NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks broke out just enough to stay in it.
Anthony scored 28 points and the Knicks avoided elimination in the Eastern Conference semifinals with an 85-75 victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 on Thursday night.
Reserves J.R. Smith and Chris Copeland each had 13 points for the Knicks, who trail 3-2 and will need a victory Saturday in Indiana to force a seventh game back here Monday. They are trying to become the ninth NBA team to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a series.
“I was totally impressed because we met the challenge,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “I think as a coach you come into games like this and you want to see who’s going to step up and make plays, and I thought we did that tonight. We were the better team in terms of doing that.”
Anthony, who didn’t make a basket in the fourth quarter of either game in Indiana, made a jumper midway through the fourth quarter after Indiana closed within four points. He followed with two free throws, Raymond Felton made a layup, and the Knicks were never in jeopardy again.
Paul George had 23 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Pacers. They played without point guard George Hill because of a concussion and committed 19 turnovers.
“We’ve just got to play more solid. There’s no other way to put it,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.
But George battled foul trouble and couldn’t contain Anthony quite as well as he had while the Pacers easily won the previous two games.
Anthony made his first two shots as New York raced out to a 7-0 lead in a game it never trailed. He finished only 12 of 28, but got plenty of bench help. David West had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who were trying to reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2004.
“We didn’t play well. It was a bad game for us and we were still there,” George said.
The winner will face the defending NBA champion Miami Heat in a series that will start Wednesday.
New York didn’t really shake its scoring slump, shooting only 41 per cent from the field, but put together a few runs during the game to open just enough space against a Pacers team that shot 36 per cent and was a dismal 19 of 33 at the free throw line.
They clearly missed Hill after learning about four hours before the game they would be without him.
Vogel said Hill was hurt after a collision with Knicks centre Tyson Chandler during the first half of Indiana’s 93-82 victory on Tuesday. Hill finished the game and scored 26 points, but experienced some headaches and showed concussion symptoms since and wasn’t able to pass the league’s concussion tests so he could play Thursday night.
The Knicks went back to their regular lineup, reinserting Pablo Prigioni, after going with a bigger group in Game 4 in a futile effort to match Indiana on the boards. The smaller group did a better job, getting outrebounded only 43-40.
The Knicks finally opened it up midway through the third quarter with a 12-4 run, started by Smith’s bank shot and featuring a 3-pointer and follow shot from Copeland, who got more playing time while Woodson gave little to veterans Amare Stoudemire and the slumping Jason Kidd, who missed his only shot and remains scoreless in the series.