Tom Thibodeau finished fifth among his peers in Coach of the Year voting, an award rightfully claimed by Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, who captained the youngest team ever to both win 55 games in a season and secure to the No. 1 seed in either the Eastern or Western Conferences in NBA history.

Daigneault ran away with the league honor, taking home 89 of the 99 first-place votes to create 315 points worth of separation between himself and the runner-up, Orlando Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley.

Mosley had an admirable season, leading Paolo Banchero and a Magic team with just one player over age 29 to the East’s No. 5 seed.

So did both Chris Finch, who coached Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves to one game shy of the West’s No. 1 seed, and Joe Mazzulla, whose loaded Boston Celtics finished seven games better than the West’s No. 1 seed and 14 games better than the next-best Eastern Conference team.

That team is the Knicks — Thibodeau’s Knicks — who miraculously claimed the second seed in the East despite a barrage of injuries and a pair of mid-season trades.

If Thibodeau’s regular-season success in the face of adversity doesn’t reinforce his status as a top-three coach of the year candidate snub, consider what he’s done in the playoffs, as he’s positioned these Knicks one game shy of their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2000.

There is no reason Thibodeau should not have finished top-three in Coach of the Year honors. He has turned water into wine, pushing a depleted, injury-riddled Knicks roster beyond its limits to put it on pace for one of the best single seasons in franchise history.

It’s no wonder the Knicks, reportedly, are preparing to offer Thibodeau a long-term — and lucrative — contract extension to stay at Madison Square Garden.

After all, Thibodeau powered the Knicks to the No. 2 seed despite a wave of injuries that would have wrecked a number of seasons elsewhere.

In fact, the Knicks have taken a 3-2 series lead over the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the playoffs despite missing four key rotation players to injury entering a pivotal Game 6 in Indiana on Friday.

• Mitchell Robinson suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle on Dec. 8, costing him three-and-a-half months of regular-season action, then returned with a handful of games remaining on the schedule, only to end his season on another stress reaction in the same ankle in Game 1 against the Pacers
• Three-time All-Star Julius Randle — who averaged 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists per game in the first half of the season — ended his year on a dislocated right shoulder in a an. 27 matchup against the Miami Heat
• That was also the last game OG Anunoby played before discovering inflammation in his right elbow. Anunoby ultimately underwent a minor procedure that sidelined him for a month-and-a-half. He  then aggravated the elbow injury within three games into his return to action and missed another stretch of games after the All-Star break
• And Bojan Bogdanovic’s season ended on a gruesome ankle injury in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers

Now it’s Anunoby with not an elbow, but a hamstring keeping him off the floor, yet Thibodeau’s Knicks have decisively outplayed a Pacers team they would have already advanced beyond had Andrew Nesmith, who entered the fourth quarter of Game 3 with zero points on six shot attempts, not cashed-in on a buzzer-beating, 30-foot heave for the win in Indiana.

Thibodeau finished with two first-place votes for Coach of the Year, 14 second-place votes and seven third-place selections for the highest single-season coaching honor in the sport.

He also finished first in an anonymous poll among players asked to name the coach, aside from their own, they would least like to play for.

Thibodeau’s players, several of which are enjoying career years in New York, stuck up for their coach, and Josh Hart did it again, defending his coach from criticism suggesting culpability for the injuries plaguing the Knicks in the playoffs.

If anything, Thibodeau pushed the Knicks forward in spite of the missing bodies, and while he might not have any end-of-the-season hardware, or finalist status, to tout, he is captaining a Knicks team perpetually defying the odds, relentlessly moving forward toward the best season it’s seen this century.

“You expect ignorance when people have no idea what goes on in this building,” said Josh Hart. “At the end of the day,  people are going to say things for clicks. People are going to say things that make them feel like they stuck it to him. But at the end of the day, they are not in this building, they are not in that locker room. Whatever they say doesn’t mean anything. Put any of those guys in this position and see what they do.”

Eleven games for him so far in this postseason. Five dazzling performances of 40 points or more. In the history of the NBA here are the guys who have done more than that in a single year: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Jerry West, Allen Iverson. That is the historic company Brunson now keeps.

That is the kind of 11 that No.11 has rolled so far.

“[Brunson] is an incredible player,” his coach Tom Thibodeau said after Game 5, Thibodeau’s Knicks having gotten up again after getting knocked down the way they were in Game 4 in Indy.

