
NEW YORK — The Indiana Pacers performed their worst offensive sport of the postseason in Thursday evening's 111-94 loss to the New York Knicks, however regardless of lacking an opportunity to shut out the sequence, star guard Tyrese Haliburton emphasised there was "no have to panic."
"We're a resilient group," Haliburton mentioned after the sport. "We all the time need to reply when issues don't go properly after a sport like that. We perceive what the stakes are. … We're high-quality. There's no have to panic or something."
The Pacers nonetheless lead the sequence 3-2, with Sport 6 on Saturday evening in Indianapolis.
Indiana by no means led in Sport 5 as New York pulled off a wire-to-wire victory with its season on the road. In the meantime, the Pacers' offense by no means received began. Their beginning 5 mixed for simply 37 factors, the second-fewest by a crew in a sport this postseason, and as a crew the Pacers had 20 turnovers, their most in a sport throughout these playoffs.
Thursday's loss additionally marked the primary time this postseason that the Pacers had been held to below 100 factors.
"To start out the sport, we simply didn't have the fitting degree of pressure, the fitting degree of perspective crucial on this setting," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle mentioned. "It was a nasty begin; we by no means had a lead within the sport. There have been a large number of issues that had been going fallacious. There have been stretches within the sport the place we received a bit little bit of traction, however by no means sufficient."
Bennedict Mathurin scored a team-high 23 factors off the bench, and Pascal Siakam led the starters in scoring with 15. HoweverObi Toppin, who had11 factors off the bench, was the one otherPacers participant in double figures.
After placing up a historic stat line in Sport 4, Haliburton struggled to remain concerned on offense Thursday evening, scoring eight factors on 2-of-7 taking pictures with six assists. His seven shot makes an attempt had been his fewest in any sport this postseason, and he scored or assisted on 24% (23 of 94) of the Pacers' factors, in accordance with ESPN Analysis. In Video games 1-4, Haliburton scored or assisted on 41% of his crew's factors.
"I received to be higher, and I'll be higher in Sport 6," Haliburton mentioned. "We received to be higher as a bunch. Our tempo needs to be higher. That begins with me. I received to be higher there. As a bunch we've proven that we are able to have some success this playoffs. This was a tough exhibiting for us tonight. So we'll watch the movie, see the place we are able to get higher and be nice."
The Pacers acknowledge the Knicks established themselves because the extra aggressive crew in Sport 5, bu they’ve prided themselves on responding after losses this postseason. Ahead Aaron Nesmith didn’t mince wordswhen requested how the Pacers get their depth again for Sport 6.
"You get punched within the face like this," he mentioned. "Typically you bought to lose to get higher. That's what occurred as we speak."
Understanding they had been returning residence with a 3-2 sequence lead was an enormous purpose why the Pacers weren’t discouraged regardless of Thursday's loss. Indiana has not dropped back-to-back video games since March, and Siakam mentioned he was wanting ahead to an opportunity to bounce again at residence.
"You're going to have dangerous video games," Siakam mentioned. "That is the NBA, and there's going to be occasions the place a crew goes to play laborious. In reality, they're going to beat you.
"It’s simply all about us, man. It's all the time been us in opposition to the world, and I don't count on it to alter. … We’re 3-2 in a sequence and now we have a chance to return residence and present what we're product of."