The Knicks look a lot better when they’re not playing the Celtics.
A stingy Tom Thibodeau defense, a horrifying night for Tyrese Haliburton and a balanced offensive attack resulted in a 123-98 blowout Knicks victory over the Pacers in their home opener Friday night.
It was the opposite three days prior in a one-way defeat at Boston, an embarrassing performance but with no carryover to the next game.
All was better at home, especially Mikal Bridges, who was lights out with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting while locking up Haliburton.
It reached the point of the Garden breaking into a “Let’s Go Yankees” chant immediately after Giancarlo Stanton launched a two-run homer 3,000 miles away against the Los Angeles Dodgers; the power of cell phones.
Whereas Jayson Tatum barbecued the Knicks in Boston, Indiana top dog Haliburton went scoreless in 26 minutes.
Only five months earlier, Haliburton relished his role as the Garden’s enemy in the second-round playoff series, eliminating the Knicks in seven games and wearing a sweatshirt featuring Reggie Miller’s infamous choke sign.
His encore was a dud.
The Pacers guard missed all eight of his shots, including seven from beyond the arc. The Knicks outscored Indiana by 23 points with Haliburton on the floor. They were up by double-digits for the final 26 minutes and 31 after three quarters.
It was a massacre.
Haliburton, who was picked for the U.S. Olympic Team over Jalen Brunson, appeared in the summer at the Garden for a WWE show, where he was confronted in the ring by a chair-wielding Knicks point guard.
“I should’ve hit him with the chair,” Brunson joked this week.
Instead, Brunson pummeled Haliburton’s team with basketball moves and plenty of help.
Each Knicks starter scored in double-digits, with Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns (21 points, 15 rebounds) producing exquisitely in their home Garden debuts.
It was a rematch of the last meaningful basketball game at the Garden — a Game 7 Knicks defeat — but hardly a continuation. Of the Knicks players who finished that contest uninjured, only Miles McBride and Jericho Sims played Friday.
Leon Rose overhauled the roster with an emphasis on shooting and spacing the floor. His marquee newcomers did their parts. So did Brunson (26 points, five assists, five rebounds) and Josh Hart (20 points, 10 boards).
The defense went from giving up 29 3-pointers to the Celtics to just three against the Pacers, who shot a miserable 10 percent from beyond the arc.
There was an injury scare in the second quarter. McBride, the team’s top performer in the Boston opener, appeared to land awkwardly after a drive in the paint. He limped through a couple more possessions before being subbed out and retreating to the locker room.
An already thin Knicks bench — which was missing Precious Achiuwa (hamstring) — would’ve been tested. But McBride returned with a brace on his left knee and played in the second half, finishing with eight points in 20 minutes.
Thibodeau, who emptied his bench for the final minutes, was expecting something much tougher.
“Yeah, overall [we need to be better than the Celtics game]. Pretty much everything,” the Knicks coach said. “Defensively, you’re talking about a very high-powered offense, and so it’s critical. You can’t relax. You can’t let your guard down. No lead is safe. You have to finish your possessions. You have to challenge shots. You have to rebound the ball. You have to be tied together. So we know the test we’re facing.”
The Knicks aced that test.
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