Pacers hold off Knicks in NBA Cup thriller, Spurs rout Warriors

The shorthanded Indiana Pacers held off New York 106-104 on Friday to leave the Knicks’ bid for an NBA Cup repeat in tatters.

The Knicks won last year’s in-season tournament in what proved a curtain-raiser to their run to a first NBA championship since 1973.

But after coming up short in their bid to erase a 14-point third-quarter deficit, the Knicks fell to 0-2 in Cup play.

They are not mathematically eliminated, but in three prior editions of the Cup, no team with two group-stage defeats has reached the knockout rounds.

Pascal Siakam scored 19 points to lead a balanced Pacers attack. Aaron Nesmith scored 18 points, Kelly Oubre Jr added 16, and Ivica Zubac and Andrew Nembhard chipped in 12 apiece to lead Indiana, who were again without injured star Tyrese Haliburton.

Jalen Brunson scored 33 points and handed out 11 assists for the Knicks, who tied it at 87-87 early in the fourth quarter, only for the Pacers to pull away again with a 15-2 scoring run.

The Knicks made one last push, cutting the deficit to two, but Karl-Anthony Towns – who scored 23 points and pulled down 15 rebounds – missed a potential game-tying basket with nine-tenths of a second remaining.

“Very proud of our team. We were pretty big underdogs coming into this game,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, whose team outscored the Knicks 50-30 in the paint.

“Second half, it got difficult. New York is a championship team. They know how to make comebacks,” Carlisle said. “Our guys stuck together and kept fighting together.”

The Knicks are last in East Group B and will host the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat in their last two Cup group games.

In Miami, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo scored 37 points each to lead the Heat to a 133-121 victory over the Cavaliers.

Adebayo added 14 rebounds, and Davion Mitchell chipped in 22 points and 17 assists to help the Heat improve to 2-0 in Cup play – top of the group – and 6-6 on the season.

The San Antonio Spurs, who fell to the Knicks in last year’s NBA Cup final before losing to them in the NBA Finals, crushed the Golden State Warriors 123-85, their 11th straight victory pushing them to 2-0 in Cup play.

Stephon Castle scored 32 points and Victor Wembanyama added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Spurs, who opened the game on an 18-0 run and led by as many as 43 against a Warriors team playing without injured superstar Stephen Curry.

LJ Cryer scored 20 points to lead the Warriors as none of the Golden State starters scored in double figures.

Veteran Draymond Green finished with four points and was assessed a flagrant foul for a shove from behind that sent Wembanyama crashing out of bounds midway through the second quarter.

In the last game of the night, the Los Angeles Clippers improved to 1-1 in Cup play – just 3-8 overall – with a battling 113-112 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Darius Garland sealed the victory with a three-point play with less than a minute remaining, driving for a layup that tied it at 112-112, drawing a foul and converting the free throw.

LA’s Brook Lopez scored 11 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter, and the Clippers withstood a 40-point performance from Oklahoma City’s two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – who came up empty on two attempts in the waning seconds.