Knicks fall to Pacers 98-111 in Nerlens Noel’s return

You live by the three, you die by the three. This time, the Knicks died by the three, making less three pointers than Myles Turner. New York shot 5-24 from behind the arc, just 20,8%, and fell to their rivals in Indiana 98-111 in a game where the Knicks never led.

RJ Barrett scored a team-high 23 points and Julius Randle followed with 18 buckets and 14 boards.

The Pacers started off on a 11-0 run and from there, never looked back. The Knicks had several comeback attempts in the second half, closing the gap to three points in the third quarter and to two points early in the fourth but collapsed in the final 7 minutes of the game when Indiana pushed the pedal and quickly went up again to lead in double digits. The Pacers outscored the Knicks 31-23 in the final period.

“We were able to claw and get back into the game, but momentum was on their side and we felt like we were kind of fighting an uphill battle the rest of the game.”

– Julius Randle

Myles Turner, who scored a game-high 25 points made seven three pointers from 10 attempts. He also collected 14 rebounds for the Pacers who are now 3-6. Caris LeVert scored 21 points and Malcolm Brogdon added 17 buckets for the starting lineup. As a team, the Pacers made 16 three pointers.

The Knicks lost their second straight game and fell 5-3 after leading for several days the Eastern Conference standings. Now they’ll have to bring back their funk against the reigning champs, Milwaukee Bucks.

Evan Fournier scored 14 points on a 5-12 shooting and Derrick Rose delivered 13 points off the bench while shooting 5-11 from the field.  Kemba Walker on the other hand had a cold night shooting just 2-11 and finishing with four points.

Nerlens Noel returned to action for the first time since his knee injury. He played for 18 minutes, scored 2 points and collected 6 rebounds.

In spite of their bad shooting from long distance the Knicks were the better team in the paint, outscoring the Pacers 54-46. But on the majority of the chapters the Pacers had the upper hand.

Don’t forget to check out the MSG broadcasdting recap brought to you by our very own, RunningJumper.

Up-next: The Knicks (5-3) are heading to Milwaukee on Friday night to take on the defending champions, the Bucks (4-4).