Knicks down to final chance after Pacers’ Game 6 rout
NY Post
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s all on Game 7.
With a chance to clinch the franchise’s first conference final in 24 years, the Knicks laid an egg in Friday night’s 116-103 Game 6 defeat, getting little from their star point guard until it was too late and the Pacers were well on their way to extending their season.
It set up the do-or-die Game 7 on Sunday afternoon at MSG, the biggest game for the Knicks since Patrick Ewing wore their uniform.
And they’re going to need much better from Jalen Brunson.
“They adjusted. They tried to make things difficult. And I have to adjust as well,” Brunson said. “They showed me different looks and I have to do a better job of reading it. I just can’t be what I was for the first 40 minutes of the game.”
The All-Star shot just 11-for-26 after one of the worst first halves of his Knicks career, unable to crack Indiana’s relentless pressure before pouring on late points and finishing with 31.
The Rangers hit the mark with their on-ice ceremony honoring Mika Zibanejad ahead of his 1,000th NHL game Monday night.
PORT ST. LUCIE — For now, Craig Kimbrel is choosing Mets purgatory.
‘Freak of nature: Zion Williamson’s resurgence could pose a Knicks problem versus motivated Pelicans
Zion Williamson is slimmer and healthier for his trip to MSG.
Don’t blame Mikal Bridges for his paltry stats. Blame the role.
Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.