By Reuters
May 29, 2025 – 9:42 PM PDT
Karl-Anthony Towns knew where the Eastern Conference finals stood as he evaluated the pain in his left knee prior to the Thursday game.
The New York Knicks were staring at elimination, and the consequences supplied Towns with a clear course of action.
“I looked at the game and it was ‘Game 5, do or die,'” Towns said. “That was pretty much all I needed to see.”
Towns and Jalen Brunson were both on top of their games and New York staved off elimination with a convincing 111-94 victory over the visiting Indiana Pacers in Game 5.
The Knicks, who cut their deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, will have the opportunity to tie when the teams meet Saturday night in Indianapolis.
Brunson scored 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting and Towns played through his injury to record 24 points and 13 rebounds as the third-seeded Knicks led wire to wire.
“I just feel like we played better,” Brunson said. “We played to our standards.”
Towns believes the Knicks have to play with the same conviction in Game 6.
“We have no room for error,” Towns said. “Our backs are against the wall and every game is do or die. If we don’t bring that energy or execution, our season will be over.”
Bennedict Mathurin registered 23 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the fourth-seeded Pacers. Pascal Siakam had 15 points, and reserve Obi Toppin added 11.
Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton was largely silent, finishing with eight points, on 2-of-7 shooting, and six assists. Two nights earlier, he had 30 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds and zero turnovers in a stellar Game 4 effort.
“Rough night for me. I’ve got to be better setting the tone and getting downhill,” Haliburton said. “I feel I didn’t do a great job of that. … They picked up the pressure a little bit more and applied more as the game went on. Put it on me. I got to be better in Game 6.”
The Knicks shot 49.4 percent from the field in Game 5, including 8 of 29 (27.6 percent) from 3-point range. Josh Hart had 12 points and 10 rebounds, Mikal Bridges also scored 12 points, and OG Anunoby had 11 points.
Indiana connected on 40.5 percent of its shots and was 10 of 30 from behind the arc while committing 19 turnovers. The Pacers trailed by as many as 22 points.
“It was a bad start. We never had the lead,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “There were a multitude of things going wrong. There were stretches in the game where we got a little bit of traction but never enough.”
The Knicks led by 11 at halftime but pushed the edge to 72-52 on two free throws by Anunoby with 6:32 remaining in the third quarter.
Indiana displayed life with a 12-2 run to move within 74-64 on two foul shots by Mathurin with 4:09 left in the period.
Brunson had six points, including a four-point play, as New York answered with 12 straight points. Miles “Deuce” McBride hit a jumper to cap it and make it 86-64 with 2:12 remaining.
The Pacers responded with a 9-2 burst before Bridges sank a 12-footer with 1.8 seconds left to give the Knicks a 90-73 advantage entering the final stanza.
New York led by 20 in the fourth before Indiana scored nine of the next 10 points to creep within 96-84 with 8:15 remaining. However, Hart answered with consecutive baskets and Bridges hit a jumper to make it an 18-point margin with 5:41 remaining.
Towns’ driving basket made it 106-90 with 2:44 left, and Carlisle waved the white flag by removing Haliburton, Mathurin and Siakam from the contest.
“We’ve been a resilient team all year,” Siakam said. “We’ve shown all year we can fight and we can bounce back. Our strength is sticking together as a team …
“It’s always been us against the world, and that’s not going to change. Nobody wanted us here, but every barrier that was there, we broke that. We’re up 3-2 in the series and we’re going to go back home.”
Towns had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the first half as New York led 56-45 at the break. Siakam had nine points in the half for the Pacers.
Indiana trailed by two early in the second quarter before New York rattled off 14 of the next 16 points to take a 48-34 lead with 5:07 left in the half. The 14-point edge was the Knicks’ largest before intermission.
–Field Level Media