The Knicks were absolutely as much of a team as they’ve ever been on Tuesday night. But then, they are as much of a team as the Knicks have had since 2000, the last time any Knicks team made it as far as the Eastern Conference finals. Only this feels bigger than that, and better, and louder and more important to Knicks fans because of everything that has happened since then, so much of it bad.

You saw how many guys stepped up in Game 5, the ‘Nova Knicks and Isaiah Hartenstein and Deuce McBride and a guy Thibs had forgotten named Alec Burks because everybody had forgotten Burks. Once again, though, it was all sidebar as we all saw what Brunson is like when he has his legs underneath him, when Atlas doesn’t shrug, Brunson putting 44 more points into the books and making another memory for himself and the Garden and once again making you ask this question about No. 11:

How could the Mavericks been so wrong about this guy?

Brunson clearly was not himself in the two games the Knicks lost to the Pacers in Indianapolis when the Pacers squared the series. He was a step slow, at least, had no lift, missed shots he had been making since the start of the series against the 76ers. By then Brunson had set the bar so high for himself, in this playoff series in the NBA when the only more important player has been Nikola Jokic, the MVP of the league again, that when he scored 26 and 29 in those games it was as if he’d barely shown up.

Thibodeau: “I just love how there’s never any excuse-making for him.”

And when it was over on Tuesday night, the opposing coach, Rick Carlisle, whose defense once again watched Brunson go wherever he wanted to go on offense whenever he wanted to, said this:

“Their level of fight was greater than our own.”

It mattered, of course, and mightily. But what mattered more and mattered the most was this: Thibodeau had Brunson and Carlisle did not, on a night at the Garden when Brunson scored 32 of his 44 in the paint. A guard who is listed at 6-2 and doesn’t really look 6-2 once again played like a giant of his sport and continued to make April and May of 2024 a basketball time that will be remembered whether the Pacers come all the way back, or whether the Knicks got knocked off in the round after this. And maybe the very best part of it all is that Brunson is still just 27 years old. There is no reason to think he might only just be getting started.

May 15, 2024: Brun' win away!

Brunson runs the show and owns this Garden the way Clyde Frazier owned his. But Clyde, the best all-around Knick of them all, had all those Hall of Famers with him, Willis Reed and Dave DeBusschere and Bill Bradley and, later, Earl (The Pearl) Monroe. As admirable as these Knicks are, all that fight in them that Carlisle talked about, they right now are starting one player who started the first game of their regular season, and that is Brunson.

Julius Randle is hurt and Mitchell Robinson is hurt and RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes are long gone. OG Anunoby, such a huge difference-maker for them after the Knicks got him in a trade with Toronto, is hurt again. But the way the Knicks looked without him on Tuesday night in Game 5, there are plenty Knick fans I know who are perfectly willing to take their chances with the Celtics, if it comes to that, if Anunoby gets healthy and looks the way he did, at both ends of the court, the way he did when the Knicks first got him.

But as much as Thibodeau has gotten from the other ‘Nova Knicks especially — Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo — this is all about Brunson, the son or Rick Brunson, an old Knick, the kid who grew up, as Jeff Van Gundy told me one time, “dribbling the ball up and down the hallway at the Garden.” He has gone from that to this, No. 11 rolling this kind of 11 and looking like a Knick who has taken his place with the best they’ve ever had. You hear a lot about a puncher’s chance in sports. Brunson is that for these Knicks.

He took two minutes off in Game 5, the Pacers started to come back, Brunson came back and all of a sudden the Knicks went off on a 9-0 rip, and were going to win again. Now he gets these two days off to catch his breath. We all do.

It’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Knicks and Indiana Pacers, the 8:54 mark of the fourth quarter to be precise, and Jalen Brunson, in this moment, decides to turn on the jets.

Brunson, who has 36 points at this juncture of the game, has fully debunked the notion that Nesmith, a 6-6, 215-pound defensive pest for the Pacers, has his number.

On this possession, Brunson recovers a defensive rebound, and Nesmith backpedals as the Knicks’ star guard advances the ball.

Brunson reaches half court with the ball in his right hand and accelerates into a hesitation crossover left to throw Nesmith off-balance.

What happens next brings Madison Square Garden to its feet, and Nesmith, in comical fashion, to a knee.

Brunson goes behind the back, and Nesmith reaches for the ball, only to first come up empty, and then touch earth, a game of live-action Twister played on The Garden’s hardwood floors.

Then Brunson darts by his downed opponent and hoists a floater over Pacers forward Pascal Siakam.

Unlike his other 17 made shots in a 44-point, 35-attempt masterpiece on Tuesday night, however, the ball does not go through the net on this shot.

