Why the Pacers defense shut down Knicks, Jalen Brunson but didn’t want to talk about it

INDIANAPOLIS -- Rick Carlisle seemed to have driven home the point immediately after the Pacers' 121-89 blowout win over the Knicks in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals that his team shouldn’t take the victory as a sign of the state of the series. As brilliant as their defensive effort was, he didn't want them believing they suddenly have all the answers just because they gave up a season-scoring low.

Every player who spoke in a post-game press conference or in the locker room Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse mentioned the need to quickly move on from Game 4 before they play Game 5 at Madison Square Garden at 8 p.m. on Tuesday with the series tied 2-2.

Carlisle certainly doesn't want his players thinking that they own Knicks stars Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart after the the three former Villanova stars combined to shoot 10 of 36 from the floor and 1 of 13 from 3-point range. He doesn't want them thinking the Knicks will be any less relentless on the glass after the Pacers won the rebounding battle 52-43 and he certainly doesn't want them thinking they've successfully worn out the short-handed Knicks with their full-court pressure and depth.

He certainly doesn't want to see any kind of self satisfaction, not after the way Game 1 and 2 went in New York and not after the way Brunson, DiVincenzo, Hart and the rest have played throughout these playoffs.

"New York is a team that has shown that it has an indomitable will to compete and rise above any thing people say they can't do," Carlisle said. "We've seen it throughout the season. We've seen it in this series. We're believers in that."

Carlisle knows the Pacers got breaks, that the Knicks are shorthanded without O.G. Anunoby and others and a little fatigued with their high-minute numbers and that a night game Friday followed by an afternoon game Sunday wasn't conducive to recovery. He saw them miss shots they usually make and saw his team turn those misses into run-outs that allowed their lead to snowball quickly. He does not in any way presume that the Pacers' defensive performance on Sunday will be easily replicable on Tuesday in the Garden.

That being said, on Sunday Carlisle saw his defense perform at the highest level it has in these playoffs. Everything he has been demanding from the Pacers on that end, they provided. That doesn't mean they have developed a guaranteed formula for shutting down the Knicks -- no one does -- but on Sunday they executed just about the best defensive game plan they could conceivably put together.

Prior to Game 4, the Pacers had been one of the worst defensive teams in the playoffs, and statistically they were the worst team remaining.

Their regular season woes on the defensive end were well documented as they finished 27th in the NBA in scoring defense and 24th in defensive rating while scoring more points than any other team in the league and finishing second to the Celtics in offensive efficiency. In the playoffs, the Pacers hadn't been much better. They entered Sunday ranked 15th of the 16 teams that originally qualified in both scoring defense and defensive rating and the only team worse was the Suns, who were swept in the first round by the Timberwolves in four games. In the first three games of this series against the Knicks, they allowed 119 points per game.

But out of the gate Sunday, they were stifling and they made the Knicks pay for every missed shot with fast breaks and then full-court pressure as the Pacers jumped out to a 14-4 lead. New York didn't warm up much after that as the Pacers won the first quarter 34-14, holding the Knicks to 6 of 23 shooting, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range, and a minuscule 0.57 points per possession.

The Knicks nearly doubled their first-quarter production in the second quarter, but they still had just 41 points at halftime, which was tied for the second lowest score the Pacers had allowed in any half this season. The only time they gave up fewer was Game 1 in their first-round playoff series against the Bucks, but Milwaukee had clearly taken its foot off the gas in that game after having built a 69-42 halftime lead.

"We started the right way," forward Aaron Nesmith said. "Played with pressure, played with force, played with aggression on both sides of the ball."

Just as he had in Game 3, Nesmith started with the assignment of guarding Brunson, who has scored more total points (329) than anyone else in the playoffs. His 32.9 points per game are second in terms of average only to 76ers center Joel Embiid, who had 33.0 per game before the Knicks eliminated his team. Once again, Nesmith's length seemed to bother Brunson and he took an even more disciplined approach to the assignment than he had the first game, trying to make sure Brunson wasn't going to the foul line.

It worked, especially early. Brunson missed all five of his first-quarter shots, including all three of his 3-pointers, scoring just one point.

