The Knicks’ Game 7 defense was historic. And not in a good way.
New York’s strength all season, it cratered to end their postseason.
They were bounced from the Eastern Conference semifinals by Indiana in a horrid 130-109 loss at the sold-out Garden on Sunday.
The stunned crowd numbered 19,812. It only felt like that’s how many wide-open looks the injury-riddled Knicks allowed.
They let Indiana shoot 67.1 percent overall, the highest percentage in NBA playoff history.
And that’s after they tightened up in the second half, their early defense even worse than that.
“They made shots. They’re a very good offensive team. You’ve got to challenge their shots, and we didn’t challenge them as much as we should have,” Tom Thibodeau said. “When you’re shorthanded, we know we have to play with great intensity all the time to give ourselves a chance to win. If you fall short of that … and sometimes the ball goes in and yours doesn’t.”
Everything Indiana put up went in, especially early on.
What had been a stout defense finally snapped under the weight of injuries.
The Knicks let the Pacers hit nine of their first 10 attempts, and 16 of 21 in a first quarter they saw them fall behind 39-27.
Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points in that opening period, setting a tone the Knicks never reversed.
They kept letting the point guard get to his spots over and over for a slide-step 3-pointer they knew was coming, but didn’t have enough left in the tank to stop.
The Knicks were allowing 80 percent shooting — 24 of 30 — with 5:33 left in the first half, and it was 76.3 percent by the time they hit intermission.
It was the best shooting half of any postseason game on record.
“[It came down to] making and missing shots. I would say that’s a tough team, a team that’s very efficient on the offensive end. So like I said, you’ve got to give them credit,” Josh Hart said of the Pacers’ performance. “No excuses. They came out. They played hard. They had opportunities like I said to fold, to quit, to pack it in, and they didn’t. So we’ve gotta give them credit. They played well.”
Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo, who scored a game-high 39 points himself on 9 of 15 from 3-point range, could only tip his cap to Indiana’s scalding shooting.
“Yeah. You always have to tip your cap,” DiVincenzo said. “That’s a long, hard-fought series. You know they came ready to play.”