Instead, it bounces off of three different parts of the rim, plus the backboard, before Pacers forward Isaiah Jackson saves the day, tapping the ball off the iron and earning a goaltending violation — count the bucket — even though Brunson’s shot would have otherwise missed, and thus undone the assault performed Nesmith’s ankles.

Because if you don’t make the shot, no matter how nasty the crossover, then the crossover itself never happened.

“I missed a layup, and I got bailed out by him touching the ball on the rim,” Brunson recalled after the game. “It doesn’t count.”

The crowd sure counted it, erupting for one of Brunson’s signature playoff moments at The Garden, where the Knicks seized a 3-2 series lead via a 30-point victory and now have a chance to close the Pacers in six — or seven — courtesy of Brunson’s surgical disassembly of Nesmith on Tuesday night.

The NBA counted the bucket, too: it’s listed as a driving floating jump shot from one foot away from the rim, one of nine made shots on 17 attempts Brunson took with Nesmith as his primary defender in Game 5.

Brunson shot just 16-of-43 from the field for 44 points in Games 3 and 4 combined after Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle made the defensive adjustment to move away from the sticky 6-3 Andrew Nembhard as Brunson’s primary defensive matchup to Nesmith, who has a glaring size and strength advantage defending the point of attack.

Brunson diagnosed the situation, then prescribed more buckets. Now, the Knicks are one win away from their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since 2000.

“[Jalen] just being Jalen,” starting Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein said with a smile at his locker after the Game 5 win. “I think he’s mentally really strong. I think him coming back, him —  as crazy as it sounds — him not forcing anything, and he was still, when they doubled, he got off the ball. He made the right reads, I’m always confident when I have Jalen on the court.”

And it’s the same thing the All-NBA hopeful executed to lead the Knicks to victory in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers continued a regular-season trend of using 6-8 wings Kelly Oubre Jr. and Nic Batum both to alter Brunson’s shot motion and throw him out of rhythm guarding him the full 94-foot length of the court.

Brunson shot just 16-of-55 for 46 points in Games 1 and 2 against the Sixers.

He then torched them for 41.8 points on 53.6% shooting from the field to close Philadelphia in six games on its own home floor.

Brunson just shredded the Pacer defense, and Nesmith specifically, after a pair of games where Nesmith appeared a dominant defender for this matchup, only for his ankles to be reduced to ash in a moment sure to live on in Garden lore, even if Brunson won’t count it.

“He’ll always figure it out. … He’s a really smart player,” Hartenstein continued. “So I feel like he’ll always figure out how to adjust, and it’s our job to make his life easier by being more physical and getting easier looks.”

They cheered after each of Isaiah Hartenstein’s 12 offensive rebounds. They roared even louder as Jalen Brunson cruised to another 40-point performance. And they exited MSG with all the confidence in the world that their hometown Knicks are well on their way to the first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000.

“The fans, it’s freaking nuts,” said Mani Bajwa. “They scare me and I’m on the same side.”

Bajwa, and his friend Sulaiman Rahman, were two of 20,000 plus in attendance for Tuesday’s revenge win after witnessing an awful Mother’s Day embarrassment that took place in Indiana Sunday. The ugly loss is already a distant memory, though.

Bajwa, who has fallen in love with the Knicks and the area since moving to New York City last winter, believes the Pacers have run out of luck. And another game in a hostile an environment isn’t enough to force a Game 7.

“Oh, they’re closing it out next game,” Bajwa said with confidence before exiting the arena.

And his confidence on why the Knicks will advance? No. 11 in orange and blue.

“He might be the best player in the playoffs,” Bajwa said about Brunson. “Everyone talks about SGA [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] and Ant [Anthony Edwards] but Brunson is carrying this team.”

That’s the tone around The Garden. Whether it’ll take a gutsy road win or a Game 7 win at home, Knicks fans feel the Brunson-led team can’t lose as long as the star is on his game.

Twenty-three-year-old college student Rafael Nadal — yes the same name as the Spanish tennis legend — isn’t certain on how many games it’ll take, but he knows the first Eastern Conference Finals berth of his lifetime is approaching.

“Who knows,” Rafael said when asked if the Knicks can wrap the series up in six games. “I have faith. I know they can close it down. I know we don’t have OG [Anunoby]… but we got this. I feel like the rotation is better. Alec Burks is getting more minutes. He’s getting some confidence. If we really want to, we got this.”

