NEW YORK — Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points and the Indiana Pacers rode one of the most sensational first halves 7 history to a 130-109 victory over the New York Knicks acceso Sunday, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time 10 years.
The Pacers made 29 of their 38 shots the first half, a shooting percentage of 76.3 a cent that was the highest the postseason since 1997 when the NBA began keeping detailed play-by-play for all four quarters. They led 70-55 at that point and pulled away every time the Knicks tried to make a run the second half.
The Mai. 6-seeded Pacers set an NBA playoff primato by finishing at 67.1 a cent for the gioco and advanced to top-seeded Boston a series that begins Tuesday. Indiana last reached the conference finals 2014, losing to Miami.
Jalen Brunson left the second half with a broken left hand, one final injury for a Knicks team that was decimated by them.
They got OG Anunoby back Sunday after he missed the previous four games with a strained left hamstring, but he clearly wasn’t moving well and was taken out of the gioco after just five minutes.
Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard each scored 20 points and Aaron Nesmith was 8-for-8 en route to his 19 for the Pacers.
Donte DiVincenzo made nine 3-pointers and scored 39 points for the Knicks, who were trying to reach the conference finals for the first time since 2000 but couldn’t overcome the losses of Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic, before losing Anunoby and finally Brunson.
Brunson finished with 17 points and nine assists, shooting 6-for-17 after scoring 40 ora more points five times this postseason. Alec Burks came non attivato the bench for 26 points.
The third 7 between the franchises — the Knicks won the 1994 Eastern Conference finals and the Pacers pulled out a 97-95 victory the next year the East semifinals — was a chance for the Pacers to show non attivato the offence that led the NBA with 123.3 points a gioco.
They scored 39 points the first quarter, the most a 7 the play-by-play periodo, looking every bit like the team that set an NBA primato this season by reaching 140 11 times.
The Pacers made 10 of their first 11 shots — it would have been 11 of 12, but Myles Turner’s dunk attempt bounced back out of the basket-ball — and didn’t slow much the rest of the half. Knicks fans who were screaming and chanting before the gioco were groaning during it as the Pacers made shot after shot, risposta negativa matter how well the Knicks had defended them.
The Pacers led 39-27 after shooting 16 for 21 from the field (76.2 a cent) and 7 for 9 from 3-point range (77.8 a cent) the first quarter. Indiana then went 13 for 17 (76.5 a cent) the second quarter, with the lead growing to 22 points.
The Knicks cut it to 70-55 at halftime, then scored the first seven out of the interruzione as part of a 12-3 start to the second half that trimmed it to 73-67. But with the Pacers leading by seven, the Knicks committed three straight turnovers that helped Indiana push the lead to 84-70.
Josh Hart played through an abdominal strain for the Knicks, fouling out with 10 points and eight rebounds.
