NEW YORK -- The normal games are just as important as the crazy ones, and sometimes you have to win with minimal drama.
No comeback from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter or from nine down in the final minute. No ridiculous hot streak from Aaron Nesmith. No miraculous buzzer-beater from Tyrese Haliburton.
The Indiana Pacers simply out-executed the New York Knicks in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a 114-109 victory on Friday that put the Pacers up 2-0.
Pascal Siakam led six Pacers in double-figures with 39 points on 15-for-23 shooting, and the Knicks just could not stop what is the best offense remaining in the postseason. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 36 points and 11 assists, but, as he did in Game 1, missed a long 3-pointer that would have tied the game in the final seconds.
Indiana has now won six straight road games in these playoffs, while the Knicks are now 3-5 at Madison Square Garden.
Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the series moves to Indiana for Game 3 on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, TNT) ...
The Knicks had the higher-ranked offense in the regular season and have two elite talents on that end of the floor. But the Pacers' offense has hit a new level in the playoffs, and has proven to be the more difficult offense to guard.
Tyrese Haliburton is the floor general, but the Pacers' offense is more about pace, ball movement and player movement than any individual. Through the first two rounds of the playoffs, Indiana led the postseason in both passes and miles traveled per 24 minutes of possession.
The Knicks just haven't been able to keep up. Through two games, the Pacers have scored 126.6 points per 100 possessions, what would be the second-best mark for any team in the conference finals or Finals in the 29 years for which we have play-by-play data.
The Indiana offense has been at its best when its best has been needed. In coming back from 17 points down in Game 1, the Pacers scored an incredible 31 points on their final 13 possessions of regulation. And with Game 2 pretty tight throughout, they scored 42 on their final 27 (1.56 per).
Some of that was great shot-making a playmaking. And some of it was just running multiple actions and keeping the ball moving until the Knicks lost somebody ...
Both teams have scored efficiently in their half-court offense, so transition opportunities aren't as critical as they've been in other series in these playoffs.
But over two games that have been decided by a total of eight points, the Pacers have had a huge advantage in transition. According to Synergy tracking, transition points over the two games are 51-26 in favor of Indiana.
And the difference is less about the number of transition possessions each team has had and more about how efficiently they've scored in transition ...
Those 42 points on the Pacers' final 27 possessions began with three straight transition layups. And two of those -- an Obi Toppin layup and a T.J. McConnell drive -- came after made buckets on the other end of the floor. Then McConnell grabbed a Mikal Bridges miss, got his team on the move, and found a trailing Siakam for a dunk.
The Knicks had transition issues beyond allowing layups after made baskets, like leaving a guy under the basket to guard somebody else (who doesn't have the ball) on the perimeter ...
If they're going to come back in this series, the Knicks will obviously need to defend better. And that starts in transition.
There are only two rotation players left in the playoffs who have previously played a significant role on a title run: Alex Caruso (2020 Lakers) and Siakam (2019 Raptors).
On Friday, Siakam (10) had almost as many transition points as the Knicks (11). But he also did a ton of damage in the half-court ... and against multiple Knicks.
OG Anunoby is a long defender, but he wasn't much of a deterrent for Siakam, who hit multiple turnaround jumpers from 14-18 feet in Game 2 ...
"Special game," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said of Siakam's performance. "It's hard to score that number of points in a game like this where you always have a physical matchup."
In Game 1, it was Nesmith who tied his career high with 30 points. Siakam's 39 in Game 2 were his most in 148 games with the Pacers and his playoff career high (82 games). Game 3 could be somebody else.
"What makes us special as a team is just we have different weapons," he said. "We're not consumed with who's gonna do what. However the game presents itself, that's how we go and take it. It doesn't matter who scores."
There are 40 players with at least 100 field goal attempts in these playoffs. Three of the top four in effective field goal percentage are Pacers: Nesmith (69.3%), Andrew Nembhard (62.2%) and Siakam (60.1%).
The Knicks had Mitchell Robinson on the floor for most of the fourth quarter, and there were a couple of times where the Pacers brought him into their pick-and-roll, only to have him swallow up a Haliburton isolation.
Over the two games, the Pacers (who have been ridiculously efficient otherwise) have scored just 0.80 points per chance when Robinson has defended a ball screen.
Unsurprisingly, Indiana had more success on Friday when they kept Robinson away from the ball and ran actions at Brunson. And a few of those actions resulted into some good looks from beyond the arc.
Up three with less than five minutes left, they got Brunson switched onto Haliburton. He attacked, drew help from Robinson, and found Myles Turner for a wide-open 3 from the left corner ...
Another ball-screen aimed at Brunson produced another drive for Haliburton and open 3 for Turner that was off the mark with a little more than a minute left. But it was a good process (much better than targeting Robinson) and a good shot.
Brunson has been the screener's defender for 46 ball-screens in this series, third most behind only the two starting centers. And we can expect a lot more of that going forward.
The Pacers play their reserves more than the Knicks do, but that doesn't mean that their bench is better. New York had the higher-ranked bench in the regular season and through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
And both of these games have been close, even though the Knicks' starting lineup has been outscored by 29 points in its 43 minutes. (It's now a minus-50 in 308 total playoff minutes.) The Pacers have done well at the start of all four halves, but when reserves have come on the floor, the Knicks have been able to play catch-up.
Two Indiana reserves that haven't been able to make a positive impact are Bennedict Mathurin and Thomas Bryant, and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was quick to excise both from the rotation in Game 2.
Mathurin was replaced by Ben Sheppard early in the second quarter and didn't see the floor again. He scored 38 points in the Pacers' one regular-season victory over New York, but they've now been outscored by 39 in his 43 minutes over their last three games.
Bryant also sat the entire second half, with Carlisle using Tony Bradley (who'd played less than 16 playoff minutes prior to Friday) as the back-up center.
And in the second half, bench minutes were much better, with Indiana going on a game-changing 20-8 run spanning the third and fourth quarter.
Whether the bench minutes are good or bad, the Pacers still need contributions from more than five guys.
"We're a team that needs everybody," Carlisle said. "That's how we gotta play."