The imagery, the timing and the guest list were enough to unnerve any Knicks fan with a long memory and an appreciation of history.
Reggie Miller roaming Madison Square Garden.
The Indiana Pacers on the court.
And the calendar uncomfortably highlighting the 18th anniversary of one of the greatest heartbreaks in Knicks playoff annals: Miller's infamous 8-points-in-9-seconds for the Pacers in 1995.
The symbolism was strong Tuesday night, but the Knicks were stronger — unbowed by a Game 1 defeat, unmoved by the Pacers' size advantage and ultimately unrelenting. They held firm for three quarters, then crushed the Pacers with a stunning 23-0 run and rolled to a stress-free 105-79 victory, tying this second-round series at 1-1.
After grinding through 17 days of low-wattage struggles in this postseason, the Knicks at last reclaimed their identity as a free-flowing, finely tuned offensive machine, and played a little defense for good measure. They exploded for 33 points in the final quarter and outscored the Pacers by 43-15 over the final 15 minutes 28 seconds.
"Like old times again," Coach Mike Woodson said. "It was kind of nice to see."
The Knicks broke the 100-point barrier for the first time since April 12 and shot 49.4 percent from the field. Carmelo Anthony put together his best performance of the postseason, filled with dunks and timely 3-pointers.
Anthony had 32 points and 9 rebounds and was crisp from the field, making 13 of 26 shots. He was brutally efficient in the second half, going 9 for 15.
"Melo just caught fire," said the Pacers' Paul George, adding: "I felt like we made it as difficult as we could. That's why he's an elite player — he has an ability to make contested shots."
The Pacers had largely bottled up Anthony in Game 1, forcing him into difficult shots and keeping him away from the rim. He broke through Tuesday, freeing himself from George and flying past David West and Roy Hibbert.
"I can't stop attacking," Anthony said. "I can't stop being aggressive out there on the basketball court. I think I did a good job of making some adjustments out there, just being patient. I thought that first game I was a little bit too impatient coming off the pick-and-rolls."
Four other Knicks finished in double figures, including Iman Shumpert (15 points), who lit up the arena with a first-half dunk, and Raymond Felton (14 points).
The series moves to Indiana for the next two games, after an extended three-day break that will give Anthony time to heal his achy left shoulder and Amar'e Stoudemire time to regain his conditioning. Game 3 is Saturday night.
The game was tense through three quarters, and the Knicks and the Pacers appeared headed for a close finish, the sort that Miller — the Hall of Fame sharpshooter who was at the Garden as a TNT analyst — would relish.
George had 20 points for the Pacers, whose size advantage seemed suddenly less important than it had in their Game 1 victory. The Knicks battled harder, won the rebounding battle (37-35), outscored the Pacers in the paint (52-40) and earned more second-chance points (29-8), reversing every troubling figure from Sunday's opener.
The only concern was Felton, who limped to the bench late in the third quarter and did not return. Felton said he tweaked his left ankle but indicated that he could have played if needed.
The Knicks treated their Game 1 loss as a minor hitch, not a warning bell — "There shouldn't be no panic mode on anybody's faces around here," Woodson said earlier — but the 1-0 deficit and the loss of home-court advantage was unsettling, and the prospect of falling behind by 2-0 was unthinkable. That made Tuesday's game the first must-win of this postseason, and by definition, the biggest game the Knicks have played in years.
Indiana took its final lead, 64-62, on Hill's 3-pointer with 3:28 left in the third quarter. Anthony answered emphatically, with two straight drives to the basket, including a two-handed dunk over Jeff Pendergraph that thrilled the crowd and elicited the first "M-V-P" chants of the night.
After Hill's 3-pointer, the Pacers went 12 minutes and 19 seconds without a field goal, scoring only 4 points on free throws, while the Knicks pushed their lead as high as 30 points. Indiana's drought finally ended with an Orlando Johnson 3-pointer.
Pacers Coach Frank Vogel was grim in his summation: "We turned the ball over, we didn't make free throws, we gave up second shots and we didn't guard the paint or the rim. And we didn't score."
Pablo Prigioni sparked the Knicks' fourth-quarter charge, opening the period with a 3-pointer and a short jumper. Anthony followed with two straight baskets — including a 3-pointer in front of Spike Lee, Miller's foil in playoffs past.
And the fun times kept coming. A putback dunk from Tyson Chandler. Another 3-pointer from Anthony. Another dunk from Chandler to make it 92-66, and soon the fans were taunting Miller with a lewd chant informing him that he stunk.
"We finally fell into a bit of a rhythm," Chandler said. "Our whole thing is to just kind of wear 'em down, wear 'em down, wear 'em down. Eventually we'll start to get the open shots."
Anthony again wore a protective wrap on his injured left shoulder, which continued to bother him on contact and any time he overextended himself. He briefly hung on the rim with his left hand after a third-quarter dunk and winced as he landed. "I keep forgetting it's sore," he said.
Anthony showed some patience with the ball and some faith in his teammates, hitting Felton and J. R. Smith for 3-pointers in the first quarter, doubling his assist total from Game 1. But it was Shumpert who delivered the early jolt, a thunderous putback dunk that sent tremors through the building. The murmurs did not subside for the next two minutes.
Shumpert credited the perfectly timed bounce from Chris Copeland's miss.
"It was beautiful for me," Shumpert said. "I just wanted to win this game real bad."
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