Now comes the hard part.

After dropping the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks refused to bow out on their home floor, saving their season with Thursday night’s wire-to-wire Game 5 win, 111-94, over the Pacers.

The teams will meet Saturday in Game 6 in Indiana with the Pacers still just one win from reaching the NBA Finals. Only 13 of 284 teams facing a 3-1 deficit in the NBA playoffs have come back to win the series.

Jalen Brunson carried the team early — scoring 14 of his game-high 32 points in the first quarter — and the Knicks never eased off the pedal, exhibiting the ideal blend of desperation and focus, tightening their defense and attacking the rim, maintaining a double-digit lead through the entire second half.