Pacers-Knicks: 5 takeaways as Karl-Anthony Towns delivered in home opener

• Get NBA League Pass TODAY >

NEW YORK – As relentless as the Knicks' win over Indiana was on Friday night, a 123-98 victory in which New York outscored its visitors 70-40 in the middle two quarters, there was a moment when the sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden stopped cheering for the home team.

An appreciation for something the Pacers did? No.

“Let’s go, Yankees!”

The cheers grew louder in the fourth quarter when it was announced that Giancarlo Stanton's two-run home run temporarily gave his team a 2-1 lead over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series in Los Angeles.

New Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns stood at the foul line as the Yankees' chant blared. “I heard,” Towns said. “Secure.” Moments later, a replay of the explosion was played on the video boards above the field.

And that's it: The Knicks are already 28 points ahead with more than seven minutes left. This means that none of the five takeaways from this game were included in the intense squad duel at the end of the evening:

1. A trade that hurt, er, helped both teams

Both the Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves struggled with their reconfigured rotations on opening night Tuesday. What connected them on opposite sides of the country – New York was beaten in Boston, the Wolves lost to the Lakers – was the sizable trade that saw Towns trade for Knicks regulars Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

Instant analysis didn't even have to wait for a second or third look. “A trade that hurt both teams,” said the acerbic player.

Then on Thursday, Randle scored 33 points in a Wolves win at Sacramento, and the responsibility shifted solely to Towns. If the urgency to play well in the Knicks' home opener wasn't enough, KAT was now even more in the spotlight.

To the delight of the MSG fans, he scored seven early points and finished the game with 21, 15 rebounds and two blocks.

He and his new teammates couldn't have written it better, with three others scoring 20 or more points. The 23-point mess against the Celtics was washed away by this 25-point turnaround.

“It's encouraging to respond the way we did, especially on defense,” Towns said. “We just did a better job of getting them to miss shots.”

To be honest, Towns said MSG's preseason game against Minnesota two weeks ago helped calm his nerves for this game. He's playing center again after moving to power forward alongside Rudy Gobert as part of the Wolves' now-failed two-bigs strategy.

The 7-footer has drained just four 3-pointers in two games, fewer than the 5.3 he averaged per night last season. But he remains a threat, which is turning heads in New York's five-out formation.

2. Die with the three, live with the three

New York narrowly avoided becoming tied to the NBA record for most players allowed in a game with a 3-pointer made by Boston. As it was, the Celtics' 29 of 61 in the opening game was deadly.

This time the Pacers scored 30 points from beyond the arc and made just three. Three. I applaud the poor and rash shooting decisions, but I also commend the Knicks' diligence in building up their defense and eliminating this crucial mistake.

“Keep working on the game,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You can always get something out of every situation. Obviously we were disappointed with this game. But we also tried to figure it out.”

3. Haliburton stutters again

Tyrese Haliburton didn't want another performance like the one he showed in the Pacers' first game in Detroit on Wednesday. He scored 15 points, shot 1 of 9 from beyond the arc, had just four assists and had to struggle with the rest of his team from an eight-point deficit through three quarters.

Things got even worse on Friday. The Pacers' All-NBA point guard went scoreless in 26 minutes and was fortunately removed by coach Rick Carlisle after three quarters. He missed all eight of his shots, including seven from long range.

“I thought Tyrese did a good job of keeping his emotions in check and kept trying to play,” Carlisle said. “Look, nights like this happen to the best players in the world. We all need to take our medicine for this.”

Haliburton wasn't the only pacer to struggle, just the most high-profile. Try this stat for size: Indiana's starters were outscored by New York 102-31.

Carlisle complained about his team's lack of impact after the first quarter, the lack of ball movement and the poor work on the boards. He repeatedly called for timeouts in these middle districts, to no avail.

“Bad things on one side led to bad things on the other,” he said.

4. Bridges shoots back

Another new member of the Knicks, Mikal Bridges, shot poorly in the preseason, and some critics suggested that his offseason shooting performance did not have a positive impact on his form. But the slender two-way wing was in flux against the Pacers, hitting 8 of 12 overall and two of his threes from beyond the arc.

He got going with a variety of mid-range shots, turns and runners, always a good way to shake off a slump.

He was also never questioned by the only critic whose opinion matters: Thibodeau.

“When you watch him work, you know what he puts into it,” the Knicks coach said afterwards. “And then his complete work. Nobody is going to shoot great for 82 games. In the preseason he tried to work through things and find a new system and new teammates. If you look at it logically, this guy shot almost 38% (on 3-pointers) his entire career.”

Towns said: “I never thought it wasn’t in his pocket. It was preseason. I could have sworn he went 0-on-0 in the Boston game. He did his job when the lights came on, finding his stroke, his rhythm.”

5. A quick turnaround for Indiana

Rigorous NBA schedules aren't what they used to be – four games in five nights are rare, three nights in a row haven't happened in decades. But the Pacers face a tighter turnaround ahead of their home opener Sunday afternoon against winless Philadelphia.

Indiana is on the road six of its first 11 times, going in and out of Indy. They travel to Orlando on Sunday night for a game on Monday and then head home to beat Boston on Wednesday. A weekend trip to New Orleans and Dallas is followed by another Magic game and the Knicks a few days later.

The Pacers host Miami twice in a row in mid-November and then play Toronto, Houston and Milwaukee three times.

“This is a gauntlet plan that we’re starting with,” Carlisle said. “The Detroit game was a bitch. This game obviously speaks for itself. Philly…they come in desperate. We also desperately need to get in. At this point in the season we have to fight for everything.

“Those first 10 or 12 games are as tough as any in the league.”

* * *

Steve Aschburner has been writing about the NBA since 1980. You can send him an email Herefind his archive here And Follow him on X.

The views on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.