Geoff JohnsonThe New York Knicks turned the momentum of the series around with a tremendous fourth quarter performance in game two. Game three won’t be played until Saturday at 8 PM ET, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
There was a moment in game two where the feeling was the Knicks were going to lose control it again, but then Melo happened. Anthony scored 32 points, 16 of those during the 30-2 run the Knicks had in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks won 105-79 and tied the series.
“I think for the most part from the start of the game and throughout the whole game, I think we played with a sense of urgency today,” Anthony said. “We played the way we’ve been playing as far as competing at the highest level.”
“The fourth quarter we just defensively, we picked up,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “We kept getting stop after stop and then we would rebound the ball and get it up, and our offense began to flow like old times. It was kind of nice to see.”
Indiana had a good chance of beating the Knicks for the second game in a row, but they failed to deliver late. The Pacers lost the turnovers ballet 21-6 and weren’t able to be competitive.
“I think I was trying to make a statement,” said Knicks Iman Shumpert. “I just wanted to win this game really bad. We needed this game.”
The next two games will be in Indiana; the Knicks need to steal one if they want to make a push to the Eastern conference finals. The Pacers are 3.5 favorites for game three in the NBA odds.
