A great regular season finished with a dud.
The Knicks fell Sunday to the tanking Pacers, losing 141-136 while their defense disappeared faster than the Easter Bunny.
“Defense was an issue,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Still, the Knicks (47-35) secured the franchise’s second-best record in the last 22 years, and their most wins in a decade. The next stop is Cleveland for Game 1 over the weekend.
“On behalf of my teammates and the organization we are really thankful for your support all year,” Jalen Brunson, who rested Sunday’s game, told the crowd before tipoff. “You guys make this the best place in the league, the best fanbase in the league. We really appreciate it. But we are not done yet. We’ll see you guys in the playoffs.”
Obi Toppin was again a positive Sunday while scoring 34 points. The games were meaningless. Most of the opponents were tanking. But Toppin, the fast-paced spark plug, played well under the circumstances.
In the final four games — all with Julius Randle injured — Toppin averaged 24.3 points.
But the defense, as Thibodeau said, was an issue. Especially Sunday. The Pacers hit 19 3-pointers and shot 56% from beyond the arc. Bennedict Mathurin, an All-Rookie candidate, dropped 26 points for Indiana (35-47).
Immanuel Quickley added 30 points for the Knicks, who watched Josh Hart get ejected in the fourth quarter for arguing with a referee.
THIBODEAU TAKES HIGH ROAD WITH MAVERICKS TANK
The Mavericks’ blatant tank job was effective and probably hurt the Knicks but Thibodeau isn’t holding it against them.
“Every franchise has to do what they think is best for themselves,” the coach said.
While sitting all their top players for the season finale Sunday, the Mavericks started former bench-warming Knicks castaways Frank Ntilikina and Theo Pinson while getting overrun by sadsack Spurs, 138-117.
The defeat left the Mavericks (38-43) with the 10th-worst record in the NBA. It means their first-round pick owed to the Knicks — the final payment of the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade — only carries a 20% chance of conveying in the draft lottery because it’s top-10 protected.
If it doesn’t convey, the Knicks won’t have a first-round pick this year. The pick transfers to 2024 but is also top-10 protected.
The Mavericks pivoted hard to a tank over the last two games even though they were still mathematically alive in the play-in tournament.
The league has stated it will investigate Dallas’s actions, but there’s not much left to interpret. Mavs coach Jason Kidd has said the franchise’s ownership and management decided to go in a different direction.
“Whatever it is,” Thibodeau said, “I have a lot of confidence in (Knicks president) Leon Rose and our front office. We’ll make the best of whatever is in front of us.”
The tank was the latest wrinkle in a boiling feud between the franchises. Dallas owner Mark Cuban recently blamed failed contract negotiations with Jalen Brunson on the players’ father, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson.
“Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over,” Cuban said.
The Knicks were found guilty of violating the NBA’s tampering rules involving their Brunson signing.
RANDLE SHED THE BOOT
Randle was still in street clothes on the Knicks bench but dropped one accessory.
The walking boot was gone from Randle’s left leg, as Thibodeau said his power forward has progressed to some on-court activities.
Randle is scheduled to undergo a re-evaluation on his sprained ankle on Thursday, which is either one or two days before Game 1 of the playoffs. He missed the final five games of the regular season.
Still, the 28-year-old played enough games at a star level to reach $2.4 million in contract bonuses, the most in the NBA this season.
Toppin started in his spot again Sunday, scoring 34 points in 36 minutes.
NEW PLAYER (FOR NEXT SEASON)
The Knicks announced Sunday the signing of Isaiah Roby, a 25-year-old wing who most recently played for the Spurs.
Roby isn’t eligible for the playoffs but he still received a guaranteed $400,000, according to the Athletic, with the idea he competes for a roster spot in 2023-24.
“This is about making an investment in him for next season,” Roby’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, told the Daily News.
Roby, a second-round pick out of Nebraska in 2019, averaged 4.1 points in 42 games with the Spurs this season.
IRON-HART
Isaiah Hartenstein became the first Knick in six years to play 82 games in a season, logging 21 minutes Sunday with eight points.
The backup center, who signed in the 2022 summer on a two-year, $16 million deal, struggled early this season amid Achilles pain but found his groove while setting career highs in minutes and rebounds. His health was especially important with starting center Mitchell Robinson missing 23 games due to injury.
“Really important. If you look back — especially starting the season — I started off with some injuries and stuff like that,” Hartenstein said. “So to be able to keep building, keep getting healthy, and then finish the season off with all 82, I think it’s special and you got to give a lot of credit to the training staff and the strength coaches.”
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