The Knicks lost to the intensity system

It's a plan

BY HENRY ABBOTT and DAVID THORPE

TrueHoop readers already knew this was coming! The Pacers beat teams by exhausting them. It decided Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, and somehow remains largely a secret—at least the TV commentators seem not to understand.

Jalen Brunson scored against an array of Pacers defenders—but it visibly exhausted him and the Knicks fell apart in crunch time. AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES

With 3:44 left in the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals’ Game 1, broadcasters Stan Van Gundy and Reggie Miller couldn’t believe what they had just seen: Pacers’ second-year bench player Ben Sheppard had checked into the game for the first time–and now was guarding Jalen Brunson.

There’s a billboard across from Madison Square Garden with a giant picture of Brunson and the words KING OF CRUNCH TIME. Ben Sheppard is 23, a second-year player who went to Belmont, which is in Nashville. Compared to MSG, it’s nowhere at all.

The first time Brunson attacked, Sheppard was called for a foul. Brunson was at the line as Van Gundy mentioned that the Pacers were just “trying to find somebody” who could guard Brunson. Brunson would finish with 43 points on 15 of 25 shooting. Miller rattled off the various Pacers who had tried: Sheppard, T.J. McConnell, Benn Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard, and Tyrese Haliburton.

Van Gundy didn’t like Sheppard in that role. He had his eyes on someone better: Aaron Nesmith. Nesmith is the Pacers’ long-limbed high-energy spark plug who gained a certain reputation against Brunson in last year’s playoffs.

As they spoke, my thought was: Stan and Reggie don’t get it. The Pacers weren’t attempting to find an answer against Brunson. They had their answer, it was wearing Brunson down. As they spoke, Brunson was plainly breathing deeply, even after an unplanned stint on the bench in foul trouble.

The commentators, David Thorpe felt, should have known this. “The Pacers did this last year!” David sounded heated. “This is the same strategy as last year!” (Ask Donovan Mitchell; the Pacers also did this last week.)

There’s no question that Jalen Brunson is better on offense than Ben Sheppard is on defense. But Sheppard was fresh as a daisy, and while he absorbed Brunson’s many assaults, other Pacers with names like Nesmith, Nembhard, and Haliburton did not. They got to watch from across the court or even the bench, and caught their breath as overwork dimmed the king of crunch time.

By overtime, Jalen Brunson had fallen down an uncountable number of times, no Knick looked fresh in crunch time, and the Pacers won Game 1 thanks to Nesmith, Nembhard, and Haliburton combining for 38 points over the final five minutes of regulation plus overtime.

If Brunson has a bad night, the Knicks are in trouble. The Pacers work differently. Nembhard has had a couple monster games in the playoffs two years in a row. Nesmith just had 20 points in a quarter. Haliburton has been the crunch time star of the playoffs. Myles Turner has led his team in scoring at times in the playoffs, and is one of the best shooting bigs in the league, behind KAT. And oh yeah: Pascal Siakam led the team in scoring and rebounding all season. “They've got a lot of fucking weapons,” says David, “whereas New York just doesn't.”

Sheppard didn’t make a ton of highlights, but fit Rick Carlisle’s master plan all the same, and finished with his team outscoring the Knicks by 14 during the seven minutes and 15 seconds he was in the game. When better players get worse results, there’s a strategy problem. Brunson finished at minus-8, which was still better than his celebrated teammates OG Anunoby (minus-12) and Mikal Bridges (minus-15).

Below is a transcript of the conversation I just had with David Thorpe, in which he expresses the idea that poor strategy might have already cost the Knicks Game 2: