INDIANAPOLIS — Forty-eight hours earlier, the Knicks were on the brink of seizing a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference and Donte DiVincenzo was a large reason why.
Sunday, the Knicks had their doors blown off and the Pacers tied the series at 2-2 with a thorough 121-89 evisceration, and it was DiVincenzo — among many others — who took the blame for the woeful afternoon at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“We just came out and weren’t ready,” said DiVincenzo, who followed up a 35-point masterpiece in Game 3 with a disappointing seven-point, 3-for-13 buzzkill Sunday. “They came out and hit us first and kept going. They just competed harder from start to finish. Their bench guys came in and competed harder, their starters competed harder. They just played with an edge we didn’t play with.”
DiVincenzo did toe the company line in one other important matter.
“Lose by 30, lose by one, a loss is a loss,” he said. “You can take whatever from it, but ultimately mentally you just have to flush it and get ready because it’s a seven-game series.”
And, like the rest of the Knicks, he was confident they would leave whatever bad vibes the blowout loss might have generated at the Indiana state line.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. “We’re not worried about it. I know this group and Tuesday is a different game. It has nothing to do with today. It’s always good to go home. It’s also better to go home after a loss like this where mentally everybody is locked in and ready for the next game and then we will have that energy from the Garden to feed off as well. It’s super big for us. Like I said, this group is going to respond.”
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Pacers coach Rick Carlisle made a point of saying that he didn’t think his team defended DiVincenzo in a manner befitting his talent in the first three games.
“I appreciate the comments,” he said. “But, you know, that’s the whole point of a playoff series. you make adjustments and, you know, there was an adjustment they made tonight.
“We’ll go in [Monday] and we’ll make adjustments. It’s a seven-game series for a reason.”