INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 It took a while but the Knicks recovered from their NBA Cup hangover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cure was \u2014 who else? \u2014 Captain Clutch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After struggling for much of the fourth quarter with his shots falling short, Brunson hit the biggest one of Thursday\u2019s 114-113 victory over the Pacers when he nailed a trey over Andrew Nembhard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It gave the Knicks a one-point lead \u2014 their first advantage of the final seven minutes \u2014 and OG Anunoby sealed New York\u2019s win with his steal off Indiana\u2019s subsequent inbounds pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson attempts a shot during the Knicks\u2019 Dec. 18 win over the Pacers. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Not counting the NBA Cup final victory (which doesn\u2019t apply toward the regular-season record), the Knicks (19-7) have won six straight and 10 of their last 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Thursday night was an uphill battle from the moment they landed in Indy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Knicks were fresh off their celebration and feeling penalized by the league for making the final, forced into Thursday\u2019s front end of a back-to-back right after grinding out two games in Vegas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Pacers, meanwhile, hadn\u2019t played since a home game Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks celebrates after making a shot in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on December 18, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cSomehow, someway, they have to look at the back end of the schedule for anybody who is in the final game,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s almost like you get penalized for winning it, schedule-wise. We\u2019ve talked about it all year how the games are so close now. But you get penalized for winning the Cup.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result, the Knicks rested three important players \u2014 Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson \u2014 and patched together a first-time starting lineup featuring Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That group didn\u2019t look ready.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anunoby fell into quick foul trouble and the Knicks trailed by 16 points in the opening quarter. Diawara, the second-round rookie, was jumpy. Pac\u00f4me Dadiet and Guerschon Yabusele struggled coming off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Pacers (6-21) are very forgiving this season and the Knicks cut the deficit to three by halftime and kept it close enough for Brunson to turn into the hero again. The point guard finished with 25 points on 10-of-23 shooting with seven assists, not the best performance from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But when he caught the inbounds pass in the final five seconds, created enough space with his step-back dribble, there was little doubt about the shot going in. The Indiana crowd was deflated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After losing Tyrese Haliburton for the season with an Achilles tear, the Pacers are near the bottom of the standings and appear content with playing out the string into the draft lottery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a much different dynamic than the last two seasons when the Pacers twice eliminated the Knicks in the playoffs. They went from title contenders to lottery-bound, while the Knicks are targeting the franchise\u2019s first NBA Finals appearance since 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a great team,\u201d Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of the Knicks. \u201cThey were a great team last year. I think this is one of the most compelling seasons that I\u2019ve seen. There\u2019s more than just a small handful of teams that could win it. There are five, six \u2014 I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s hard to say. No one would have predicted our run last year. You\u2019ve got to get on a roll at the right time and health is a major part of it. I like the Knicks\u2019 chances very much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the site of the Knicks\u2019 Game 6 elimination in May, has been a house of horrors for the Knicks lately. They\u2019re now 2-8 at the Indy arena the last three seasons, counting the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before the game, Brown said he\u2019d try to keep minutes low after extending them in the NBA Cup. Brunson logged 34. Bridges had 37 minutes with 22 points and eight rebounds. Anunoby finished with 34 minutes, 16 points and a big steal to follow up Brunson\u2019s game-winning trey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OG Anunoby attempts a shot during the Knicks\u2019 Dec. 18 win over the Pacers. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring that (NBA Cup) run, this what I\u2019ll do come playoff time \u2014 the little minutes sheet that I put together, even though I don\u2019t follow it, everybody\u2019s minutes are increased because you\u2019re going after something. Now we\u2019re back to our regular-season games,\u201d Brown said. \u201cMinutes will go down to what I think they should average out for the regular season. I\u2019m going to go back to watching guys\u2019 minutes more carefully, which is going to give other guys an opportunity and hopefully, at the end of the day, our guys will get their minutes back to where they need to be come the end of the regular season so going into the playoffs they at least didn\u2019t get their bodies beat up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 It took a while but the Knicks recovered from their NBA Cup hangover.\u00a0 The cure was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9129,4777,21,9,11,1104,10,1558,6474,319],"class_list":["post-75293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-ny-sports-minute","tag-og-anunoby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}