Game Recap: 2025 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, Game 4 – NYK at IND; NYK: 121, IND: 130
It’s proven quite difficult for me to imagine the New York Knicks overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to the Indiana Pacers.
When people think about Game 4, some might imagine Mikal Bridges going cold in the final seconds of regulation. Some might imagine Jalen Brunson disappearing in the fourth quarter. I’ll imagine Karl-Anthony Towns grabbing Myles Turner’s wrist with 7:55 remaining in the fourth quarter. At that moment, I knew the game was over, and the Knicks ultimately lost Game 4 121-130.
In the fourth quarter of Game 4 in Indiana, Karl-Anthony Towns picked up fouls for hugs and holding hands. His third personal foul came after wrapping his arm around Myles Turner. His fourth came after grabbing Turner’s wrist. Towns’s wrist-grab will live in my mind forever because it perfectly combined Towns’s two greatest weaknesses: Softness and foul trouble. There was no reason whatsoever for Towns to get fouled twice in two minutes for mishandling his defense against Turner so egregiously, and this was the worst possible way for Towns to follow up his heroic Game 3 performance.
Suppose the Knicks go on to lose this series. In that case, you can place Towns holding hands with Turner in the book of post-2020 playoff mishaps, which most recently includes Alexis Lafrenière’s own goal in Game 5 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals against the Florida Panthers and Aaron Judge dropping a routine fly ball in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yes, Karl-Anthony Towns’s fourth foul was that bad. Why? Because it was a gut-wrenching reminder that he is soft. Just like how Lafrenière’s own goal reminded fans he was an overrated first-overall draft pick, and how Judge dropping that fly ball reminded fans he can’t perform in October.
Every time they pull you back in, they spit you right back out on the curb. The electric car is cool until you realize you need to charge it every 200 miles. Acquiring the best three-point shooting big man in the NBA is awesome until the All-Star proves costly in his team’s biggest moments.
Readers, you probably think I’m exaggerating. The Eastern Conference Finals are not over for the Knicks. They can still win two games, force a Game 7, and then anything is possible. Maybe they will ultimately force a Game 7 down 3-1 against Indiana like they did in 1995, but consider this: The Indiana Pacers are a stronger, deeper team than the New York Knicks. Also, they want revenge in the Eastern Conference Finals after getting swept by Boston last year. As much as the Knicks entered this series with a path to the NBA Finals, Indiana is more desperate to take that next step.
Unfortunately, with just under two minutes remaining in Game 4, Myles Turner pushed Karl-Anthony Towns into Aaron Nesmith, and he fell to the court, clutching his left knee. He was in pain, unable to rise from the cold floor. “I’m only thinking about this loss, I’m not thinking about [my injury] right now,” Towns said after Tuesday night’s loss. “It’s disappointing when you don’t get a win. Just didn’t do enough to get the job done tonight.” Towns returned to the game, but following evaluations, he is questionable to play in Game 5.
Next, examining Mikal Bridges, who went cold in Game 4 because he couldn’t seem to hit any jump shots, he is not the guy the Knicks should rely on to score key points in high-intensity moments. Bridges is not that kind of player. He also doesn’t drive balls to the net, despite how frustrating it may be to watch him miss jumper after jumper. Furthermore, Bridges is supposed to be the second-best defender on this Knicks team, but Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana’s worst defender, outscored him 28-8 on Tuesday night.
“I didn’t play my best game,” said Bridges. “On both ends, let my team down a little bit.”
The Knicks’ other weakness in Game 4 was the same weakness they have failed to mitigate throughout this series: Turnovers. The Knicks committed 17 turnovers while Indiana committed 11, and the Pacers scored 20 points off the Knicks’ turnovers. The Knicks have struggled all season to defend in transition, and so far in this series, it has cost them extra.
“Just bad turnovers,” said Mikal Bridges, who turned the ball over three times for the Knicks in Game 4. “A team that plays that fast, you can’t give them transition looks like that.” Looks are one thing, Mikal. Defending them is another.
Josh Hart committed five turnovers and got fouled out in Game 4. He provided little productivity off the bench, but he earned his minutes because he collected 11 rebounds. “We’ve got our backs against the wall,” Hart said. “We have to fight out of it. I’ve never known this team to quit, it isn’t the character of the guys we have in this locker room.”
The Knicks allowed 43 points in the first quarter of Game 4, which exceeded the 42 they permitted in the entire second half of Game 3. Mitchell Robinson, who finished with just six points in 19 minutes and a -20 rating, said, “Communication, that was the biggest thing. It started with me. I wasn’t talking first, and I’m the anchor of the defense. I’m not talking, nobody is.”
The Knicks diagnosed communication as one of their biggest issues in Games 1 and 2, and they couldn’t fix it in Game 4 despite celebrating it in Game 3. Before Game 1 of the series against the Detroit Pistons, MSG Networks analyst Wally Szczerbiak said that the Knicks had “fractured confidence” entering this postseason, and “the chemistry [was] not where it was last year going into the playoffs.” Have the Knicks done enough yet this postseason to repair the issues they faced in early April? The signs speak for themselves, and I don’t think the Knicks have what it takes to overcome a 3-1 deficit.
“We have to reset,” said head coach Tom Thibodeau, who seemed to try every combination imaginable to improve his team’s defense in Game 4, but failed every time. “You’re not playing the series [in Game 5], you’re playing the game. We’ll do what we have to do to play this game.”
Game 5 at Madison Square Garden is scheduled for tonight at 8 (TNT, TruTV, MAX).