Rafael enjoyed the Game 6 victory with his father and younger sister, Victoria. He came straight to MSG in his cap and gown after graduating from nearby NYU. Game 6 was obviously a game he couldn’t miss with the colors of orange and blue flowing through his bloodstream.

“My dad is a Knicks fan. My grandpa was a Knicks fan. My great grandfather was a Knicks fans as well,” he said.

“And as a result, our whole entire family are Knicks fans,” Victoria added.

While enjoying a comfortable second-half lead, Rafael reminisced on the good — and mostly not so good — times of being a young Knicks fan.

“I got to see the Melo days, which were great. I got to see the Porzingis days, which were … OK,” he said. “But overall it’s been suffering for the past few years.”

He mentioned the immediate shift that began in the front office after the Julius Randle signing in 2019 and the subsequent deals that followed. But there’s one that saved the franchise and actually instilled hope in a city dying for another postseason run.

“And when Jalen Brunson came in,” Rafael said with a smile. “When you start seeing the leadership. It’s not only him being a guard. It’s him being a leader and really carrying his players forward. It makes everyone so much happier. It’s been such an enjoyable experience. Its been such a great way that I can actually bond with my dad.”

Brunson followed up the Game 4 dud by converting on 18-of-35 shots on Tuesday. The MSG hardwood was his dance floor. The Pacers sent different matchups at him, but to no avail. Aaron Nesmith had success on the Knicks All-Star Sunday, but ended up on the floor while trying to guard Brunson in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

Jalen Brunson said this ankle breaker on Aaron Nesmith doesn’t count because he got bailed out by a goaltending call.

Let’s be real pic.twitter.com/4dhcyz70Lc

— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) May 15, 2024

The play ended with Brunson being awarded two points on a goaltending violation. But it still left Queens teacher John Torres in awe.

“He’s the heart and soul. He’s having a good night, there’s a good chance the Knicks are going to have a good night,” said John, 35, who attended Game 5 with his twin brother, Jimmy.

Tuesday’s blowout win was the first playoff game for the Queens natives. Watching their team get revenge on Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers was the only thing on their minds.

“That’s why we’re here. We knew the Knicks had to show up tonight.”

Getting a win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Friday’s Game 6 would add to their joy. But even if the series goes seven games, John isn’t worried.

“That’s tough, man. That’s tough,” John said about the Knicks getting a series-clinching Game 6 win. “You gotta go back to Indiana. Hopefully we can close it out there because we got the injuries and that’ll get time for our players to get a little rest.

“But if we got to come back to The Garden, I like the odds of that.”

John said there’s a “good chance” they’ll return for Game 7, if necessary. But Jimmy will have to pick up the tab next time around.

“I bought these seats. He’s gonna have to buy the next one,” John said laughing.

Hartenstein hauled in 17 rebounds on Tuesday in the Knicks’ 121-91 win in Game 5 of their second-round playoff series with the Pacers, establishing a level of physicality he says he didn’t bring in their losses in Games 3 and 4 on the road.

That lofty rebounding total included 12 offensive boards, tying Hartenstein with Charles Oakley for the most in a single Knicks playoff game. Oakley achieved the feat in 1994.

“I just want to be more physical,” Hartenstein, 26, said after helping the Knicks go up 3-2 in the series. “I feel like the games in Indiana, I wasn’t playing like myself. I wasn’t being physical. I was letting them kind of play how I play, so just coming in, that was the biggest thing I wanted to do: Just be physical. Just play my game.”

Five of Hartenstein’s offensive rebounds came during the first quarter, leading to nine second-chance points that helped the Knicks overcome an early 16-9 deficit.

The Knicks finished with 26 second-chance points compared to the Pacers’ nine.

“I thought Isaiah was phenomenal,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It was a great team effort, but Isaiah in particular, those extra possessions were huge for us.”

The 7-foot Hartenstein totaled 13 rebounds over Games 3 and 4. The Knicks lost the rebounding battle in both games.

The 17 rebounds on Tuesday marked Hartenstein’s most in a game this postseason. It was the second time in 11 playoff games that Hartenstein’s rebounding total reached double-figures.

“They killed us on the glass better than they probably have any game all series,” Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton said. “We just didn’t match that intensity level all night. … We’ve just got to do a better job of limiting second-chance opportunities. I think in the first half, they shot 15 more shots than us. How do you win a game when teams are doing that?”

The Knicks ended up taking 29 more shots than the Pacers over the course of the game, slowing down Indiana’s fast-paced offense.

“If we don’t get stops and rebounds, our game is not gonna look good. We’re not gonna be able to get the ball out,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “All of our playmakers are not going to have opportunities to get the ball and attack.”

