Knicks lose as Pacers romp through their defense

INDIANAPOLIS — With 8:43 left in the first half Derrick Rose grabbed a defensive rebound and looking up, flicked a pass on the money to Obi Toppin streaking past the Pacers’ defense. And Toppin, in full stride, took one dribble and rose, shifting the ball through his legs in the air and slamming in a one-handed dunk.

He stood at the free-throw line posing as teammates rushed out to celebrate with Indiana calling timeout. But the Knicks were still down by five after the dunk and out of the timeout the Pacers ran off eight straight points, the Knicks celebration — partially for the dunking prowess of Toppin and part because if he missed the coaching staff may have run him out of the gym — was as good as it would get for them on this night. The Knicks were humbled by a team seemingly breaking apart, falling 122-102, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

At least Toppin provided one highlight, which is more than can be said for most of his teammates. One night after Julius Randle was praised effusively by Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau for his improving ability to orchestrate the offense without turnovers, Randle responded with five turnovers and just two assists. Evan Fournier was invisible and Mitchell Robinson was nowhere near the energetic force he was a night earlier.

But mostly it was on the other end of the floor where this game quickly turned into a one-sided affair that the Knicks never could recover from. The Knicks defense was hard to watch — but not hard to score on — in the first half, surrendering 70 points on 60% shooting to the Pacers. Rookie Chris Duarte led Indiana with 23 points, connecting on 9 of 11 shots, and all five starters had at least 15 points.

"They just got whatever they wanted," Randle said. "Transition, downhill, second chance, led to kick-out threes . . . It’s frustrating but just got to keep moving forward."

"I don’t think anybody played good defense," said Fournier, who at least had the excuse of suffering through a bout of food poisoning. "We’re all in the same bag."

This all came against a Pacers team that entered the night embroiled in a free fall, plagued by injuries and illness and now facing a very open market for their most talented players as they are entering a rebuilding phase.

"Sometimes if you give in to whatever is ailing you or whatever it might be, in this league, you could find an excuse every night if you want to," Thibodeau said. "Early start time, late start time, travel, back-to-back, whatever it might be. Some games start at noon, some games start at 8:30, there are all different start times, there are back-to-backs. The schedule, at the end of the day we all play 82, So sometimes it’s going in your favor and sometimes it’s not."

The Knicks fell behind by as many 27 points and never cut the lead to single digits in the second half. When Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis buried consecutive threes to up the lead to 118-93 Thibodeau called time and threw in the towel, sending rookies Jericho Sims, Miles McBride and Quentin Grimes into the game. It was their most humbling loss since, well, two games ago.

There were a handful of moments — Toppin with back-to-back dunks in the fourth quarter, but that only cut the deficit to 102-85 with 8:30 left in the game.

Down by 18 with 6:43 left in the game Thibodeau went back to Randle and Barrett one more time. Randle fed Toppin for a three-pointer and off a turnover Barrett broke out ahead of the pack. But Myles Turner chased him down and swatted his layup, leading to a bucket on the other end and the lead back to 17. Shortly after that Turner swatted a Toppin layup and on the other end Chris Duarte fed Caris LeVert for a lob dunk and a 112-93 lead with 5:03 to play.

In the end, it wasn’t the dunk by Toppin that made a difference for or against the Knicks — the Pacers rally after it was just one of many on the night.

"Obi’s a great athlete," Thibodeau said. "He’s going to make some incredible plays, that’s who he is. Offensively I’m more concerned about the all-around game and how our team is doing. You see we have a number of players who can make plays that are special. As long it’s in the context of the team framework, I’m good."

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.