According to New York Knicks insider Fred Katz, an “epic fart” helped to calm the nerves in the team’s locker room prior to Game 5 of the second-round series between the Knicks and Indiana Pacers.
“There was an epic fart that loosened up the locker room a lot before the game,” Katz said. “And I’m not going to say who it was ’cause I’m not going to embarrass the guy. And that was it, and the guys were just — they were talking about the Thibs beach picture.”
Also, Knicks forward Josh Hart hilariously reacted to the picture of head coach Tom Thibodeau when the 66-year-old was in his younger days.
“I held out the beach photo. [Josh Hart] stared at it for a solid 3-4 seconds…Finally he said ‘Oh. My. God.’…quickly grabs his phone & snaps his own photo to show his teammates & more importantly, Thibodeau himself — ‘Oh you know that's what I'm doing’”https://t.co/ROIFOZZZQ6 pic.twitter.com/BDpqfE0tpn
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 14, 2024
The Knicks played like a calm and focused team against the Pacers on Tuesday.
New York beat Indiana by 30 points at Madison Square Garden to take a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven series. The Knicks were in command of the game practically from the jump, as New York outscored the Pacers in all four quarters of the game, including by nine in both the second and fourth quarters.
Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson — who shot just 16-of-43 combined in Games 3 and 4 in Indiana — responded with perhaps his best offensive display of the series thus far. He dropped 44 points on 18-of-35 shooting from the field while also dishing out seven assists.
Alec Burks also had a big scoring night off the New York bench, considering he chipped in 18 points and knocked down five 3-pointers.
Brunson and Burks helped the Knicks score a whopping 121 points as a team, and New York also did a great job of not allowing Indiana to get in a rhythm on the offensive side of the ball.
The Pacers — who averaged a league-high 123.3 points per game during the 2023-24 regular season — were held to just 91 points on 43.1 percent shooting from the floor.
After picking up their third win of the series on Tuesday, the Knicks can punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals with a win on Friday. For reference on just how long it has been since the Knicks have advanced to that stage, they lost to the Pacers in six games back in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals.
If New York can eliminate Indiana in Game 6 or Game 7, the team will take on the Boston Celtics for a chance to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.