A reserve to start the season, Hartenstein continues to find success as a starter in place of fellow center Mitchell Robinson, who recently underwent his second ankle surgery of the year. Robinson is expected to be re-evaluated in six-to-eight weeks.

The Pacers suffered a 121-91 drubbing by the Knicks in a pivotal Game 5 loss at Madison Square Garden, leaving them one loss away from elimination in their second-round NBA playoff series.

About 130 miles to the northeast, the Indiana Fever dropped their season opener, 92-71, to the Connecticut Sun, during which rookie phenom Caitlin Clark struggled in her much-anticipated WNBA debut.

The Pacers returned to New York with the momentum of back-to-back victories in Games 3 and 4 in Indianapolis, evening the best-of-seven series at 2-2.

Indiana won Game 4 on Sunday in blowout fashion, steamrolling the Knicks, 121-89, in an outing decided so quickly that both teams rested their starters for the final quarter.

But the Knicks returned the favor Tuesday, routing the Pacers, 121-91, in a game they outrebounded Indiana, 53-29; forced 18 turnovers; scored 26 second-chance points; and shot 47-of-101 from the field.

“Very poor effort, obviously,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said afterward. “Lost every quarter. Got annihilated on loose balls and rebounds. Gave up 20 offensive rebounds and 29 more shots. We all own it, but very embarrassing. Very embarrassing and a hard lesson.”

The lopsided loss sends the Pacers back to Indianapolis down 3-2 for Friday night’s Game 6.

“They killed us on the glass better than they probably have any game all series,” said Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, who scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting. “We just didn’t match that intensity level all night. Cut it to seven there, early in the second half, got some momentum going, but they answered right back.”

Clark, meanwhile, scored a Fever-high 20 points but shot 5-of-15 from the field and committed 10 turnovers. She picked up two early fouls and missed her first four shot attempts before scoring her first basket at the 5:24 mark of the second quarter.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed, and nobody likes to lose,” Clark said afterward. “That’s how it is, but I don’t think you can beat yourself up too much about one game. I don’t think that’s gonna help this team.”

Clark, who faced tough defense from Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington, referenced the physicality of Tuesday’s game multiple times during her postgame press conference.

“I thought it took me a little while to settle into the game,” Clark said. “I thought the second half was a lot better, minus some of the turnovers, but just getting more comfortable, and that’s just gonna come with experience and getting to play with these girls.”

Selected first overall in last month’s WNBA Draft, Clark arrived with tremendous hype after a four-year collegiate career at Iowa, where she left as the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer.

Her home debut is set to take place Thursday night at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse — the day before Game 6 between the Knicks and Pacers is scheduled at the arena.

“We’ve got to make some serious adjustments for Game 6,” Carlisle said, “and we’ve got to get out of here and get home.”

You’re not as tough as you’re trying to make it seem.

That was the gist of the message DiVincenzo delivered in front of his locker after a mid-court altercation with Indiana’s starting center in the Knicks’ 30-point shellacking of the Pacers in Game 5 on Tuesday.

DiVincenzo soared through the air for a putback dunk to put the Knicks up 22 with four-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter, and when he got back up the court on defense, Turner set a screen on him away from the ball.

DiVincenzo attempted to fight through the screen but ultimately got tangled with Turner, and the two exchanged heated words before a nearby official had to separate the two players.

The official’s attempt, however, failed, and DiVincenzo and Turner continued jawing with one another, with several of Turner’s teammates restraining him from continuing to pursue the Knicks guard.

“They were trying to be tough guys,” DiVincenzo said after the game. “That’s not their identity, and there was nothing more to that. I don’t agree with trying to walk up on somebody. Nobody’s gonna fight in the NBA. Take the foul, keep it moving. You’re not a tough guy, just keep it moving.”

Game 5 was one of the more physical games of this second-round series, a necessary prescription for a Knicks team that felt the Pacers attempted to assume their smash-mouth style of play.

After a 32-point loss to the Pacers in Game 4, the Knicks stuck it to the Pacers, out rebounding them, 53-29, and beating them to a large majority of 50-50 balls on the night.

“[We got back to] being ourselves,” said DiVincenzo. “They were talking, trying to be physical, basically trying to be our brand, our identity. And they were successful with it last game. And we regrouped, watched film and realized that’s not who we are. We came out tonight and that’s exactly who we are.”

