Injury Haunts Brunson And Knicks
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Andrew Rosario
Carlisle’s Team Responds To Challenge
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
It was a fun, exciting and crazy ride for the New York Knickerbockers. Unfortunately, in the end, they could not overcome the injuries that turned the team into a mash unit. The nail in the coffin was the injury to guard Jalen Brunson who suffered a fractured left hand early in the third quarter ending his day. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau attempted to put a spark in the team by adding forward OG Anunoby to the starting line-up who had missed the previous 4 games with a left hamstring injury. It lasted only 4:41 minutes as Anunoby reaggravated the leg and was forced to watch the rest of the game from the bench. After getting blown out by New York in game 5, the Indiana Pacers forced a game 7 by taking care of business on their home court in game 6. Their head coach Rick Carlisle issued a challenge to his team prior to the decisive game. “Go rebound the [expletive] ball.” They did that and more in the 130-109 dominating win in front of the sold-out Madison Square Garden raucous crowd sending the #5 Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals against the #1 Boston Celtics with game 1 taking place Tuesday night at Boston’s TD Garden Arena.
The Knicks never saw what hit them from the very beginning as the Pacers outscored them by 12 (39-27) in the opening quarter shooting 76% from the floor and were lights out from 3-point land connect on 78% (7-9). Indy’s guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had struggled in his 3 previous games at MSG was on a mission, leading the Pacers with 14 points.
The onslaught continued in the second quarter with the Pacers going up by as many as 22 points as the Knicks had no answer defensively. Indiana’s torrid shooting continued as they went into halftime with a 15-point lead at 70-55 lead. The Brunson injury occurred when attempted to block a Haliburton lay-up. He struggled up to that point scoring only 17 points on 6 of 17 shooting. Of the injury Brunson said, “I thought I just jammed it, to be honest with you. “I looked down and knew something was wrong.”
The Knicks were done at that point giving up 31 and 29 points in the last 2 quarters. The Pacers set an NBA shooting record making 67.1% of their field goals. They connected on an unheard of 76% in the first half.
Said a very somber Thibodeau afterwards, “We started slow. They’re a good offensive team. We made a run, I thought the end of the second we played pretty good, we got some activity going. Then we made a run in the third and then we fell short. I thought guys gave everything they had and that’s all you can ask. It was a battle all year and there was nothing left to give at the end.”
The New York Knicks players, coaches and organization do not need to hang their collective heads in getting eliminated. They did all they could given the rash of injuries they sustained during the season. Players like Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, Isiah Hartenstein, Ellis Burks and Miles McBride were forced to play extended minutes and showed they could compete with the best.
The New York Knicks won 50 regular season games and was the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference. Stay healthy and they will be one of the top teams next year.
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