Fighting for ground among the top three teams in the Eastern Conference standings, the New York Knicks will begin a generous part of their schedule on Friday night against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis.
New York, which holds a 1 1/2-game lead over the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers, will wrap up a five-game road trip against the lowly Pacers.
Before rallying for a 134-117 win over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday, the Knicks had dropped three of their previous four games. New York can take advantage of a six-game stretch in which they will face Indiana twice, along with games against Golden State, Brooklyn, Washington and New Orleans. All of those opponents are under .500.
Trailing the Boston Celtics by 1 1/2 games for the second seed in the East, New York had to battle back from an 18-point deficit in Utah.
“That was a really good comeback win, finding a way to do it on the road,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We had eight turnovers for 14 points in the first half, and a lot of those were unforced. (Utah) had 27 fast-break points in the first half. We cleaned both of those areas up at halftime.”
New York is averaging 117.2 points per game.
With 15 contests left in the regular season, Brown and company would love to see the emergence of a reliable bench scorer — a role that veteran Jordan Clarkson still is trying to assume.
Clarkson, 33, is averaging a career-low 8.9 points per game. However, he scored a season-high 27 on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor on Wednesday.
“For him to go out and perform the way he did, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Brown said. “We needed him. It goes to show that he’s keeping not just his body right, but his mind is in a good spot. … We needed every single thing Jordan Clarkson brought to the table.”
Jalen Brunson paces New York with an average of 26.2 points per game, while Karl-Anthony Towns averages 20.0 points and 11.9 rebounds.
Indiana, meanwhile, dropped its 11th straight game in a 123-108 setback to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday.
The Pacers’ losing streak isn’t their longest of the season. They dropped 13 in a row from Dec. 12 to Jan. 6.
Indiana sits a half-game behind the Sacramento Kings for the league’s worst record, but the Pacers did see the debut of center Ivica Zubac on Thursday. The midseason acquisition played for the first time since being sent over by the Los Angeles Clippers at the trade deadline last month.
Zubac had eight points and six rebounds in the loss after spending over a month sidelined with an ankle injury. The soon-to-be 29-year-old said he plans on using the final regular-season stretch to acquaint himself with his new teammates.
“He’s got great hands, he can put pressure on the rim, and he’s great at making the late pass out,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of Zubac. “He was a big factor on the inside (on Thursday).”
Zubac was averaging 14.4 points and 11 rebounds per game in 43 starts for Los Angeles.