The dust-up with Turner was one of two skirmishes DiVincenzo found himself a part of on Wednesday. On another play earlier in the game, Pacers center Isaiah Jackson was called for an illegal screen for launching his shoulder into DiVincenzo, only for Isaiah Hartenstein and Alec Burks to come to his defense.

“At the end of the day, they’re also family to me, so if something happens to them, it doesn’t matter what kind of situation it is: I’m always gonna stick up for them,” Hartenstein said after the game. “I mean, the last one, I was kinda hesitant because I didn’t want to get my second [technical foul], but in general, I think that’s what makes us stand up for each other.”

The Knicks faced a similar level of heightened physicality in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers, who were left with little choice but to muck the series up when the Knicks took a commanding 3-1 series lead.

“There’s two teams that are just trying to move on,” said Jalen Brunson. “Regardless of what the situation is, there’s a lot of competitors out there. It is what it is. Obviously everyone wants to win. You don’t really think anything of it. We both want to win.”

Five players ended Game 5 with technical fouls: Turner and Jackson for the Pacers, and DiVincenzo, Burks and Hartenstein for the Knicks.

“For me I never really see [on-court altercations] and get riled up,” said Josh Hart. “I think we always have that and that’s just a side effect of coming out with energy and toughness and tenacity. So obviously we would have liked to not have some of the techs that we had, but that goes with the competitiveness and the toughness that we’re trying to bring.”

It’s the fourth quarter of a blowout Knicks Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers, a decisive 121-91 result in favor of a Knicks team that bounced back from a 32-point loss in Game 4, and Jalen Brunson, who’d torched the Pacers’ best defensive option all night, went for the kill shot with his team up late.

Brunson advanced the ball past halfcourt with Nesmith awaiting him beyond the Knicks’ center-stage logo, then used a hesitation crossover combo to get the feisty Nesmith off-balance.

Brunson then snatched the ball behind his back, leaving Nesmith’s torso turned to the right with his head facing left, his hand planted into the ground and one leg skidding backwards.

The Madison Square Garden crowd erupted.

Brunson knifed through the lane and threw up a floater the Pacers goal-tended after touching the rim.

For Brunson and these Knicks, it was only a matter of time.

A matter of time before a tactician like the All-Star Knicks guard finally solved the problems posed by a feisty Pacers defense.

A matter of time before a Knicks team uncharacteristically out-rebounded in Games 3 and 4 of their second-round series finally got back to dominating a lesser opponent on the glass.

A matter of time before the Knicks, who dropped two games in a row at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse — including an embarrassing loss in Game 4 on Sunday — returned home to wipe the Madison Square Garden floors with the only thing standing between New York and its best season since 2000.

The time is now for the Knicks, whose victory over the Pacers on Tuesday moves them one game closer to the Eastern Conference Finals, an eventual date with the Boston Celtics, the victor of which will take a trip to the NBA Finals.

Now, the Knicks can taste it.

For all the talk about this Tom Thibodeau-coached team running on fumes, they filled the tank once more to steamroll the Pacers on Tuesday night.

Brunson finished with a game-high 44 points on 18-of-35 shooting from the field. He tied his total scoring output in Games 3 and 4 combined with one explosive scoring performance at The Garden on Tuesday.

Brunson shot 16-of-43 from the field in two games in Indiana after the Pacers made the defensive adjustment, changing primary defensive assignments from the smaller Andrew Nembhard to the stockier Nesmith, who — along with a foot injury — kept the star Knicks guard in check as the Pacers evened the series with two consecutive wins on their own home floor.

He scored more points in the first half of the Knicks’ Game 5 victory alone (28) than he did in either of the two preceding games in Indiana.

And just like he solved the Philadelphia 76ers, who used a pair of 6-foot-8 wings in Nicolas Batum and Kelly Oubre Jr. to guard the point of attack in the first round, Brunson cracked the code against a Pacer defense he averaged close to 36 points per game against during the regular season.

His all but performance saved the Knicks’ season.

Had the depleted, downtrodden Knicks — without Julius Randle (shoulder surgery), Mitchell Robinson (ankle surgery), Bojan Bogdanovic (ankle surgery) and OG Anunoby (hamstring strain) succumbed to fatigue in Game 5 as they did in Game 4, they would have faced the unenviable feat of avoiding elimination in a win-or-go-home Game 6 in hostile Indianapolis territory on Friday.

Succumb the Knicks did not.

Instead, they will take a 3-2 series lead over the Pacers into two much-needed days of rest before a chance to eliminate the Pacers on their own home floor.

It’s what Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle hoped to avoid moments ahead of tipoff in the same arena his team lost the first two games of this series.

