Carlisle Rips Ref’s In Loss To The Knicks
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Samori Benjamin
The Indiana Pacers blew a golden opportunity Wednesday night with Knicks leading scorer Jalen Brunson off the floor for most of the first half. Brunson suffered an injury to his foot. When he exited the game with 3:23 remaining in the first quarter Indiana held a 24-17 lead. Without Brunson in the game Indiana was only able to push their lead to ten by halftime. Brunson retuned to the game in the second half and the Knicks rallied to win 130-121. Indiana is now down two games to none in the series and have to win four of the next five games to win this series.
Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton bounced back from a six-point performance in the first game of the series to score a game high 34 points to go along with nine assists. Former Knick Obi Toppin was the second leading scorer for the Pacers, coming off the bench to score 20 points in 19 minutes. Once Brunson returned to start the third quarter Indiana was outscored 36-18 and entered the fourth quarter down by eight. “They did what they do, they played really hard, they were on the glass, they were getting stops,” Haliburton said of the Knicks after the game. “They just had a really good third quarter, still scored the ball well. We just didn’t match that. 18 points in the third, that’s not us.”
Haliburton has been dealing with a back issue in this series after already coming into the series with a hamstring concern after a severe injury to his hamstring earlier in the season. “We felt like we should have won this game and we felt like we should have won last game,” said Haliburton postgame. “But I feel like with the way the playoffs work, once you start to sit on ‘damn we should have won that game’ it’s going to mess you up moving forward. I feel like everything happens for a reason so I’m not really tripping. We got to be better in game Three and we will be better in Game Three. They always say a series doesn’t start until the road team wins. So, we are going back to Indy and obviously we love our chances there, so I’m not tripping.”
Game Three is Friday night in Indiana with game 4 Sunday afternoon.
