Pacers Vow to Be More Aggressive on Both Ends Facing Elimination in Game 6

For the first time this postseason, the Pacers are facing elimination. Following their 121-91 loss to the Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, they are in a must-win scenario in Game 6 on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The takeaways from Game 5 were pretty clear, judging from the answers to questions following Thursday's practice at the Ascension St. Vincent Center. The box score from their 30-point loss said all that needed to be said.

The Knicks outrebounded Indiana 53-29 overall and 20-5 on the offensive glass. They outscored the Pacers 62-36 in points in the paint and 26-9 in second-chance points. The Blue & Gold also committed 18 turnovers to New York's nine. All of it added up to the Knicks attempting a whopping 29 more shots than Indiana in the rout.

"The statistical numbers on possessions and turnovers and all that, it tells the story of a wipeout," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. "We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to do better and we’ve got to do harder and we’ve got to do with a greater level of execution and detail. We’ve got our work ahead of us."

Rebounding remains the Pacers' primary focus. The Knicks led the league in offensive rebounding in the regular season, but Indiana actually did a good job keeping them off the offensive glass over the first four games of the series. The Pacers outrebounded the Knicks on the offensive boards in three of the first four games and also limited New York to 10 or fewer offensive rebounds in three contests.

It was a different story in Game 5, where Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein came up with 12 rebounds alone and New York quadrupled Indiana's total on the offensive boards.

"No secret that they dominated the glass," Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton. "We’ve got to be able to finish possessions better. Once we do that, that allows our offense everything to open up. We’ve got to finish possessions better."

"It’s just that extra thrust when they get the offensive rebounds and have extra opportunities to score, that juices them up, especially in their home building," Pacers center Myles Turner added. "We can’t allow for that to happen."

To better limit the Knicks' second chances, Haliburton said that he and the other guards need to help out Indiana's bigs by crashing the boards harder on the defensive end. He noted that Hartenstein often crashes the boards just looking to tip back out a perimeter player, but the Knicks' guards have been more aggressive in seeking out those loose balls.

"That starts with me getting down and rebounding and helping out," Haliburton said. "The games that we’ve been good on the glass have been the games where our guards have really came down and helped. And I think offensively we can crash better too and use that to our advantage as well."

On the offensive end, Haliburton also vowed to approach Game 6 with a more aggressive mindset. The Knicks changed up their coverages on the All-Star in Game 5, with Miles McBride sliding into the starting lineup and picking up Haliburton full court for most of the night. It was clear that New York tried to take the ball out of Haliburton's hands, and that game plan largely worked, as he had 13 points on just nine shots and five assists in 34 minutes.

Haliburton faced similar questions after Game 1, when he scored just six points on just six shots, and responded by averaging 29.7 points over his next three games. Carlisle has reiterated many times throughout the year that Haliburton doesn't need to be scoring at a high rate to impact the offense, but he does need the ball in his hands to be able to make an impact.

“Aggressive doesn’t mean shoot 30 shots or whatever," Haliburton said Thursday. It’s just getting two feet in the paint, be more aggressive…just kind of that mentality is better for us.

“At the end of the day, I’ve just got to be better at getting the ball. They’re doing a good job denying and we can give you all schemes of screening for me and all that stuff, but I’ve just got to go get the ball.”

The stakes have been high all postseason, but they are certainly raised for Friday, with the Pacers needing a win to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday in New York.

“It’s the first elimination game that we’ve faced," Carlisle said. "There’s always a high level of urgency, but when you face the possibility of the ending of your season, it certainly should be at a fever pitch."

This is the first playoffs for Haliburton, as well as fellow starter Andrew Nembhard and rotation players Ben Sheppard and Isaiah Jackson. But Haliburton said the team's veterans like Turner and Pascal Siakam haven't really raised the topic of what it means to play in an elimination game.

“I don’t think there really needs to be conversations," Haliburton said. "What’s known doesn’t need to be spoken about. Guys know the intensity that we need to bring tomorrow. Obviously with this being our home court, that’s exciting for us. But we’ve got to have a level of desperation that we’ve never had before. Got to be ready to go for 48 minutes, understand that every possession matters even more than it has all playoffs, and just have the right level of compete level tomorrow to be ready to go.”