The Knicks kept clawing Friday night in Indiana, but the hole was too deep and the finish too familiar. New York fell 106-104 to the Pacers, spending much of the night chasing before nearly dragging itself all the way back.
The first thing that jumps off the page is the whistle. After Wednesday’s loss, when Cleveland attempted 25 free throws to New York’s 11, the Knicks ran into another lopsided first half.
Indiana got to the line 20 times before halftime, while the Knicks managed just three. That kind of gap puts enormous pressure on an offense that has to be almost perfect to keep pace.
The other glaring issue was on the glass. New York usually hangs its hat on rebounding, so losing that battle to Indiana stood out.
Karl-Anthony Towns did his part with 15 rebounds, his 12th double-double in 12 games, but he still out-rebounded the Knicks’ other four starters combined, 11 to 11. Ivica Zubac led the Pacers with 13 rebounds, and their other starters added 19.
Josh Hart’s return should help. The Knicks also haven’t seen much of Towns and Andre Drummond together, and if this team keeps coming up short in an area that should be a strength, Mike Brown may have to change things up. Brown has talked about the need to play with force, and this wasn’t that.
Offensively, New York is still searching for its real identity. The Knicks have scored at least 100 points in 11 of 12 games, which would have sounded impressive years ago.
In this season, it barely counts as a benchmark. Their scoring has been all over the place, though the bigger picture is hard to ignore: in three games against Milwaukee and Chicago, they averaged 128 points.
In their other nine, they’re scoring 104.
That’s a long way from the Knicks teams that ranked third, seventh, fifth and third in offensive rating from the 2023 season through last season. They haven’t looked like themselves yet. Twelve games isn’t late, but it’s getting late to be considered early.
Still, there’s reason to think this is more temporary than permanent. The roster is mostly intact, and the scoring dip could be tied to factors that are coincidental rather than structural.
Maybe Mitchell Robinson really was that important. Maybe this is just a rough stretch.
But with the schedule about to get tougher, this was the kind of game the Knicks needed to use to get unstuck. Instead, they stayed stuck.
The comeback effort had some life to it. In the final minute of the first half, OG Anunoby drove to the basket and seemed to be fouled, but no call came. Mike Brown reacted and picked up a rare technical foul, and then Jalen Brunson and Tyler Kolek trimmed a 14-point deficit to single digits with a jumper and a 3.
Brown was visibly frustrated again early in the second half when the Knicks fell behind by 12 and called a quick timeout. He said very little to the players before walking away and leaving them to sort it out. Towns and Mikal Bridges answered with 3s, Brunson added a floater, Bridges hit another jumper, and suddenly New York was within five.
Then came another swing. In the fourth quarter, the Knicks were down two when Towns was hit with a technical after not getting the whistle he wanted.
Two minutes later, the margin was back to 12. Brunson took some heat from Quenton Jackson in the third and smiled through it, nearly carrying New York to the win anyway.
But this isn’t last season, and the games the Knicks couldn’t lose in the spring are turning into games they can’t win in the fall. Three technicals in a two-point game says plenty about where this team is right now: desperate to grab hold of the season, and still searching for something solid to grab.
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