How Jalen Brunson, Knicks are adjusting to the Pacers’ full-court press: ‘Gotta be strong with the ball’

Most teams do it after a made free throw.

Some teams do it at the start of a quarter.

Rarely at the NBA level, however, does a team press the full 94-foot length of the basketball court on defense like the Indiana Pacers did in their 121-117 loss to the Knicks in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Monday.

This is the game plan for a Pacers team attempting to use its depth as an advantage against a depleted Knicks team short two key rotation players (Julius Randle — shoulder surgery; Bojan Bogdanovic — ankle surgery) for its playoff run.

The Knicks’ starting five played 207 of a possible 240 minutes in the Game 1 victory, with four of the five logging 42 or more minutes and Josh Hart playing the entire 48-minute workload.

The full-court press is Indiana’s attempt to take advantage of the heavy minutes New York’s core players log in the playoffs.

By applying pressure the full length of the floor, they hope to wear down core starters who’ve logged more minutes than those of any other team in the playoffs.

“It’s no secret that those guys play a lot of minutes,” Haliburton continued. “We’re a pretty deep team, probably the deepest team in the league, so we’re trying to use that to our advantage by getting up, pressuring and trying to wear on these guys as much as we can for a seven-game series.”

“It’s just the way we want to play. We’ve got guys that can do it, so just continue to be aggressive and try to control the pace of the game,” added Haliburton’s co-star Pascal Siakam. “I thought it was in a decent spot. It was what, a four-point game? So I thought it was good.”

The Knicks’ response to the Pacer press was one of few glaring areas for improvement for a team hoping to protect home court and emerge from Wednesday’s Game 2 with a 2-0 series lead.

New York narrowly escaped Game 1 on a game-winning three from Donte DiVincenzo despite turning the ball over 14 times to seven give-aways from Indiana.

The press was effective.

It’s the same defensive strategy the Pacers used, not just in their first-round matchup against Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks, but also across their three matchups during the regular season.

“We just gotta take care of the ball,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after Knicks practice at the Tarrytown training facility Tuesday afternoon. “Gotta be strong with the ball.”

Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson credited Indiana for its full-court press after Game 1, where he accounted for four of the Knicks’ 14 turnovers.

“Honestly, they did a decent job,” he said at the podium during his postgame press conference. “They created some turnovers, some timely turnovers. [Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle] has them prepared. That’s how he coaches. He understands the game at a high level. And so, he’s gonna have them ready and like I said, we need to be better. Even though we won, we have to be better.”

“We’ve been doing that all playoffs,” added backup Pacers point guard TJ McConnell, who scored 18 points and logged three steals off the bench in a tight loss to the Knicks. “Just trying to make whoever’s bringing it up uncomfortable and try to wind down the clock a little bit. That’s been something that we’ve done so we’ve gotta continue to do it.”

The press wore on the Knicks as the game progressed.

On the opening possession of the fourth quarter, DiVincenzo inbounded the ball to OG Anunoby, but McConnell snuck from behind and poked the ball out into Pacers possession.

The Pacers also forced a turnover off the full-court press trailing the Knicks 118-117 with 18.4 seconds left on the clock, when they successfully trapped Brunson on a side-out inbound pass.

Brunson, who was leaning out of bounds, jumped into the air and attempted to throw the ball off Tyrese Haliburton’s body, but Haliburton deflected the ball back off Brunson to force his fourth turnover of the night.

“Obviously not turn the ball over,” Brunson said when asked how he can better approach the Pacers’ press after practice on Tuesday. “I think the most important thing is we need to get the space, and we need to give each other outlets and making sure that we’re all on the same page really. We can’t be lackadaisical. We can’t just be comfortable, obviously. We gotta be strong with the ball, we gotta run through passes. We gotta make sure everything we do is with intent.”

DiVincenzo said he and the other starters can help alleviate the pressure Brunson feels on the inbound pass with some back court actions.

“Just getting him open, setting screens, less dancing and trying to running around versus just getting open in your space,” he said after Tuesday’s practice. “Just being simple. I think when that happens, just simplifying things and getting to your space. That goes back to communication offensively and defensively. When you communicate with guys, you eliminate the error and assumptions of where guys were supposed to be.”

The Pacers used McConnell and starting guards Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith to guard Brunson in Game 1.

The Knicks expected the full-court pressure after Indiana deployed the same tactic in a 4-2 first-round series victory over the Bucks.

“That’s kind of their identity. They did it in the regular season and they did it all last series when you saw them pick up Dame,” said DiVincenzo. “Doing that kind of stuff, they have the bodies. They are a young athletic team that likes to run and the numbers prove it. It’s not a shock to us what they are doing. It’s who they are and we expect that the whole series.”

Despite the defensive pressure, Brunson scored a game-high 43 points and shot 14-of-26 from the field while making all 14 of his free throws in Game 1.

He scored 10 points in the first quarter then another 21 in the fourth period, finding ways to dice the Pacer defense despite the full-court press defense.

And at times, he made the Pacers pay for their overzealous defensive approach.

On one inbound possession midway through the third quarter, Nembhard made the mistake of face-guarding Brunson, who was standing at the back court foul line while Anunoby attempted to inbound the ball.

Brunson took off up court, leaving Nembhard in the dust, and Anunoby vaulted a pass up-court that the All-Star guard tracked down before scoring around Haliburton on a drive to the rim.

“I think a couple times it hurt us with Brunson over the top, got a fast-break lay-up,” Haliburton added Tuesday afternoon. “The one time we went to trap [Isaiah] Harsteinstein, and then Josh Hart got an and-one lay-up, then ended up getting the putback after his missed three throw, so that was a four-point play. That came to hurt us a little bit.”

The Pacers’ defensive strategy is different from that of the Philadelphia 76ers, who used a pair of 6-foot-8 wings in Kelly Oubre Jr. and Nic Batum in an attempt to stifle Brunson’s scoring.

Instead of length, Indiana is using speed, grit and full-court pressure.

Brunson struggled in Games 1 and 2 of the 76ers series before scoring 39 or more in each of his final four first-round games.

He started the second round with a 43-point barrage, solving the latest defensive scheme an opposing coach has attempted to use to slow him down.

“It’s no surprise. For us, you look at it like he’s beating defenses, making adjustments and doing it the way he wants to do it, but how can we be better to make it easier on him?” DiVincenzo said. “That’s kind of our mindset as a team. Guys setting screens for him, getting certain actions that we favor. And honestly just making it easier to not wear him down. That’s our job, to make it as easy for him because he makes our lives easier throughout the whole game.”