Jalen Brunson’s late three gives shorthanded Knicks unlikely 114-113 win over Pacers

The Knicks overcame a pair of 16-point deficits before Jalen Brunson‘s three-pointer with 4.4 seconds remaining stole a 114-113 win over the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.

Brunson, who was 2-for-8 from the floor in the second half, including missing two attempts with the score tied and under two minutes to play, hit the bucket when it counted. He finished with 25 points on 10-for-23 shooting (3-for-8 from deep) with seven rebounds, seven assists, three steals, but with three turnovers and was a minus-16 in 34 minutes.

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Tyler Kolek, who has been seeing his workload and production increase of late, kept the Knicks in the game with 18 points off the bench and several crucial stretches of solid play deputizing Brunson.

“I was garbage to start the game. And then my stint in the second half was garbage, as well,” Brunson said in a postgame interview. “I want to thank the lord for Tyler Kolek, for playing the way he’s playing and saving me.”

With Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and Mitchell Robinson (joining Landry Shamet and Miles McBride) out with injury, the Knicks were short-handed and had Mohamed Diawara and Ariel Hukporti in the starting lineup. And the mishmash lineups did not gel for much of the game. Fortunately, Indiana is equally banged up, missing several key contributors, and suffered through stretches of horrible shooting, including going 8-for-26 from the floor in the second quarter and 8-for-24 from the fourth.

Here are the takeaways…

– The first quarter was anything but well-executed basketball for the Knicks, and that set the tone for what would be a sloppy game at times by both sides. Through the game’s first six and a half minutes, New York had committed more turnovers (five) than made field goals (three on 13 attempts) and trailed by 15. Mike Brown called a timeout with his team down 28-12 and Indiana shooting 71.4 percent (10-for-14 from the floor). And, somehow, those numbers beguile what was a dreadful watch as the Knicks trailed by 11 after one.

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Naturally, the Pacers started the second as poorly (3-for-13 from the floor) as the Knicks did the first, and New York…

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Publish date : 2025-12-19 02:45:00

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