INDIANAPOLIS — Look, you can shape the narrative all you want. The truth is, there is only one team facing elimination Friday night and it’s not the Knicks. There’s only one team that can truly ill afford to bring anything less than its A-Game and it’s the Pacers, who trail this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal three games to two.
“I know this,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said in the wake of his team’s 121-91 loss to the Knicks Tuesday night. “We’d better be a whole lot better Friday than we were tonight.”
So, no: the Knicks don’t need to win Game 6. They know that no matter what happens Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse there will be at least one more basketball game for them in 2024. They know that, worst case, they get another game against the Pacers and that game will be Sunday at Madison Square Garden. As cushions go it’s not a bad one to have in a pinch.
The Knicks, of course, should respectfully decline the invitation to keep this series alive even one second longer than it has to be.
If it’s not a matter of urgency for them, then it’s one of practicality.
Right now, things have been set up perfectly for them — or at least as optimally as the law allows a month into the two-plus month NBA playoff grind. The schedule afforded them an extra day, which is good for weary legs, even if the Knicks can now state with confidence (thanks to Alec Burks) that they’re back in the business of an eight-man rotation. If you believe the Knicks looked worn down when they were getting slaughtered in Game 4 last Sunday — and didn’t simply play extremely poorly — then that’s a reason to believe they can close this out on Friday.
If they don’t?
Well there’s a classic old story out of New York’s sporting past, when the 1986 Mets played a Game 6 against the Astros up 3-2 in a best-of-seven. But to a man, across all these years, those Mets have insisted that they played that game — in their minds, at least — like it was a Game 7, because if they’d lost, they’d have to face Mike Scott in the real Game 7. And Mike Scott had reached a rarefied level of unhittable-ness that fall of ’86 that few pitchers ever reach. And was living, rent-free, in the Mets’ heads. It took 16 innings and about nine hours, but the Mets won that Game 6.
The Pacers don’t have Reggie Miller, Mel Daniels and George McGinniss waiting in reserve for the Knicks for Game 7. But they will have the bonus of a quick turnaround (Friday’s game won’t end till near 11 p.m. Eastern, and Sunday’s would be at 3:30 p.m.), which absolutely would be a burden on already overburdened legs. And, well … Game 7s are weird. Game 7s are unpredictable. It’s hard to believe the Pacers would offer up a repeat of their Game 5 no-show. Game 7s can be terrifying.
Game 7s, in truth are for the poets and the lyricists and the romantics. They aren’t for players. Not ones who have options. Like closing out in Game 6.
“The biggest thing is focusing on the little things,” said Jalen Brunson, who looked rejuvenated and reinvigorated in Game 5 after looking anything but last weekend in this city. “Obviously you want to run and get stops and get easy baskets and execute on offense and help each other on defense. But the 50-50 balls, the hustle plays, the charges, everything that’s difficult to do is the things you have to focus on.”
The Knicks had a chance to make things easier on themselves in the first series of these playoffs, too. They led Philadelphia three games to one, and had a six-point lead with under 30 seconds to play in Game 5, and wound up having to trek back down the Turnpike and settle matters two nights later in a nerve-jangling Game 6. They know they can recover if they have to, if they can’t take care of their business Friday night
But if you can avoid it, you want to avoid it.
“This is totally different,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said when asked about the similarities between this series and the last. “We’ve got to be locked into exactly what we have to do against Indiana. Philly has nothing to do with this. The last game has nothing to do with this. It’s being locked into this game. Just be ready for this game.”
It’s the Pacers whose backs are against the wall. But the Knicks know all it’ll take to join them there is a 2 ¹/₂-hour regression. They’d rather not share the view.
