George Hill tried to call timeout as he was falling out of bounds, but the official didn’t realize and instead called a foul Amar’e Stoudemire, who protested to no avail.
Sorry, Knicks, nobody is stopping this runaway series – at least not since Frank Vogel made that mistake in Game 2.
The Pacers beat New York, 93-82, tonight to take a 3-1 series lead. If anyone thinks this is a fluke, they haven’t been paying attention.
The Knicks changed their starting lineup, but not their results. Kenyon Martin started for Pablo Prigioni in an attempt to match Indiana’s physicality, but the switch didn’t result in much more than a few comical fouls that illustrated how overmatched New York is even when going big.
The matchups in this series play to Indiana’s favor, but simply, the Pacers are better than the Knicks. Even in the regular season, Indiana had a better Pythagorean win percentage – historically a better indicator of postseason success than actual win percentage – than New York. And despite their tweaks, the Knicks, who trailed by as many as 18, couldn’t overcome that.
The Knicks were a mediocre rebounding team during the regular season, and they were outrebounded, 54-36, tonight. The Pacers are an elite rebounding team, and New York just can’t keep up.
The Knicks took great care of the ball during the regular season, and they had just nine turnovers tonight. But that’s partially the result of an offense that doesn’t take enough calculated risks to find good shots.
The Knicks set NBA records for 3-pointers made and attempts during the regular season, and they attempted 28 tonight. But a game after taking a season-low 11, New York forced too many long looks, shooting just 8-for-28 (28.6 percent).
Carmelo Anthony led the NBA in scoring, and he led the Knicks with 24 points tonight. Of the 11 players who scored 20 points per game and reached the playoffs, Melo had the worst-shooting teammates, and that didn’t change tonight, either. J.R. Smith (7-for-22), Iman Shumpert (0-for-6), Martin (0-3) and Jason Kidd (0-for-2 to push his scoreless streak to eight games) were particularly loathsome for a group that shot 34 percent.
The Pacers, on the other hand, had excellent contributions from all their starters. George Hill scored 26 points on 14 shots. Paul George (18 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists) and David West (10 points and 10 rebounds) had double-doubles. Roy Hibbert (11 rebounds and three blocks) played splendid defense. Even Lance Stephenson, the fifth starter, played about as well as any Knick aside from Melo.
As I wrote after Game 3, Indiana has a stronger identity than New York right now – and the Knicks are straying even further from theirs. New York hasn’t used a single lineup in all 10 of its playoff games, and tonight’s starters – Raymond Felton, Shumpert, Melo, Martin and Tyson Chandler – hadn’t played together all season.
Shumpert played just 4:49 and missed all four of his shots before Smith replaced him, the earliest either team has gone to its bench in this series. But Smith picked up right where Shumpert left off and missed his first four shots, too.
The Knicks can keep tweaking, but the fundamental truths of this series haven’t changed.
