The New York Knicks will live to play another game, defeating the Indiana Pacers 111-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday to avoid elimination.
New York’s wire-to-wire victory extends the series to a sixth game on Saturday, with Indiana up 3-2. It snapped the Pacers’ four-game winning streak in playoff-series-clinching scenarios, their longest streak in franchise history, according to ESPN Research. The Knicks will look to win multiple games when facing elimination in a single postseason for the first time since 2000.
Jalen Brunson led the way for the Knicks with 32 points, while Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points and 13 rebounds. Brunson and Towns are the second duo in league history to each score 20-plus points in each of the first five games of a Conference Finals. Brunson added five assists, becoming the third different player with 30 points and five assists in 10 games of a postseason before the NBA Finals.
Indiana’s offense struggled with only one starter — Pascal Siakam with 15 — scoring in double digits. Tyrese Haliburton struggled with eight points on two-of-seven shooting. The Pacers’ starters totaled 37 combined points, the second-fewest by any team in a game this postseason.
Here are the best moments from Pacers-Knicks Game 5.
