This time, there was no disappointment, just disgust. This time, the Knicks could take no hollow consolations away from another fourth-quarter failure, just the sobering reality that the Pacers, when necessary and until further notice, own them. Even at Madison Square Garden.
Maybe especially here.
The Pacers go home in absolute command of these best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals. They didn’t need a miracle comeback this time. They didn’t need a bizarre bounce. They simply did what they do across 48 minutes: controlled the pace, controlled the match-ups and guarded the lead better than the Knicks did two nights earlier.
The final score was 114-109, Pacers. The fourth-quarter score was 33-28, Pacers. Across the first two rounds of these playoffs, the Knicks had made the fourth quarter their personal province. They’d tortured the Pistons in the fourth quarter, then tormented the Celtics. Not this time. Not this series.
