Knicks bounce back vs. Pacers in Karl-Anthony Towns’ MSG debut

NEW YORK — The New York Knicks got obliterated Tuesday in their season opener, done in by a deluge of Boston Celtics triples. An NBA record-tying 29 of them, to be exact.

That taste was still in the Knicks’ mouths when they took the floor for their home opener Friday night, and the club used it as fuel to drill the Indiana Pacers 123-98 in Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges‘s home debut at Madison Square Garden.

“Whenever you get your butt kicked on national TV in the NBA, it means you have to step it up,” said wing Josh Hart, one of four New York starters to finish with 20 or more points against Indiana. Bridges and Towns had 21 apiece, while floor general Jalen Brunson finished with a game-high 26.

“I loved the way our guys responded,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The fight we showed was a lot greater.”

The result was a satisfying one for the Knicks, who, aside from moving past the embarrassing loss to Boston, were also seeking revenge for last season’s Game 7 loss to the Pacers (1-1) at the Garden in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The reversal from the Knicks’ season-opening loss was most apparent on the defensive end. In Boston, the Knicks struggled mightily to defend the perimeter. On Friday, New York held the Pacers — the league’s second-best offense last season — to 3-of-30 from the arc.

In particular, the Knicks’ wings were aggressive with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton, holding him scoreless on eight shots.

“I just was bad, bro. It happens,” Haliburton said.

Bridges started the game on Haliburton defensively before giving way to Hart and OG Anunoby for a handful of possessions at a time. The Knicks (1-1) got out in transition a number of times following Pacers turnovers, scoring 29 points off Indiana’s 14 miscues during the contest.

The Garden crowd was lively from the jump, lighting up to support Towns — a local product from suburban New Jersey — and Bridges for their first meaningful action on the home floor. The game was more or less over midway through the third, when New York pulled ahead by 30 points. But fans were still rowdy by then because of the not only Knicks but also the New York Yankees, who were playing in Game 1 of the World Series.

A massive “Let’s Go Yankees!” chant broke out in the fourth quarter after Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer to put the Yanks up 2-1, and then the chant was repeated once Stanton’s shot was shown on the arena’s video screen. Towns was among the fans doing so, and started waving his towel wildly as he watched the play unfold.

“Oh, I was looking up [at the jumbotron] for sure,” said Towns, a Yankees fan who watched the game — which was ended by the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Freddie Freeman with a walk-off grand slam — intently in the locker room as he was doing his postgame interview.