New York Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein said he heard a roar from the locker room.
Jalen Brunson, who was sidelined with a right leg injury in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers, was back on the Madison Square Garden field during halftime to see if he could shake off the pain.
The moment he walked through the tunnel, the crowd erupted in cheers. The noise was loud enough that Hartenstein and his teammates said they heard it from their locker, and so intense that Brunson pleaded with fans to turn down the volume so he could find the mental clarity he needed to test his leg.
The MVP chants that the Knicks heard from the locker room, almost like a bat signal, suggested that Brunson was back, and ready to lead. And indeed, Brunson’s return energized the depleted Knicks in the second half, helping them come back and beat the Pacers 130-121 despite multiple injuries to take a 2-0 series lead in the conference semifinals.
“He’s a great leader, and when a player tries his best, all the players respect him. That says a lot about him,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “To me, actions say a lot more than words. It shows that you care a lot about your team and your teammates.”
New York’s victory came at a cost as the series shifted to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4. Star defender OG Anunoby, who scored a playoff career-high 28 points in his 28 minutes of work, hobbled to the locker room in the third period and did not return after injuring his left hamstring. Thibodeau said he had yet to speak with the team’s medical staff to learn the severity of Anunoby’s injury.
The Knicks’ health struggles created opportunities for Indiana, and the Pacers initially took advantage of New York’s inability to generate offense without Brunson. After a sluggish Game 1, Indiana dominated the final 15 minutes of the first half thanks to a stellar performance from Tyrese Haliburton and a stellar play from T.J. McConnell and silenced the crowd with a 56-39 run while Brunson was in the locker room. The Pacers led 73-63 at halftime.
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But then, 54 years to the day since Willis Reed thrilled the Garden by leaping out of the tunnel just before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, Brunson tested the leg. Doing so also prompted a roar from the Knicks’ locker room.
“It was really cool, but I knew I had to get my mind in the right place to figure out how I was going to attack in the second half,” Brunson said of the MVP chants that greeted him from fans.
“He’s a warrior,” said Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo, who scored 28 points. “There was no doubt in my mind he would be back.”
Brunson’s presence — and the Pacers’ efforts to trap him — changed the game almost immediately. Within the first five and a half minutes of the second half, New York had already made a 15-point swing to take a five-point lead.
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Like Game 1, it was a back-and-forth affair that wasn’t without controversy. With the Knicks ahead 124-118, the Pacers pressured Hartenstein in the backcourt with just over a minute left. An official indicated he was calling Hartenstein for a double dribble, which would have given the Pacers possession. But then, moments later, the referees got together and ruled that it was an inadvertently blown whistle, giving the ball back to the Knicks.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was issued two technical fouls shortly after and was ejected.
The decision to erase the initial double dribble call came after a game the Pacers suffered because of an errant kicked ball violation. In the final minute of Game 1, when the score was tied at 115, Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith tipped a pass with his hand before the referees blew a whistle to stop what could have been a Pacers fast break.
When Carlisle and the Pacers complained late in Game 1, they were told that the play violation — unlike a foul or out-of-bounds call — was not reviewable.
Still, Indiana had its chances in Game 2, especially with Haliburton (34 points, nine assists) looking like himself, a slow Brunson (29 points) finally looking mortal after a historic four games and Anunoby being forced to leave the game in the third.
Anunoby planted his foot awkwardly during a transition layup, and Brunson was forced to commit a foul to stop the game and get a replacement for him.
It was the latest ailment for the New York club, which has followed them all season. A day before their Game 2 win, backup center Mitchell Robinson was ruled out six to eight weeks with an ankle injury that likely ended their postseason. The incident came a week after wing Bojan Bogdanovic was ruled out for the remainder of the campaign because of wrist and foot surgery. And the team had already lost two-time All-NBA forward Julius Randle for the year after he dislocated his shoulder in late January.
With his team depleted, Thibodeau has been forced to play his starters a lot more minutes in recent weeks. Tuesday marked the fourth time Josh Hart (19 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists) played all 48 minutes of a game this postseason, making him the first player to do so since Jimmy Butler was coached by Thibodeau in 2013.
In Anunoby’s case, he had averaged 46 minutes in the four games prior to Tuesday, the most he had ever averaged over four games in his career, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
