NBA playoffs: Knicks use huge run to even series with Pacers

New York • Carmelo Anthony hung from the rim, the helpless defender who tried to stop his dunk lying on the court below after falling down.

Pretty soon, Anthony's jumper was falling, too.

Once that happened, the New York Knicks blew away the Indiana Pacers with a performance that resembled something from earlier this season, not this series.

Anthony scored 32 points, 16 during a 30-2 New York onslaught in the second half, the Knicks beat the Pacers 105-79 on Tuesday night to even the Eastern Conference semifinals at one game.

"I think for the most part from the start of the game and throughout the whole game, I think we played with a sense of urgency today," Anthony said. "We played the way we've been playing as far as competing at the highest level."

Iman Shumpert added 15 points, including a sensational follow dunk in the first half, and Raymond Felton scored 14 as the Knicks turned a close game into a blowout over the final 15 minutes.

Paul George scored 20 points for the Pacers, who had a two-point lead and momentum when coach Frank Vogel called timeout with a little more than 3 minutes left in the third quarter.

By the time the Pacers got on the board in the final period, the Knicks had opened a 26-point advantage.

"The fourth quarter we just defensively, we picked up," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "We kept getting stop after stop and then we would rebound the ball and get it up and our offense began to flow like old times. It was kind of nice to see."

Game 3 is Saturday at Indianapolis.

It was the first time the Knicks scored 100 points in a playoff game since June 9, 1999, when they beat the Pacers 101-94. It was New York's largest margin of victory in the postseason since a 109-75 rout of Detroit on April 24, 1992, according to information provided by ESPN Stats and Info to the Knicks.

David West scored 13 points for the Pacers, who committed 21 turnovers that led to 32 points, negating their height advantage that loomed so large in their Game 1 victory.

Indiana had trailed most of the night before taking a 64-62 lead on George Hill's 3-pointer with 3:28 left in the third quarter that capped a 10-4 run, the Pacers seeming to have all the momentum.

Vogel then called timeout with a little more than 3 minutes left and subbed out center Roy Hibbert.

Seeing the middle open, Anthony came back attacking, first with a drive and then a dunk while drawing a foul that knocked over Hibbert's replacement, Jeff Pendergraph, and the game was never the same.

"It was our timeout," Vogel said. "I usually use that situation to put something in while we have the ball."

New York closed the period on a 10-2 run, Pablo Prigioni opened the fourth with a 3-pointer and a jumper in the lane, drawing chants of "Pablo! Pablo!" and then Anthony put it away. —

Storylines 'Melo leads late

R New York's Carmelo Anthony scores 16 of his 32 points during a 30-2 Knicks' run.