overall strength of the two sides is indeed very close. The Pacers as a super dark horse in the East this season, they are one of the most offensive firepower teams in the league, the regular season and playoffs, the Pacers' average points and assists per game, all ranked first in the league, they have a fast offensive rhythm and high projection efficiency, the star Haliburton as a rare pure point guard in the active league, the organization is quite good, the last G4, the Pacers relied on their offensive performance, once led the Knicks by more than 40 points, and broke the opponent.
And the Knicks, as the second in the East in the regular season, are naturally not simple, but now they are scarred, and the three major players are out for the season, including Randle, Bogdanovic and Mitchell Robinson. Anunoby is also sure that he will not play in the battle of Tianwang Mountain, and can only rely on Brunson to lead the team. Regarding Brunson's performance this season, American rapper Dog Ye praised: "Although Brunson and the Knicks are facing the dilemma of many key players with injuries, they can still stage the miracle journey of Cinderella, and I have seen Stephen Curry do the same. The same short point guard moves around the court, changes direction, and shows skill. I think he (Brunson) can do it. They didn't think Curry could do it at the time. But he did. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Knicks are sending Brunson, DiVincenzo, Hart, McBride and Hartenstein, and the Pacers are sending Siakam, Haliburton, Turner, Nesmith and Nembhard. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Turner jumped to win, the Pacers took the lead in getting the ball, Nesmith flew to the basket and scored two points to score the first goal of the game, Siakam made a mid-range dry pull-up jumper, Brunson made a small throw in the paint area into the center of the net, and also opened for the Knicks, Haliburton and McBride shot each other three-pointers, Turner ate cake inside, scored a slam dunk with both hands, Brunson pulled two points at the free throw line and also hollowed into the net, and Hart's wing three-point shot was accurately guided.
In the first half of the first quarter, the Pacers took a slight lead, but at the end of the quarter, the Knicks overtook the score with a small climax, Hart scored five points in a row inside and outside, and Toppin took three steps to pass the defense and hit a layup, and the first quarter ended, the Knicks led the Pacers by 6 points at 38-32. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Brunson shook off the defense in European steps, wiped the board under the basket and scored, helping the Knicks to take the lead, DiVincenzo's large two-point shot went into the center of the net, Brunson hit the penalty area with a small throw and scored a hollow shot, Nesmith forced the basket to fight the layup, and played a 2+1, Siakam also had a jumper against the defense. For a period of time after that, Brunson broke out super and blossomed in the middle and long distances, and no one could stop him under the assault basket, scoring 18 points in a single quarter and 28 points in the half.
The Knicks, led by Brunson, completely dominated the situation, extending the lead to more than 15 points, and at halftime, the Knicks led the Pacers by 15 points at 69-54. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Turner's corner three-pointer pierced the heart, opening the third quarter of the game, Hateng cut to the basket and hit a ball, Turner chased the top of the arc and soared into a three-pointer, Hart jumped to the basket, and the strong attack was also successful, seeing the Pacers narrow the gap to less than 10 points, but after a period of time, they completely collapsed, for more than 6 minutes in a row, the Pacers did not score a point, and the Knicks played a wave of 17-0 super offensive, and the difference came to more than 20 points. Shepard's 45-degree three-shot shot finally helped the Pacers get out of the scoring drought, and Haliburton hit a basket throw.
After the third quarter of the game, the Knicks led the Pacers by 21 points 96-75, the final quarter, although the Pacers have not given up, but their overall offensive efficiency continued to decline seriously in the fourth quarter, scoring less than 20 points in a single quarter, the Knicks have completely risen, the more courageous they are, Brunson's personal score came to 40+ again, the difference between the two teams gradually came to more than 30 points, the game entered garbage time early, and the victory and defeat completely lost suspense, in the end, the Knicks beat the Pacers by 30 points 121-91 and seized the Tianwang Mountain, The big score came to 3-2 to win the match point.
In terms of statistics, on the Knicks' side, Brunson had 44 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists, scoring 28 points in the half, breaking the team's all-time playoff half-time scoring record. Hart had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Burks had 18 points and five rebounds, McBride had 17 points and four assists, Hartenstein had seven points, 17 rebounds and five assists, and DiVincenzo had eight points and seven rebounds. On the Pacers' side, Siakam had 22 points and 8 rebounds, Haliburton had 13 points and 5 assists, Turner had 16 points and 5 rebounds, Nesmith had 8 points and 4 rebounds, and Nembhard had 11 points and 4 assists.