Coming into Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, the Pacers had a chance to win their first road game of the series against the Knicks and take a commanding one-game lead. Instead, they suffered a LONG night of agony as Jalen Brunson’s squad blew them out by thirty points. Now, with their season on the line, the Pacers will face the same team again tomorrow, this time in Indiana’s own Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Looking back on Tuesday’s humiliating loss, head coach Rick Carlisle had a stern message for his team ahead of the crucial game.

When asked what he needed to tell the Pacers differently to shake off the heavy loss and force a Game 7, Carlisle didn’t hold back in his response, “Fu*king play hard!” Well, the Knicks played extremely hard when they took care of business at MSG and outplayed Indiana in every aspect. And Carlisle wants his team to buckle up and do the same tomorrow.

Despite having multiple star players on the injury report, with the most recent being OG Anunoby who got injured in the second game, the Knicks did not let that affect their performance. Coming off two humiliating losses on the road and losing their two-game advantage, the Knicks came out with high intensity on Tuesday. They grabbed twenty-four more rebounds than Indiana, including 20 offensive ones, leading to 26 second-chance points. Quite visibly, Brunson and Co.’s energy on the court could not be matched by the visiting team.

Moreover, JB caught fire and posted his fifth forty-plus-point game in these playoffs adding to Indiana’s misery. And Pacers Center Myles Turner described it best after the game, “We got our a** kicked.”

Rick Carlisle knows how vital Tyrese Haliburton’s form is

What has raised even more concerns for Indiana is that we have been seeing two different versions of Tyrese Haliburton in this series. In the first game, he looked a shell of himself scoring just six points. That was probably because of the playoff jitters. But he soon bounced back with back-to-back 30+ point games in the next two.

Just as everyone assumed he was back in his groove, TH dropped another disappointing performance on Tuesday. Scoring only 13, as he took only 9 shots throughout the game, he looked far from the best player on the roster.

So, when Rick Carlisle was asked what the sweet spot was for Tyrese that could get him going in the next game, the head coach didn’t beat around the bush, “The sweet spot is go rebound the fu*king ball and not take it out of the net and things will be a lot different.” Aware of the fact that they likely lost Game 5 because the Knicks were far better at hustle and high-energy plays, Carlisle demanded his team to get better on the board to give their star more freedom to operate.

Notably, Tyrese was disappointed with his performance and knew he needed to be better. “We just didn’t match that intensity level all night… I just gotta do a better job of being aggressive… I’ll fix that next game,” he said. After three years of sitting at home during the postseason, the Pacers are finally back playing at the highest level.

They will need to realize what’s at stake and come out with high energy and intensity. That’s the only chance they have to keep their playoff journey going.