Siakam shines, Knicks stumble: Indiana’s playoff storm hits Madison hard

There was no explosive comeback this time – no dramatic buzzer-beaters, no impossible stats to etch into the record books. No fireworks, no head-spinning avalanche of points. But the New York Knicks lost again at Madison Square Garden. If Game 1 felt like a strange anomaly, difficult to draw firm conclusions from beyond the 0-1 itself, Game 2 (a 114-109 win for Indiana) was a far more logical, measured night of basketball – and the result was the same. In a game stripped of theatrics, the Indiana Pacers won again. And they head back home with a 2-0 lead that puts them, quite clearly, on the brink of their first NBA Finals since 2000. Back then, it was the Knicks they had to eliminate to get there. Now, history is threatening to repeat itself.

In conference finals history, teams with a 2-0 lead hold a 76-6 record. Crucially, all six of those defeats came to teams that had home court advantage. No one has come back from 0-2 after losing the first two games at home.

The Pacers still carry the underdog label in some circles. But for those clinging to that belief – and certainly not Rick Carlisle or his players – the numbers are becoming impossible to ignore. Since the turn of the year, Indiana have played 60 games and won 44 of them (44-16), a win rate of over 73%. Projected over a full season, that’s 60-plus wins – in line with the Celtics, and just behind the Thunder and Cavaliers.

In these playoffs, they’re 10-1. That includes six consecutive road victories – all three in their semifinal against Cleveland, and now two in New York to open the East finals. This isn’t a fun surprise or a Cinderella story. These Pacers – who made the same stage last year and gave Boston a tougher test than the 4-0 sweep suggested – are one of the NBA’s best teams, peaking at exactly the right time.

In a pivotal, tone-setting Game 2, Indiana won the details. They had more ways to beat a Knicks team that once again collapsed in the fourth quarter – the very territory where they’d thrived earlier in the postseason. The Pacers are deeper, more balanced, better in transition, and their defense, though unspectacular, functions more cohesively than it might appear. The Knicks had their moments – notably a strong second quarter – but were outscored 29-19 in the final frame, slipping from 81-81 to 100-110 before a late, desperate rally. Even then, Jalen Brunson had a chance to tie it with a three after two free throws from Aaron Nesmith – the Game 1 hero – but it was Myles Turner who iced the game with two more from the line, part of his 13-point fourth quarter.

The best version of a key star finally arrived. Pascal Siakam, now 31 and often forgotten as the second-best player on Toronto’s 2019 title team alongside Kawhi Leonard, stepped up with the kind of night that can swing a series. He finished with 39 points – 16 of them in the first quarter – on 15-of-23 shooting, adding 5 rebounds. Until now, he’d had a solid but unspectacular postseason, dealing with tough matchups like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Evan Mobley, and now his former Raptors teammate OG Anunoby. This was his breakout.

Tyrese Haliburton took time to get going but finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists, showing his class and composure throughout. And in the ever-rotating cast of Indiana’s supporting actors, Ben Sheppard emerged to play a vital role. The second-year guard not only hit a key three in the fourth but was also assigned to Jalen Brunson on defense, doing far more than his modest six points suggest. Bennedict Mathurin, still raw, lost minutes in the rotation. But Carlisle always finds a way – the Pacers keep discovering combinations that work.

Indiana’s composure and collective IQ have dragged the Knicks into a maze they can’t escape on instinct alone. Brunson scored 36 (though on 13-of-27 shooting) and is averaging 39.5 points and 8 assists in the series. Mikal Bridges added 20 – 17 of them in the second half – and Mitchell Robinson was once again a mountainous presence in the paint, even after rolling his ankle in the final quarter. But there was no flow, no link between defense and offense, and one can’t help but look back at that blown lead in Game 1’s final minutes as the turning point. A win that slipped through their fingers now looms large as a tragic misstep.