"I knew today was going to be a little bit different just because with players like that, you can't give them the same look every time," Nesmith said. "So I tried to be a little less physical at times, just to make him think. Then sometimes I'd jump in to him and be real physical just so he doesn't get the same thing every time and he starts to do the rip-through and get foul calls. Just trying to make him think the game rather than play it."

As well as Nesmith did on Brunson, however, the Pacers seemed to make more of a point to put different defenders on him. Guards Andrew Nembhard had the primary assignment in Games 1 and 2 and spent some time on him on Sunday. So did backup point guard T.J. McConnell. All of them made Brunson work, staying in front of him and forcing them to shoot over them. He scored 18 points, failing to score at least 22 for the first time in the playoffs and the first time in any game since March 23. He made just 6 of 17 field goals with all six makes coming within 7 feet of the bucket. He was 0 of 9 from 8 feet and beyond, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range.

"His ascension to what he's become as a player, not many people have made that jump quite like him," McConnell said of Brunson. "I think we just need to make him work as much as possible and try to exert as much energy (as possible). If you make him comfortable, there's not many people in this league who can guard him. He's obviously a great player. We just gotta keep picking him up 94 feet and trying to make things tough on him."

Trying to make Brunson uncomfortable had been an emphasis throughout the first three games and he was successful in spite of that. On the other hand, the Pacers acknowledged that their intensity very much slipped when it came to defending sharp-shooting 2 guard Donte DiVincenzo. Especially when they double-teamed Brunson, they gave DiVincenzo far too much space for a player whose 283 3-pointers this season put him behind only Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic. He burned them for 25 points in Game 1, 28 in Game 2 and 35 in Game 3, shooting 32 of 63 from the floor (50.8%) and 18 of 32 from 3-point range (56.3%).

They were determined to avoid that in Game 4. Nembhard took the assignment when the game started and defended him much more closely than anyone had in the previous games. As lineups shifted, the Pacers made sure their rotations were much sharper. DiVincenzo missed shots he often makes, but defensive pressure had a lot to do with the fact that he made just 3 of 13 field goals and 1 of 6 3-point attempts. He scored just seven points after four straight games of 20 or more.

"You gotta say that DiVincenzo is a great player," Carlisle said. "He's had monster games throughout the playoffs, throughout the season. In the first game, we didn't treat him like he was a great player. The urgency to take away -- forget about shots but touches -- the guy makes a lot of things happen. We did better there tonight."

The performance on DiVincenzo was part an overall improvement in rotation, especially when Brunson was double teamed. At halftime, the Knicks were just 2 of 13 from beyond the arc and they finished 7 of 37 with four of the seven makes coming in the fourth quarter when neither team played its starters.

"When you're double-teaming the ball, someone's gonna be open, right?" center Myles Turner said. "I think we did a better job of recognizing tonight who to stunt off of, who not to stunt off of. I think at times we left DiVincenzo way too open last game. Even tonight he got some looks. But it was a better job by committee."

The Pacers were strong around the rim with Turner recording three of the team's seven blocks and helping to hold the Knicks to 20 of 43 shooting in the paint. And the ball pressure for 94 feet never stopped regardless of who was bringing the ball up. That combined with an offense that didn't stop brought wear and tear to a collection of Knicks starters that has been playing heavy minutes throughout the playoffs.

The Knicks finished 30 of 89 from the floor (33.7%) and posted 0.88 points per possession. The Knicks recorded 14 turnovers and the Pacers turned those into 17 points. The Pacers finished with 22 fast-break points to the Knicks five, scored 60 points in the paint and shot 56.8% from the field.

"The way that we play is hard to keep up with," Nesmith said. "It's our pace, our force, our aggression. We just gotta keep wearing on him, keep playing our game."

But as effective as it was in Game 4, they know they can't expect it to overwhelm the Knicks in Game 5, so they have to be every bit as sharp.

"We know what we're walking into going to Madison Square Garden," Turner said. "We've got to be on our P's and Q's."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why the Pacers didn’t want to talk about shutting down Knicks, Brunson