After recovering from injury, Jalen Brunson gives the Knicks a 2-0 lead.

Isaiah Hartenstein, a centre for the New York Knicks, claimed he heard the clamour from the locker room.
During halftime of Wednesday night’s Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers, Jalen Brunson, who had left the game with a right foot injury late in the first quarter, went back to the Madison Square Garden court to try to battle through the discomfort.

The audience burst into applause as soon as he entered the tunnel. It was such a loud bang that Hartenstein and his colleagues claimed to have heard it from their locker rooms, and it was so strong that Brunson begged the crowd to calm down so he could gather the composure required to test his foot.
Like a bat signal, the MVP shouts the Knicks heard coming from the locker room indicated that Brunson was back and ready to take the field. In fact, Brunson’s comeback gave the Knicks much-needed energy in the second half, enabling them to overcome many injuries and rally for a 130-121 victory against the Pacers to grab a 2-0 series lead in their conference playoffs.
“The players all see him as a wonderful leader because he strives to offer all he has. Coach Tom Thibodeau of the Knicks said, “It speaks a lot about him.” “In my opinion, deeds speak louder than words. It conveys your deep concern for your group and other players.”
The series will now go to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4, but New York’s success came at a price. After hurting his left hamstring in the third quarter, star defender OG Anunoby, who scored a playoff career-high 28 points in his 28 minutes of play, went to the locker room and did not come back. In order to determine the severity of Anunoby’s injury, Thibodeau said he had not yet spoken with the team’s medical personnel.
Indiana was able to take advantage of the Knicks’ health issues, and the Pacers first exploited New York’s incapacity to produce offensively in the absence of Brunson. With the help of T.J. McConnell’s brilliant playmaking and Tyrese Haliburton’s impressive comeback from a slow first game, Indiana controlled the last 15 minutes of the first half, going on a boisterous 56-39 run while Brunson was in the locker room. At the half, the Pacers were up 73–63.
However, Brunson put his foot to the test 54 years to the day Willis Reed captivated the Garden by hobbling out of the tunnel right before Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals. This set up a clamour that could be heard all the way back into the Knicks locker room.
Regarding the MVP shouts that the crowd gave him, Brunson said, “It was really cool, but I just knew I had to get my mind in the right place to figure out how I was going to attack in the second half.”
“He’s a warrior,” said Donte DiVincenzo, the 28-point scorer for the Knicks. “There was no doubt in my mind he’d be back.”
The Pacers’ efforts to trap Brunson and his presence quickly changed the direction of the game. New York took a five-point lead after generating a 15-point swing in the opening five and a half minutes of the second half.
It was a back-and-forth and contentious match, much like Game 1. With little over a minute left, the Pacers put pressure on Hartenstein in the backcourt as the Knicks led 124–118. The Pacers would have gained possession if Hartenstein had double dribbled, as indicated by the official’s signal. However, a little while later, the officials convened and decided that the whistle had been accidentally blown, returning the ball to the Knicks.
Soon after, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle received two technical fouls and was removed from the game.
One game after the Pacers were negatively impacted by an incorrect kicked ball violation, the decision was made to remove the original double dribble call. With the score tied at 115 in the last minute of Game 1, Aaron Nesmith of Indiana tipped a ball with his hand, and the referee stopped what might have been a Pacers fast break with a whistle.
Carlisle and the Pacers were informed that the play, which was a violation rather than a foul or an out-of-bounds call, could not be reviewed when they protested late in Game 1.
Even yet, Indiana had opportunities throughout the whole second game, especially with a more self-assured Haliburton (34 points, 9 assists), a slowed down Brunson (29 points) who looked mortal after an incredible run of four games, and Anunoby’s third-quarter exit.
During a transition layup, Anunoby seemed to have planted his leg awkwardly, forcing Brunson to foul in order to halt play and have Anunoby replaced.
For a New York team that has struggled with them all season, it was just the latest illness. With an ankle injury that would likely terminate his playoff career, backup centre Mitchell Robinson was declared out for six to eight weeks only one day before to the team’s triumph in Game 2. That occurred one week after wrist and foot procedures declared wing Bojan Bogdanovic out for the remainder of the season. Furthermore, after dislocating his shoulder in late January, two-time All-NBA big Julius Randle was already out for the season for the squad.
Due to a lack of players, Thibodeau’s squad had to play a lot of his starters in recent weeks. Josh Hart (19 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists) became the first player since Jimmy Butler, who was coached by Thibodeau in 2013, to play the whole 48 minutes in a playoff game on Tuesday.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, Anunoby had averaged 46 minutes in the four games before to Tuesday, which was the most amount of time he has ever played in a four-game stretch in his career.

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