New York Knicks Win Huge Game Against Indiana Pacers At Madison Square Garden to Stay in Playoff Series

The New York Knicks, on the very brink of their season coming to a close, staring at a 3-1 deficit in this playoff series with the Indiana Pacers, won Game Five tonight.

In front of a sellout, screaming Madison Square Garden crowd, the New York Yorkers defeated the Pacers, 85-75 to put themselves in position to get back into the series.

The Pacers now lead in games won, 3-2. The first team to win four games wins the series and moves on to play the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference championship series. 

The biggest surprise of the night for the Knicks was the shooting prowess of bench player, Chris Copeland, who came into the game during the second quarter and proceeded to score on 4 of 6 shots from the field, including hitting 3 of 4 from beyond the three-point stripe.

The win forces the series back to Indiana for Game 6 on Saturday, which should normally be an advantage for the Pacers, playing in front of their home crowd. However, Indiana was forced to play without their starting point guard, George Hill tonight because he suffered a concussion in the first quarter of Game 4 when he ran into a Tyson Chandler pick. Hill is listed as day-to-day but Pacers officials are concerned that Hill, who scored 26 points on Tuesday, may not play again in the series.

That would be a tremendous break for the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony decided if he was going to go down with his team, he was going to go down shooting the basketball as much as possible. He took 28 shots in the game, hitting on 12 of them to lead the Knicks with 28 points.

If the Knicks to come back from their 3-1 deficit in games to win this series, Chandler's hard screen in the first quarter of Game 4 on George Hill of the Pacers could be seen as the turning point of the series. Although Hill scored 26 points in the Pacers win on Tuesday, he had been complaining of headaches for the past two days and was ruled out four hours before tip-off.

If Hill is unable to play in Game 6, the Pacers will be at a distinct disadvantage. The Pacers don't have another player capable of handling the ball and running the offense as proficiently as Hill does, from his point guard position.