Jalen Brunson leads Knicks to blowout win in Game 5 vs. Pacers

Brunson put up 44 points on 18-for-35 shooting and the New York Knicks easily won Game 5 over the Indiana Pacers, 121-91. It's a rare easy win for the Knicks in this postseason after their previous six playoff wins were all single-digit victories. Coach Tom Thibodeau pulled his starters with three minutes to go and iron man Josh Hart played only 39 minutes.

This was Brunson's fifth 40-point game of the playoffs — the most by any player in six years, when the NBA's all-time scoring leader did it eight times.

New York outscored Indiana in all four quarters and won the rebounding battle 53-29, thanks in part to 20 offensive boards versus Indiana's five. Indiana made 44.4 percent of its threes, but had 18 turnovers to New York's nine and shot worse on two-pointers than threes. At least Pacers coach Rick Carlisle can take comfort that the small-market Pacers were called for fewer fouls than the big-market Knicks, 22-19.

Isaiah Hartenstein tied a Knicks franchise record with 12 offensive rebounds, becoming only one of nine players in NBA history to grab that many. He finished with 17 rebounds and five assists, and also blocked a shot. While he only took three shots all game, Hartenstein got his money's worth.

Even the Knicks players who weren't shooting well contributed. Donte DiVincenzo missed all six of his threes, but he got three steals, a block and seven rebounds, none bigger than one he turned into a putback dunk.

Another big factor was Alec Burks off the bench for the Knicks. The Pacers reserves have been dominating the Knicks backups in the series, but on Tuesday, Burks scored 18 points, just two fewer than Indiana's trio of T.J. McConnell, Ben Sheppard and Obi Toppin combined.

After the first three games of the series came down to the wire, Indiana and New York traded blowouts in Games 4 and 5. Now the Knicks have a chance to close out the series in Indianapolis on Friday, while Carlisle has one extra day to figure out how to finally slow down Brunson.