Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 26 points and Karl Anthony-Towns posted a double-double Friday night for the host New York Knicks, who shut down Tyrese Haliburton and rolled to a 123-98 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Towns and fellow newcomer Mikal Bridges both bounced back from their rough Knicks debuts by scoring 21 points each. Towns added 15 rebounds and Bridges had five assists.
The duo had just 28 points combined in Wednesday’s 132-109 loss to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.
Josh Hart had 20 points and OG Anunoby scored 14 for the Knicks, who took control with a 27-10 run to end the first half.
New York limited the Pacers to just 3-of-30 shooting from 3-point range two nights after the Celtics tied an NBA record with 29 3-pointers.
The 10 percent shooting from beyond the arc was the lowest by a Knicks opponent since Mar. 19, 2018, when the Chicago Bulls also shot 3-of-30.
Haliburton was held scoreless in just under 26 minutes for the Pacers, who finished with fewer than 100 points for just the second time since the start of last season and posted their worst 3-point shooting percentage during that span.
It was just the third time Haliburton hasn’t scored in 262 regular season games and the first time since Mar. 1, when he was blanked in 22-plus minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Haliburton was 0-for-8 from the field Friday and missed all seven 3-point attempts. He is shooting just 23.1 percent (6-for-26) through two games, including 6.3 percent (1-of-16) from beyond the arc.
Bennedict Mathurin scored a team-high 20 points off the bench for the Pacers, whose 3-point shooting percentage was their worst since they were 2-of-25 (8.0 percent) against the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 19, 2018.
Myles Turner had 13 points and seven rebounds while Pascal Siakam had 12 points for Indiana. Jarace Walker (12 points) and Isaiah Jackson (10 points) also supplied double figures off the bench.
–Field Level Media