And it goes deeper. That supposedly lethal “death lineup” of Brunson, Anunoby, Bridges, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns is a staggering -50 in all playoff minutes together. Tom Thibodeau has no answer for how to sustain a defense with Brunson and Towns at the core. Every advanced metric favors Robinson and implicates Towns – who spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench. That decision alone spoke volumes, especially with the Knicks in need of scoring. The long-standing question around Towns – how to construct a viable defense when he plays his preferred offensive role – is tearing the Knicks apart from the inside.

That euphoric eruption at Madison in their Game 7 win over the Celtics now feels distant. The confusion, the sense of slipping from puddle to puddle until you’re soaked through – it’s exactly the trap Indiana sets for its opponents. That’s what makes them great. That’s why they’re 10-1 in the 2025 playoffs. That’s why they’re two wins – with the next two in Indianapolis – from their first Finals in 25 years.

No coincidence. No fluke. Just a team that’s figured itself out at exactly the right time.

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New York Knicks

Stats

5 Precious Achiuwa
8 OG Anunoby
25 Mikal Bridges
11 Jalen Brunson
4 Pacôme Dadiet
3 Josh Hart
55 Ariel Hukporti
13 Tyler Kolek
2 Miles McBride
1 Cameron Payne
23 Mitchell Robinson
44 Landry Shamet
32 Karl-Anthony Towns
17 P.J. Tucker
0 Delon Wright

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
5 Precious Achiuwa	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
8 OG Anunoby	35	16	5	1	4	1	1	2	0	2/2	4/5	2/6	0	2	0
25 Mikal Bridges	45	20	7	1	6	2	2	2	0	1/2	8/15	1/3	0	3	0
11 Jalen Brunson	38	36	3	0	3	11	3	1	0	5/5	8/15	5/12	0	3	0
4 Pacôme Dadiet	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
3 Josh Hart	28	6	6	2	4	1	2	1	1	2/2	2/3	0/0	0	3	0
55 Ariel Hukporti	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
13 Tyler Kolek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
2 Miles McBride	25	5	1	0	1	2	2	0	0	0/0	1/1	1/4	0	3	0
1 Cameron Payne	9	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0/0	0/1	0/2	0	0	0
23 Mitchell Robinson	29	6	9	4	5	0	0	0	3	2/4	2/3	0/0	0	2	0
44 Landry Shamet	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
32 Karl-Anthony Towns	27	20	7	2	5	0	1	0	0	6/6	4/9	2/5	0	3	0
17 P.J. Tucker	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
0 Delon Wright	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0

Indiana Pacers

Stats

13 Tony Bradley
3 Thomas Bryant
12 Johnny Furphy
0 Tyrese Haliburton
16 James Johnson
0 Bennedict Mathurin
9 T.J. McConnell
2 Andrew Nembhard
23 Aaron Nesmith
26 Ben Sheppard
43 Pascal Siakam
1 Obi Toppin
33 Myles Turner
5 Jarace Walker

Stats

	Min	Pts	TR	OR	DR	Ast	Los	Rec	Blk	S1	S2	S3	RF	CF	Val
13 Tony Bradley	8	1	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	1/2	0/0	0/0	0	1	0
3 Thomas Bryant	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	2	0
12 Johnny Furphy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
0 Tyrese Haliburton	35	14	8	2	6	11	1	2	0	1/2	2/6	3/10	0	2	0
16 James Johnson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
0 Bennedict Mathurin	10	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0/0	0/2	0/0	0	0	0
9 T.J. McConnell	14	10	2	1	1	4	1	0	0	0/0	5/6	0/2	0	2	0
2 Andrew Nembhard	36	12	3	0	3	2	0	1	0	0/0	3/6	2/2	0	2	0
23 Aaron Nesmith	32	12	7	2	5	1	2	1	1	2/2	2/4	2/3	0	4	0
26 Ben Sheppard	12	6	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	2/3	0	2	0
43 Pascal Siakam	32	39	5	0	5	3	1	1	0	6/8	12/18	3/5	0	4	0
1 Obi Toppin	19	4	2	0	2	2	1	0	0	0/0	2/5	0/1	0	2	0
33 Myles Turner	32	16	3	1	2	1	1	1	2	5/7	4/6	1/4	0	2	0
5 Jarace Walker	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0