Porzingis Scores 40 As Knicks Come From 19 Down, Beat Pacers
NEW YORK (AP) — Kristaps Porzingis scored a career-high 40 points, carrying the New York Knicks back from a 19-point deficit to a 108-101 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night.
Porzingis added eight rebounds and six blocked shots in his seventh 30-point performance in nine games this season.
Rookie Frank Ntilikina made the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:34 remaining as the Knicks won for the fifth time in six games after an 0-3 start. He had 10 points and seven assists off the bench. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 16 points.
Thaddeus Young scored 18 points and Victor Oladipo had 17 for the Pacers, who led 84-65 with under 2 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Porzingis, who played after tweaking his left ankle in a 37-point performance Friday night, reeled off nine straight points that made it 84-74 in the opening seconds of the fourth. He scored 24 points over the final 13 minutes of the game.
After Ntilikina's 3-pointer made it 102-99, Knicks center Enes Kanter picked up a bad pass by Darren Collison and fed Tim Hardaway Jr. for a layup that made it 104-99 with 1:10 to go.
Oladipo cut the deficit to 104-101 with 32 seconds left in the game, but Lance Thomas' two free throws made it 106-101 to seal the comeback win with 11.9 seconds to play.
Myles Turner added 15 points and Collison had 15 points and 10 assists for the Pacers, who've lost two straight.
TIP-INS
Pacers: F T.J. Leaf, who sprained his left ankle during Friday night's game in Philadelphia, did not play. ... Domantas Sabonis had 16 points off the bench.
Knicks: Kanter grabbed 18 rebounds.
SOMBER MOMENT
A moment of silence was held prior to the national anthem at Madison Square Garden after a gunman killed 26 people and injured at least 20 at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
HOME COOKING
The Knicks improved to 3-1 during their five-game homestand, which equals their longest of the season. They have two more home stretches of five games later in the second of the season, March 11-19 and March 31-April 9.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Host New Orleans on Tuesday night.
Knicks: Host Charlotte on Tuesday night.
(Copyright 2017 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
