Josh Hart directed the blame inward.
He believes the Knicks shot themselves within the foot moderately than the Pacers doing something particular.
“We put ourselves in this position,” Hart stated Thursday morning on the Knicks’ shootaround forward of Recreation 5. “This series could easily have been 2-2 right now, 3-1 us. A couple of mistakes that we made put us in this position.”
There was the epic choke in Recreation 1, when the Knicks led by 14 with 2:45 left within the fourth quarter.
They went on to grow to be the primary crew out of 995 in that state of affairs within the postseason to lose within the play-by-play period.
There was the maddening lack of communication defensively in Recreation 2, getting misplaced on display screen after display screen — a problem the Knicks vowed to repair for the reason that postseason started.
There was the turnstile protection in Recreation 4, permitting the Pacers to shoot 51.1 % from the sector and 40.6 % from 3-point vary.
Nonetheless, Hart was adamant that the Knicks didn’t overlook the Pacers or let their guard down after beating the Celtics, even when followers did.
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“During this year and last year during the playoff run — I don’t know if you call it a run, but the playoffs — we want the fans to go out and have as much fun as they can during this time,” Hart stated. “It is a time for them to assist us, to have enjoyable, and for us to be locked in on the following opponent. So we didn’t overlook them in any respect as a result of we all know what they’d and what they create to the desk.
“We knew it was going to be a tough task. But we always want our fans to go out there and have as much fun respectfully and as responsibly as they can.”