“[The 32-point win is] over with, and really I think what we’ve gotta remember is what happened here the first two games and the things we need to do better,” Carlisle said pregame on Tuesday. “This is an explosive environment. It’s really, very, very special. … And you’ve just got to understand that you have to be on your game with the little things so well because things happen here. [Isaiah] Hartenstein throws in a 50 foot shot to end the first half of Game 1. The ball’s gonna bounce funny unless you’re really doing the right things and doing everything possible to get loose balls, to block out and get rebounds, So we must do better in those two areas, and anything that’s in the past is really done with.”

Josh Hart bounced back from a no-show in Game 4 with a double-double — 18 points and 11 rebounds — and Miles McBride, who started in place of Precious Achiuwa, finished with 17 points plus hounding defense on Pacers’ All-Star Tyrese Haliburton. Haliburton finished with just 13 points and five assists on five-of-nine shooting from the field.

The Knicks got another boost from Alec Burks, who scored 18 points off the bench and has now tallied 52 points over the last three games.

After Thibodeau emptied his bench in defeat at the top of the fourth quarter in Game 4, he cleared his bench once again, this time in victory, with 2:04 to go in the fourth quarter of Game 5.

The Knicks now get two much-needed days off before Game 6 in Indianapolis, where the Pacers are sure to rally for a season-saving performance in front of their own home fans.

The stage is set for an epic Game 7 at The Garden with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals hanging in the balance.

Anunoby’s status for Game 7 is up in the air, as he’s progressed from pool workouts to light on-court work after sustaining a hamstring injury in Game 2.

The Knicks proved on Tuesday they don’t need Anunoby to handle this Pacers team.

The magic number is now one. One more win pushes these Knicks to their best season of the century.

He certainly was in Games 2 through 4, averaging 29.7 points per game and helping his Pacers even the second-round series, 2-2.

But in the Pacers’ 121-91 loss on Tuesday in a pivotal Game 5 at Madison Square Garden, Haliburton’s performance was much more reminiscent of the series opener than it was of the next three games.

The 6-5 point guard finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, despite being guarded by 6-1 Miles McBride and 32-year-old Alec Burks. He had only seven points on four attempts in the first half. His five assists matched his series low. His -22 point differential was the worst among Indiana starters.

“I’ve just got to do a better job of being aggressive,” Haliburton said afterward. “I said the same thing after Game 1. It’s more on me than it is on what anybody else is doing, so I’ll fix that next game.”

It was a far cry from the Pacers’ Game 2 loss, when Haliburton scored 34 points on 11-of-19 shooting; their Game 3 win, when he scored 35 points on 14-of-26 from the field; and a Game 4 drubbing of the Knicks, when he totaled 20 points and a +31 point differential.

Each of those scoring totals led Indiana.

“Tyrese is a great young player,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Game 5. “He’s so respectful of where we are at this moment. He wants to learn. He wants to help the team win. … He’s the leader on the floor, so his job is to help do whatever’s needed. Sometimes it may not be scoring as much.”

Asked after the game about Haliburton’s performance, Carlisle pointed to the Pacers being outrebounded 53-29, including surrendering 20 offensive boards, and allowing the Knicks to shoot 47-of-101.

“If we don’t get stops and rebounds, our game is not gonna look good. We’re not gonna be able to get the ball out,” Carlisle said. “All of our playmakers are not going to have opportunities to get the ball and attack.”

Haliburton, a two-time All-Star in his fourth NBA season, got off to an uneven start this spring in his first trip to the playoffs. His 16.0 points per game in the first round against Milwaukee were 4.1 fewer than he averaged in the regular season, while his shooting numbers (43.5% field goals, 29.6% on 3-pointers) also paled in comparison (47.7%, 36.4%).

His postseason ascension came amid a rash of injuries, including a barking bark he tweaked during the series against the Bucks. He entered the Garden on Tuesday listed as questionable for Game 5 due to lower back spasms, as well as for a right ankle sprain and a sacral contusion, both of which picked up two games earlier.

But Haliburton hasn’t missed a game this postseason.

“I’m hurting, but they’ve got guys hurting, too,” Haliburton said after Game 3. “Everybody’s hurting right now.”

Haliburton previously suffered a left hamstring strain on Jan. 8. He was averaging 23.6 points and an NBA-best 12.5 assists per game at the time, then missed 10 of the next 11 games. His production after the injury dipped to 16.9 points and 9.5 assists per game over his final 36 regular-season appearances.

