It was all hands on deck for the Knicks on Sunday night. 

Head coach Tom Thibodeau doesn’t exactly stretch out his rotation very often, but the veteran head coach was forced to do so in Game 3 as New York found numerous key contributors in foul trouble early against the Indiana Pacers. 

“A lot of guys stepped up for us,” Thibodeau said postgame.

New York was already working with a revamped rotation after bumping Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup and Josh Hart to the bench for the first time in the playoffs.

They were forced to stretch things out right away as Miles McBride entered the game late in the first quarter and immediately picked up three fouls — sending him back to the bench for Delon Wright for his first real postseason minutes.

As a result, Jalen Brunson remained out there for the whole first quarter — and then Wright opened the second alongside veteran reserve Landry Shamet, who also had averaged just 4.3 minutes of action over his first seven appearances of the postseason. 

The duo did what they could to provide a spark with the Knicks trailing by double-digits.

“We’re pros, it’s our job,” Shamet said. “Everybody in the NBA is a good player. Come playoff time it’s a matter of possessions. It’s just our job to be ready, there’s no way around that. Big minutes, no minutes for long stretches — it’s just our job.” 

Shamet and Wright did their job providing a boost on the defensive end. 

McBride then got in on the fun late in the third quarter — as he was finally able to get into an offensive groove, returning to the court and producing a 7-0 run of his own to make it a single-digit game heading into the fourth. 

“That’s not easy to do,” Thibodeau said. “His intensity was huge for us, he’s a catalyst — his defense, his hustle. I think he just gives people energy when you see him flying around out there like that.”

That trio set the tempo tightening things up defensively in the final frame to help slow down the high-powered Pacers offense as Karl-Anthony Towns took over and put the team on his back to pull off the thrilling come-from-behind victory. 

“They did amazing,” Mitchell Robinson said. “The spark we needed they brought it.”

“Gotta give credit to those guys,” Hart added. “Sham was great, Lon played great, Deuce. They injected energy into the game and were huge for us tonight. We’re going to continue to rely on guys like that moving forward.”

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