Tom Thibodeau must’ve been listening to TNT’s halftime show.
With the Knicks down 58-45 at halftime, TNT analyst Kenny Smith aggressively called out Thibodeau for his lack of willingness to go deep into his rotation, saying, “Thibodeau wouldn’t play nine guys in a baseball game.”
In order to stir an epic comeback in Game 3 and save their season, Thibodeau dusted off seldom-used role players, Delon Wright and Landry Shamet, as his stars were in foul trouble, to bring his team back from the depths in a shocking 106-100 win.
The two were not major offensive contributors, with Wright scoring just two points in 13 minutes while Shamet had three points in 11 minutes.
But their presence was felt on the defensive side, while Shamet had a game-high +12 in 11 minutes with Karl-Anthony Towns taking over on offense.
The Knicks were down 20 points in the first half as the Pacers flirted with blasting Thibodeau’s group out of their building in the first half.
With around two minutes left in the third quarter, Thibodeau went deep into his bag to give Shamet and Wright some run, where they went on a 7-2 run to narrow the gap to 80-70.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Thibodeau stuck with his bench players to begin the fourth quarter, after all the Knicks’ Villanova-alumni stars — Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — were 6-22 from the field in the first half.
Shamet played the first 2:34 of the fourth quarter while Wright got slightly more run, being pulled with 8:48 remaining.
By the time Wright exited from the game, the Knicks were down just three points and stopped the Pacers’ offensive flow by creating havoc with turnovers and picking them up 94 feet.
Towns scored 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Knicks’ beleaguered big man, who was benched in Game 2, led the team in a thrilling comeback win.
After the game, Thibodeau lauded his savvy role players, adding they are “high-character guys.”
“Both guys have done a good job, we picked up Delon late, but Landry’s been terrific all year,” Thibodeau said postgame. “He’s played really well, he’s great for the team. He’s always ready. The same could be said for Delon. So they’re really good pros. When I say that, I mean they do the right thing every day. That goes a long way. It’s not just lip service, it’s actually doing the actual work, which I think is important.”
Thibodeau later added that he lengthened his rotation to give his team “the best chance to win” and that he just wants to have one more point than the other team, regardless of whether the game was low-scoring or high-scoring.
In the end, Thibodeau played nine guys in Game 3, with all nine receiving double-digit minutes.
Now, having narrowed the series deficit to 2-1, the Knicks have a chance to even it up in Indiana for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals.