Pacers 'embarrassing' performance in Game 5 a reminder they're still learning lessons

NEW YORK -- Rick Carlisle knew before Game 5 even started what would decide it and what the Pacers would have to do to win. If they were going to leave Madison Square Garden with a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals, they had to be more physical than the Knicks on their own court with the Garden electric as it tends to become when there's meaningful basketball being played there in mid-May. The Pacers had to win on the boards, they had to win in the paint, they had to grab every loose ball available and they had to not get pushed around.

"Right now it's pretty simple," Carlisle said in his pre-game press conference. "If you don't hit somebody and go get the ball, you're gonna lose."

And when he returned to his table and microphone in the John Condon Press Room several hours later, he had unwanted confirmation that it really was that simple. The Pacers didn't hit nearly enough somebodies and didn't go get the ball on nearly enough occasions, so they did lose and in nearly as decisive fashion as they won in Game 4. The Knicks hammered the Pacers 121-91 on Tuesday in the Garden after the Pacers had defeated the Knicks 121-89 in Game 4 on Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. So instead of heading into Friday's Game 6 in Indianapolis with a chance to close the series, the Pacers will have their playoff lives on the line, needing a win to force a Game 7 back in Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

They missed out on a golden opportunity to put themselves in position to win a clincher on their home court, and New York fans let them know it by chanting "Knicks in six!" among other less printable phrases in the fourth quarter when the game had been decided.

"Very poor effort, obviously," Carlisle said. "Lost every quarter. Got annihilated on loose balls and rebounds. ... We all own it, but very embarrassing. Very embarrassing and a hard lesson."

It was, of course, a reminder that these Pacers are still learning lessons, and yet another moment of many of this season when they suffered a hard landing back on Earth right when it seemed like their trajectory seemed to sending them somewhere much higher.

Talk had started to materialize even among the NBA's national voices that maybe the Knicks had run out of gas and that the Pacers might cruise into the Eastern Conference finals with another series win over a short-handed team. But as Carlisle said even in his post-game press conference following the Pacers' win on Sunday "New York is a team that has shown that it has an indomitable will to compete and rise above anything people say they can't do." The Knicks, led by 44 points from the undeniable Jalen Brunson, showed they still have that will.

The Pacers have plenty of will themselves, which is why they haven't had a losing streak longer than four games all season. However, they also haven't won more than six in a row and they had just one winning streak longer than three games.

They struggle with consistency and with stacking successes on top of each other. That didn't keep them from winning 47 regular-season games, beating the Bucks in the first round or rallying back from a 2-0 deficit to tie this series. But there's still a level of maturity they haven't obtained -- especially in the playoffs -- and they remain exactly the kind of team that can win by 32 on a Sunday, then lose by 30 on Tuesday.

Even when their coach spends two days explaining in explicit detail what it will take to win.

"There's no excuses, but all the guys on our roster, I believe it's the first time they've been in a Game 5 tied 2-2 and going on the road," Carlisle said. "So you learn a lot in those situations very quickly. ... This is a different circumstance. As a playoff series progresses, it's going to be harder and harder."

As Carlisle predicted, the Knicks were relentless when it came to going after the basketball. The Pacers weren't nearly as relentless in either stopping them or getting it themselves, and that created a yawning chasm in the rebounding battle that shaped the entire game on both ends of the floor.

The Knicks grabbed 53 rebounds to the Pacers' 29 and 20 offensive rebounds to the Pacers' five offensive boards, giving the Knicks a bonkers. .454 offensive rebounding percentage. The Knicks turned those offensive rebounds into 26 second-chance points, which helped them post 1.23 points per possession on a night when they shot a modest 46.5% from the floor.

Without defensive rebounds, meanwhile, the Pacers' hyperkinetic offense couldn't even get started. They posted season lows -- in either regular or post-season play -- in points, field goals made and field goals attempted. The Knicks took 101 shots to their 72 and made 47 to their 31, silencing the NBA's most explosive and second-most efficient offense in the regular season.

"Where we excel in so well is getting out in transition and running," All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "It's difficult to do that when you're taking the ball out of the net every play. Really, I think the biggest thing that hurt us offensively was the rebounding because we never played in transition if that makes sense. Those two go hand in hand. The better we can do rebounding the ball, the better we can do in transition."

The Knicks did it despite starting just one player over 6-4. With forward and defensive ace OG Anunoby out for a third straight game with a strained left hamstring, the Knicks decided to go with essentially a four-guard lineup, moving 6-1 guard Miles McBride into a starting role and 6-8 forward Precious Achiuwa out of one.

"A smaller lineup, intuitively, you would think it would give us a better chance to do well on the boards," Carlisle said. "But just their overall level of fight in this game was superior to what ours was. That's the bottom line."

Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein brought lots of fight. The 7-footer had a lot of rebounding responsibility considering what he was surrounded by, but he responded with 17 rebounds including 12 on the offensive glass. Pacers center Myles Turner grabbed just five of his own to go with 16 points and acknowledged responsibility for letting Hartenstein get rolling.

"I know I didn't do my job and I need to personalize that going into the next game," Turner told reporters. "I take full ownership, and it starts with me down there on a lot of that stuff."

But it certainly doesn't end with him. Josh Hart, the Knicks' 6-4 starting power forward, grabbed 11 rebounds. Donte DiVincenzo, the starting 3 man on this night at 6-4 had seven including three offensive rebounds, one of which he slammed down for a tip dunk and practically did a pull-up on the rim. Meanwhile, no one on the Pacers roster grabbed more than eight. Forward Pascal Siakam was the only player with more than five and he grabbed three of their five offensive rebounds himself.

"It's just the cold-blooded desire to go get the ball," Carlisle said. "To make contact with somebody and go get the ball. That's what it is. And we did not do it, and so we paid a heavy price."

To make matters worse, the Pacers also turned the ball over 18 times and the Knicks turned those giveaways into 24 points. So on top of giving the Knicks multiple opportunities to score, they gave away possessions of their own without getting a shot up.

"Bad situations," Carlisle said. "Some poor decisions. This is how things can snowball when you're not doing the little things well. When we're not running hard, spacing, finding bodies, rebounding the ball. There are a lot of things that are connected to a lot of things."

Just as the Pacers are still the same team that can follow a 32-point win with a 30-point loss, they are also the sort of team that can move on from that 30-point loss like it never happened. They haven't lost at Gainbridge Fieldhouse since March 18. They haven't had a three-game losing streak since Jan. 30-Feb. 2 -- when Haliburton was on a minutes restriction -- and that was also the last time they had consecutive losses that included a home game. For as much of a missed opportunity as Tuesday's game was, they can still wake up Friday at home and be a totally different team.

"Kudos to them," Haliburton said. "They had a great night. They're a good defensive team. They did what they were supposed to do. Now it's time for us to go home and do what we're supposed to do."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Very poor effort': Pacers take embarrassing loss in Game 5