PACERS ARE A BETTER TEAM WITH A BETTER COACH, AS THIBODEAU TATTERS KNICKS
Game 2 wasn’t about Haliburton or prayers as much as Pascal Siakam, who scored 39 points, and Rick Carlisle, who showed coaching expertise unlike a Knicks rival whose players caved in late — again
This wasn’t history. This was savage reality, leaving scars on a city that loves to dish sucker punches but can’t handle more wreckage in Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are down 0-2 because the Indiana Pacers are a better team with a better coach, because they don’t require a ferocious comeback and a Tyrese Haliburton choke sign to win every night. They only need themselves, apparently, as America is just getting to know them.
Rick Carlisle is a master classman in an arena with Tom Thibodeau, who might make less sense next season than Dan Hurley. Pascal Siakam has won an NBA championship and scored 39 points, saying the magic words after a 114-109 victory in Game 2: “That’s what I love about this team. Nobody is picking us to win these games. We know that. We have our team, and that’s all we have. We don’t care who scores. We just want to win.”
The theater was quieter than it was two nights earlier, with Celebrity Row emptying into darkness as another Knicks season looks lost. Is it worth trying to win a title for the first time in 52 years when the culture is so damned torturous? Jalen Brunson tried to make a rally, but his three-pointer to tie the game was launched too deep. He was not Haliburton, who can tell players who disrespected him — such negativity has vanished — that the Pacers are 10-2 in the postseason with wins in their last six road games. They beat up Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Cavaliers and will not become the first team to win two away games and lose the conference finals.
Again, the Knicks cracked late. It’s the usual sorry excuse for Thibodeau, who routinely plays starters too many minutes. Brunson, at times, looked spent. Mikal Bridges played 45 minutes. "Going into the fourth quarter it's a tie ballgame. We've just got to make better plays, more winning plays,” said Thibodeau, who benched Karl Anthony-Towns in the fourth quarter. “We did not find a way to win.”
The Indianapolis 500 and Caitlin Clark are secondary stories. The Pacers are more rigid than the competition, led by Haliburton, who sat on the end of the U.S. Olympic team bench and wondered about public life after winning a gold medal. He said he was being “clowned” last summer. When the season started, he said, “I'm like, ‘I’m going to go now. I’m going to get back at y'all.’ ’’
Getting back is telling New York to choke off. “Baptism by fire, almost,” Haliburton said. “To be in these situations where obviously they matter on such a bigger scale is important for me. Experience is the best teacher. My group wants me to take those shots. My coaching staff wants me to take those shots. Our organization wants me to take those shots. I think we're at the point where our fans want me to take that shot. Everybody's living and dying with it at that point. That gives me a lot of confidence.”
He has the support of Carlisle, who is 65 and trying to win his second title as a coach. “It’s an emotional thing. It’s not a big deal. Tyrese has earned the right to do whatever he wants,” he said of the choke gag. Carlisle is a life adventurer, adjusting to social media because his daughter taught him the tricks. He learned to fly planes so he could visit his parents in upstate New York. He has played the piano since college and loves jazz.
The players enjoy the scene in central Indiana. Carlisle left Dallas when Mark Cuban dumped general manager Donnie Nelson, bringing him peace in Indianapolis beyond an organization that traded Luka Doncic and couldn’t resign Brunson. The Pacers are very well-coached, which could be a factor in the Finals if they play Oklahoma City, led by 40-year-old Mark Daigneault.
The Pacers didn’t play well in the first half. They discussed their plight at halftime. “Preparation and experience,” Haliburton said. “We’re prepared for these moments. We have been involved in a lot of funky games throughout the year and figured out a way to win in so many different ways. After you take a game like Game 1, you understand you're coming into the game where they're probably a little frustrated, they don't feel like they should have lost Game 1. They feel like they gave it away. We knew they were going to amp up the physicality and play with some pace. I think the biggest thing for us as a group was don't wait for them to throw the first punch, let's throw the first punch, and roll from there.”
He rolled with Siakam. “That's why we brought him here,” Haliburton said. “That's what he's here to do. He can get a bucket in so many different ways. We just kept feeding him, and I thought he did a great job of making big shot after big shot after big shot. Killing momentum. When you're in an environment like this, the crowd's getting into it, a lot of those shots can be backbreakers.”
“A phenomenal job,” Carlisle said. “It’s a quiet 39 points. It really was.”
The crowd back home will be sad, after the death of Colts owner Jim Irsay, and also gleeful after Haliburton’s shot and a Game 2 reminder. “You cannot assume going home is going to be easier,’’ Carlisle said.
It should be. The Knicks are burned out. Even LeBron James had a comment about Haliburton, writing, “Where the lames who said he was overrated??!!”
After one recent game, Haliburton shouted, “OVERRATE THAT!!!”
The lames are in bed with the Pacers. The lames loathe the Knicks and even Ben Stiller and wonder if Hurley would listen in a few days. He grew up across the Hudson River. Why not? How many more decades are fans supposed to wait?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.