Despite Rick Carlisle's complaints, Pacers know officials didn’t cost them Game 2
NEW YORK -- T.J. McConnell is the son of one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Western Pennsylvania history in his father, Tim, and nephew to an Olympic gold medalist in Suzie McConnell-Serio, who won state championships as a girls' high school coach and led a college women's team to the NCAA Tournament and a WNBA team to the playoffs.
Because of that lifetime spent around coaches, McConnell knows very well the strategic motivation behind what Carlisle did in the waning moments of the Pacers' 130-121 loss to the Knicks on Wednesday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals and what he did in his post-game press conference.
Carlisle drew two technical fouls and was ejected in the last 45 seconds of the game for arguing with officials to the point that his assistants had to restrain him, then he talked at length in the press conference about the extent to which he did not believe the Pacers were getting a fair shake from officials this series. He went so far as to suggest a bias against small-market teams in favor of the Knicks -- who play in the nation's biggest market -- and said the Pacers would be submitting clips to the league about calls they believe were unfair even though it means the Knicks will get to see them too.
McConnell knows this is what Carlisle thinks he has to do in his position to try to assure that the Pacers get a more favorable whistle going forward as they trail 2-0 in the series as it moves to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday at 7 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. But as much as McConnell understands and appreciates the effort, and even may agree that the Pacers were deserving of more calls, he also recognizes that if the Pacers believed they had only lost Games 1 and 2 because of officiating, they'd be lying to themselves.
"We love Rick showing that type of energy on the court," McConnell said. "It's unfortunate that he got ejected, but that's not the feeling we have in the locker room. We're not gonna sit here and blame officials. We gotta be better. It's just that simple. They smashed us on the boards again tonight and just brought more energy than we did. We gotta fix that."
Indeed, for whatever disagreements the Pacers may have about the erroneously-called kicked ball and the questionable illegal screen in Game 1 or the overturned double-dribble or various non-calls against the Knicks in Game 2, they return to Indianapolis fully aware that they were outplayed and outhustled at Madison Square Garden by a team using a small rotation and playing its starters Ironman minutes. Veteran wing Josh Hart played the full 48 minutes in each of the first two games of the series, sharpshooting guard Donte DiVincenzo has been over 43 minutes in each of the first two games and All-Star Jalen Brunson and defensive ace O.G. Anunoby would have been if injuries hadn't taken them off the floor for significant portions of Game 2.
However the Knicks are the team playing as if they have fresher legs than the Pacers, who have used a nine-man rotation. The Knicks have gotten stronger, more physical and more relentless as the games have gone on. In Game 1, they outscored the Pacers 72-62 after halftime. In Game 2, they won the third quarter 36-18 and the second half 67-48.
"It's just the willpower," McConnell said. "It seems like they really just wanted it more tonight with their energy, their crowd got into it. We just have to kinda pick it up in the second half because we know they can come in waves."
It may have felt like the Pacers were hit with a wave in the third quarter when Brunson returned after missing the final 3:32 in the first quarter and the entire second quarter with a sore right foot. He broke a string of four straight games of 40 points or more, but he still posted 29 points on 11 of 18 shooting with 24 points coming in the second half. As was the case in Game 1 when he scored 43, the Pacers couldn't keep him from getting to the rim or from getting at least decent looks on mid-range jumpers.
"He's one of the most elite at getting to his spots, sore right foot or not," said McConnell, who guarded Brunson for part of the game. “The guy is just a really good basketball player and obviously a tough cover for anyone in this league."
The Pacers started sending traps to try to take the ball out of Brunson's hands and he obliged by getting it into the hands of others. Putting two bodies on Brunson required sharp rotations but the Pacers repeatedly left sharpshooter Donte DiVincenzo open. DiVincenzo hit 283 3-pointers this year -- the third-highest figure in the NBA -- at a 40.1% clip, so the open looks led to 28 points on 10 of 20 shooting, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
"It's something we gotta watch, something we gotta figure out obviously," Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "He's getting a lot of those looks right now out of our rotations. We've gotta be better there. I missed one in that corner down the stretch. We just gotta do a better job of rotating. We're trying to throw different things at JB as best we can and just trying to scramble out of that and figure it out."
The Pacers had defensive problems beyond those. Prior to his hamstring injury, which could end up being a serious problem, Anunoby scored 28 points on 10 of 19 shooting including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. All six of his 2-pointers came within 2 1/2 feet of the rim, as he was having an easy time getting there either on drives, cuts or transition rim runs. Hart was again a problem with 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting to go with seven assists. The Knicks shot 57% from the floor, scored 62 points in the paint and posted a gaudy 1.37 points per possession. They were particularly excellent in that third quarter when they made 14 of 21 shots including 4 of 7 3-pointers.
Bad defense led to bad offense in that quarter as the Pacers made just 8 of 24 shots including 1 of 7 3-pointers in the third. They scored at least 30 points in each of the other three quarters and shot better than 60% in the second and fourth but those struggles were too much for the Pacers to recover from.
"In that third quarter we just missed a few looks," Haliburton said. "I thought we played a little frantic. We just have to do a better job of not letting the rope slip when things are getting bad. We let that happen in the third quarter."
As McConnell said, they also let the Knicks dominate on the glass for a second straight game. It was an obvious point of emphasis coming into the series with the Knicks having led the NBA in rebounding percentage and offensive rebounding percentage in the regular season and grabbing a first-round best 37% of their offensive rebounds in their series against the 76ers. In each of the first two games, the Pacers won the rebounding battle in the first half only to be dominated after halftime.
In Game 1, the Pacers were up 24-21 on the boards at halftime and had given up just two offensive rebounds and three second-chance points. After the break, the Knicks won the rebounding battle 19-8 and turned six offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points against the Pacers' two. In Game 2, the gap was even bigger. The Pacers were up 21-18 on the boards at the break with eight offensive rebounds to the Knicks' four and 12 second-chance points to New York's four. In the second half, the Knicks outrebounded the Pacers 26-13 with eight offensive boards to Indiana's six and 13 second-chance points to Indiana's 10.
"It's been a focal point for us that it's gotta be a collective effort on the glass," McConnell said. "They keep working and working and working. You just have to give them credit. ... You think you have them boxed out and they just keep going and going and going. We just have to flat-out be better."
And though they would like to have a whistle that helps matters at home for Games 3 and 4, they know that at this rate that won't be enough to save them.
"At the end of the day, we got outplayed," Haliburton said. "We were right there to win the game. Would I like more consistency? Yeah, but let's not pretend like that's the only reason we lost. We just didn't play good enough."
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'We got outplayed': Pacers lost Game 2 to Knicks on their own