Haliburton’s scoring remained down during the sixth-seeded Pacers’ series victory in six games over Milwaukee in the first round, during which he surpassed 18 points only once, with 24.

Speculation about his health grew after Game 1 against the Knicks, but his 34 points in Game 2 marked his most since the hamstring injury. He topped that total in Game 3. His +31 in Game 4 represented his best point differential since December.

“He’s a great player,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said before Game 5. “We have to do better. He got going. He does it all. He can shoot. He can put it on the floor. He can pass.”

High-scoring guards have long haunted the Knicks. Those include Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, who came into his own during this postseason’s first-round series.

Maxey totaled seven turnovers in Games 1 and 2 against the Knicks but committed only six turnovers over the next four games. He willed the Sixers to an instant-classic Game 5 victory by scoring seven of his 46 points in the last 25 seconds of regulation and totaling 22 points during the fourth quarter and overtime.

Historically, Knick-killing guards include Pacers great Reggie Miller, who averaged 23.1 points per game across six series against them from 1993-2000; and Michael Jordan, who scored at least 40 points seven times against the Knicks in the playoffs. His 54 points in Game 4 of the 1993 Eastern Conference semifinals remain the most ever by a Knicks opponent in a postseason game.

More recently, Atlanta’s Trae Young averaged 29.2 points per game in his first-ever playoff series to eliminate the Knicks in five games in 2021.

With his Pacers now down 3-2, Haliburton will get at least one more chance against the Knicks in Friday’s Game 6 in Indiana.

“I want to play high-level basketball,” Haliburton said at a Pacers practice in Midtown between Games 1 and 2. “I’ve always wanted to play playoff basketball. I’m here.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s Game 5 against the Pacers, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Anunoby has progressed to doing “light work on the court.” Thibodeau, however, couldn’t provide a timeline for the player a Knicks team desperately needs in the semifinals series against a deep Pacers squad.

“Not really,” the coach said if there’s a specific timeline for Anunoby’s return. “Just really the same, a little bit better. That’s where he is.”

Anunoby progressing to light on-court work is a step forward from Sunday’s update of the forward only doing pool work. The coach previously mentioned that Anunoby had yet to do any running. He didn’t provide an update Tuesday on Anunoby beginning any running.

The forward injured his hamstring in the third quarter of Game 2 against the Pacers after attempting to rise for a layup on a fastbreak attempt. He missed his third straight game after sitting out Game 5 at Madison Square Garden and a return for Game 6 on the road sounds unlikely. Guard Miles “Deuce” McBride got the start Tuesday in place of Anunoby.

When asked what benchmarks the forward needs to reach before a return, Thibodeau didn’t disclose any specifics.

“That’s [a] medical ,” he said. “When he’s ready, he’s ready.”

In the Game 2 victory, Anunoby stepped up in the first half while star Jalen Brunson was off the floor dealing with a foot injury. Anunoby’s defense was desperately missed in Games 3 and 4. The team showed signs of tired legs and eventually relinquished a series lead after coming out flat in Game 4.

BURKS STAYING READY

Before being thrown into the fire in Game 3 against the Pacers, guard Alec Burks had recorded just 44 seconds of action this postseason. He mostly spent time on the bench since arriving in New York in a deadline day deal on Feb 8. He was a Thibodeau-rotation favorite in his previous Knicks tenure, but failed to see much playing time in this regular season. The last time Burks recorded at least 15 minutes of action before the postseason was in a March 23 win against the Nets.

Now, Burks’ services are desperately needed with the Knicks without Anunoby and Bojan Bogdanovic due to postseason injuries. And the head coach acknowledged the guard’s readiness after he provided needed relief in Games 3 and 4 against the Pacers.

“Yeah, we know who he is,” Thibodeau said about the guard who scored 14 and 20 points in Games 3 and 4, respectively. Burks played 21 minutes in Game 3 and 23 in the blowout Game 4.

“He’s professional, he stays ready,” the head coach added. “Even when he wasn’t in the rotation, that didn’t change what he was doing everyday. So we felt he would be prepared if he was called upon and he was.”

GAME 4 FILM

Sunday’s embarrassing 32-point Game 4 loss showcased a Knicks team that got overwhelmed for all four quarters. Aside from Burks’ readiness, the team didn’t have many positives to look back on.

But Thibs believes each game is a teaching moment during film sessions.

“I think every game tells you something,” the head coach said. “So you look at it, you take what you need to take from it, and then you get ready for the next one. So it’s got to be our mindset. We know we have to be a lot better for 48 minutes.”