Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 39 points on 15-23 field goal shooting to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 114-109 win over the New York Knicks in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals. Siakam is an NBA champion, a two-time All-NBA Team member, and a three-time All-Star, and his value may be overlooked by casual fans, but he has played a major role in the Pacers' tremendous 2025 playoff run. Myles Turner added 16 points, while Tyrese Haliburton ran the show with 14 points, a game-high tying 11 assists, and a team-high eight rebounds. Game one hero Aaron Nesmith contributed 12 points and seven rebounds. T.J. McConnell scored 10 points and passed for four assists in just 14 minutes off of the bench. The Pacers ranked 17th in points allowed and 23rd in defensive field goal percentage during the regular season, and they rank 13th and seventh respectively in those categories during the 16 team playoffs, but that might turn out to be good enough to win the Eastern Conference when paired with the Pacers' high octane offense.
Jalen Brunson scored a team-high 36 points and passed for a game-high tying 11 assists, but he could not quite bring the Knicks back from a 10 point fourth quarter deficit. Mikal Bridges had 20 points and seven rebounds in a game-high 45 minutes. Karl-Anthony Towns also had 20 points and seven rebounds, but he posted a team-worst -20 plus/minus number, and he scored just two fourth quarter points while sitting out more than half of the final stanza. A major problem for the Knicks is that their two best offensive players--Brunson and Towns--are defensive liabilities who are regularly targeted by opposing teams. Mitchell Robinson had a strong game off of the bench, muscling his way to a game-high nine rebounds in 29 minutes. He also had an impact defensively with a game-high three blocked shots and a forceful presence in the paint, but he scored just six points; if the Knicks could combine Robinson's defense/rebounding with Towns' offense into one player then they would have something special--and they likely would not be trailing 2-0 in this series.
The Knicks led 52-49 at halftime, but their defense collapsed in the second half as the Pacers scored 65 points on 23-41 (.561) field goal shooting. Brunson (19 points) and Bridges (17 points) were the two leading individual scorers in the second half, but Indiana's balanced and efficient attack carried the day as Siakam (16 points), Turner (14 points), and Haliburton (12 points) each scored in double figures in the second half.
The Pacers have won six straight road playoff games, including three versus the Eastern Conference's top seeded Cleveland Cavaliers; in contrast, the Knicks are just 3-5 at home in the 2025 playoffs, and they need to win at least one game in Indiana just to get a chance to add to that home win total.