The New York Knicks are fighting to keep their season alive, and Jalen Brunson believes it all comes down to one thing: belief.
After falling behind 3-1 in the series, the Knicks responded with a dominant 111-94 win in Game 5 to stay in the fight. But they’ll face elimination again on Saturday as the series shifts back on the road.
“For us to win, we have to believe,” Brunson said. “Just continue to trust in what we do, have each other’s back, and don’t quit.”
Brunson delivered a standout performance in Game 5, leading all scorers with 32 points on an efficient 12-of-18 shooting. He also tallied five rebounds and five assists in the pivotal win. Brunson has battled foul trouble throughout the series, but it wasn’t an issue this time. As the Knicks’ top offensive weapon, his teammates want him to focus on scoring and avoid unnecessary fouls that could limit his time on the floor.
“We don’t need him to be a lockdown defender or anything like that,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said. “We just need him to go out there and play physical, with intensity, and not foul. It’s really just a competitive thing, an ego thing of like, ‘OK, I’m going to guard my yard.’ It’s having pride. I think he did that [tonight]. And we need him to do it in Indiana.”
Pacers Not Panicking Despite Fight From Knicks
The Knicks were able to set the tone early against the Pacers in Game 5, entering the half with an 11-point lead. Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle attributed the slow start as a significant factor in the loss.
“To start the game, we just didn’t have the right level of force, the right level of attitude necessary in this environment,” Carlisle said. “It was a bad start; we never had a lead in the game. There were a multitude of things that were going wrong. There were stretches in the game where we got a little bit of traction, but never enough.”
The Pacers’ stars came up short in the elimination game. Tyrese Haliburton managed just eight points, while Pascal Siakam was the only starter to reach double figures, finishing with 15.
“I got to be better, and I’ll be better in Game 6,” Haliburton said. “We got to be better as a group. Our pace has to be better. That starts with me. I got to be better there. As a group, we’ve shown that we can have some success this playoffs. This was a rough showing for us tonight. So we’ll watch the film, see where we can get better and be great.”
Knicks Focused on 48-Minute Effort
The Knicks’ three losses in the series have all come by single digits, with a combined margin of just 17 points. That includes a heartbreaking Game 1 collapse, where New York squandered a 14-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation. Haliburton drilled a buzzer-beater to force overtime, and the Pacers pulled away in the extra period.
“With this series, we haven’t been able to close out games the way we’ve wanted to, we haven’t been able to show how special we are,” Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We’ve had moments of brilliance, but we haven’t had games of brilliance. I think tonight was a good testament to when we’re locked in playing 48 minutes, we could show the world how special we really are.”
The Knicks are a slight 3.5-point underdog on the road for Game 6, per ESPN BET.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Knicks Star Jalen Brunson’s Message for Teammates Ahead of Game 6 appeared first on Heavy Sports.