Indiana
Pacers have no answers for Karl-Anthony Towns in 4th quarter of Game 3 loss to Knicks
Pacers Insiders break down Game 3 loss to New York Knicks in Indianapolis
IndyStar’s Dustin Dopirak, Joel A. Erickson and Kyle Neddenriep break down the Indiana Pacers’ Game 3 loss to the New York Knicks.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Pacers have a Karl-Anthony Towns problem.
A problem that hasn’t always been insurmountable through the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals, but the kind of problem that can kill the Pacers if they give Towns an opening.
Indiana’s offense started to grind its gears midway through the third quarter of Sunday night’s 106-100 loss to New York, but the Knicks offense was still sputtering, hamstrung by the foul trouble of star guard Jalen Brunson.
New York needed somebody to provide the scoring.
Towns took over.
The Knicks big man poured in 20 points in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, singlehandedly providing the scoring punch New York needed to turn an 80-70 Pacers lead at the start of the quarter into a 94-90 deficit with 5:10 left in the game.
“He went on the run,” Pacers forward Pascal Siakam said. “We’ve got to shut that off.”
Towns, the five-time All-Star the Knicks didn’t have when the Pacers ushered New York out of the playoffs last year, has given Indiana fits throughout this season.
He scored 30 points in the second regular-season meeting between the two teams, then thoroughly dominated the Pacers in February, pouring in 40 points to power the Knicks past Indiana in a game where Brunson had just eight points due to foul trouble.
Indiana’s impossible comeback in the fourth quarter of Game 1 overshadowed everything else that’s happened in the series.
But Towns was borderline unstoppable in that game, scoring 35 points on just 17 shots.
“KAT, as we know, is a very gifted scorer,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He can score at three different levels. He’s comfortable at the 3-point line, he’s comfortable putting it on the floor, he’s comfortable playing back to the basket, as long as he stays aggressive.”
Towns wasn’t aggressive enough through the first three quarters against the Pacers.
Frustrated by foul trouble and left behind at times by Indiana’s breakneck pace, Towns had just four points at the end of the third quarter.
With Brunson limited by his own foul trouble and relegated to the bench, though, Towns began to turn on the skills that have given the Pacers so much trouble in the past.
“I just saw an opportunity,” Towns said. “An opportunity to utilize all those hours that I put into the gym. The game wasn’t looking great for me, but for all of us. I just wanted to do whatever it takes to help put us in position to win.”
Towns largely needed only two different levels of scoring to go on the overpowering run that gave the Knicks control of Game 3 down the stretch.
Firing 3-pointers from a stance that looks almost flat-footed, Towns buried a long one 20 seconds into the fourth quarter to get going, and he hit two more by the end of the run, taking advantage every time the Pacers gave him space.
“He’s got a hair trigger,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said. “You think you’re close enough to him, and he just flicks the wrist.”
The rest of his work was done off the dribble.
Indiana threw almost all of its bigs at Towns.
Myles Turner, the Pacers’ shot-blocking center, got the lion’s share of the workload in the fourth quarter, and he played Towns physical, refusing to give up easy buckets even if it meant fouling the surging Knick. Siakam had his chances; backup Tony Bradley had a few of his own, although Carlisle limited Bradley’s chances once it was clear that Towns had gotten white-hot.
For a little less than seven minutes, it didn’t much matter who was on Towns.
“Fourth quarter’s different,” Towns said. “It’s like a whole ‘nother game.”
When he saw an opening, Towns bullied his way to the basket, either making a difficult, contested layup or drawing a foul and heading to the free-throw line, where he made all five of his attempts to open the fourth quarter.
Indiana never came up with an answer, echoing a handful of other performances against Towns this season.
If the Pacers are going to keep the Knicks from fighting their way back into the series, they’re going to have to do a better job against the New York big man.
Indiana already has an idea of what went wrong.
“We probably fouled too much down there,” Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “He can see over guys, he’s 7-foot, he’s a big dude. We’ve got to get up, and do a better job of showing help in the gaps.”
But Siakam also pointed out that the Pacers can slow down Towns simply by answering his plays with points of their own, points that came too few and far between in a 42-point second half that is far behind Indiana’s typical pace.
The Pacers must be better on both sides of the ball for the rest of the series.
Because Towns has proven he will take advantage of an opening if the Pacers leave one.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
-
Michigan45 seconds agoWest Michigan celebrates Juneteenth
-
Massachusetts8 minutes agoMassachusetts gas prices finally hit reverse, falling back toward $4
-
Mississippi11 minutes agoPolice shooting of a 1-year-old Mississippi boy ignites tension between police and residents – WXXV News 25
-
Minnesota11 minutes agoRare tick disease poses a danger in Minnesota lakes area
-
Missouri23 minutes ago10 pounds of meth found during I-70 traffic stop, Callaway County Sheriff’s Office says
-
Montana24 minutes agoMontana State doctoral student awarded national research service grant for gut microbiome, arsenic research
-
Nebraska31 minutes agoUnderground Railroad site reopens after 7-year closure in Nebraska City
-
Nevada38 minutes agoCaltech readies to build world’s most sensitive radio telescope in Nevada
