How Tom Thibodeau Borrowed From Rick Carlisle To Help The Knicks Win Game 5

It’s no secret coaches at all levels steal tips or tricks from other coaches. So, it makes sense Tom Thibodeau, with his New York Knicks facing elimination, would borrow some ideas from Rick Carlisle — who is in the midst of one of the best coaching seasons I’ve ever seen — to help his team live to play another day. Thibodeau’s decisions paid off, as New York won Game 5, 111-94, and extended the Eastern Conference Finals to Saturday’s Game 6 against the Indiana Pacers.

Turning Up The Pressure

One of the biggest developments in NBA defense over the last couple of seasons has been the widespread increase in teams applying full-court pressure, similar to that of a high school or college game. Arguably the biggest champion of this movement has been Carlisle’s Pacers.

The Pacers regular pick up ball-handlers from the moment they inbound the ball and maintain that pressure throughout the possession. Doing so bleeds precious seconds off the shot clock and forces teams to initiate their actions far later in the shot clock than they would prefer. This tactic has bothered the Knicks all series long.

The Pacers ball pressure is going to be a factor always, but especially in this series.

Knicks like to play slow anyways but they start this action at 14 seconds on the clock. pic.twitter.com/avMsa6ZWbP

— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) May 22, 2025

Early in Game 5, TNT’s Stan Van Gundy said the Knicks needed to take this approach to help disrupt Tyrese Haliburton (who was fresh off an all-time performance) and the Pacers’ high-octane attack. It’s almost like Van Gundy spent many years as an NBA coach before ing the broadcast booth because the Knicks did just that in Game 5.

THIS. pic.twitter.com/fch4PPVIHX

— DJ Zullo (@DJAceNBA) May 30, 2025

Snapshots like the one above were a theme in Game 5. The Knicks held Indiana to its lowest point total of the series (94) and Haliburton had just eight points on 2-of-7 shooting. The Pacers love playing with pace, and burn teams for failing to get back early in the shot clock, so the Knicks’ increased intensity really threw them off their groove.

Knicks’ average pickup distance for Haliburton by game.

Game 1: 38.9 feet
Game 2: 40.8 feet
Game 3: 43.9 feet
Game 4: 40.8 feet
Game 5: 50.5 feet https://t.co/ZM6OBS0Qp1

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) May 30, 2025

Old Dogs Learn New Tricks

One of the reasons the Pacers can play at full speed for all 48 minutes is Carlisle deploys a deep bench to keep his starters fresh. Heading into Thursday’s game, Indiana ranked fourth in bench points per game among playoff teams (33.7). Conversely, it’s become a running joke about how little Thibodeau trusts his bench. Seven-man rotations are not uncommon for his teams.

However, as the 2009 Walt Becker family comedy taught us, old dogs can indeed learn new tricks. After only really playing eight guys in Games 1 and 2, Thibodeau has brightened his horizons to entrust guys like Delon Wright, Landry Shamet and Precious Achiuwa with crucial minutes while also wisely removing Cameron Payne from the fold.

In Game 5, a whopping 10 guys played during the competitive portion of the night. The headliner of this bunch was Shamet, who didn’t eclipse 11 minutes in a playoff game until Game 3 against the Pacers. But he didn’t let this keep him from staying ready.

Shamet’s box score won’t jump out (five points and one steal in 14 minutes) but his impact was immeasurable; the Knicks are plus-30 during his minutes over the last three games. He hit a couple of timely buckets and played outstanding defense, both on and off the ball:

Shamet was so good he even garnered a standing ovation from the Knicks faithful when he checked out of the game in the second quarter.

Hunt Smarter, Not Harder

Through four games, a big difference between these two teams was how much better the Pacers were at exploiting Brunson’s defensive limitations than the Knicks were with Haliburton.

Part of it is has to do with size and effort. Haliburton is three inches taller than Brunson and has been seeking home run plays on defense (team-high 12 steals in this series). But a lot of it has to do with the Pacers using creative ways to involve Brunson instead of just running simple two-man actions, hoping to get their preferred matchup.

My personal favorite method was their use of double drag with Brunson guarding one of the screeners. Yet rather than have his man be the second screener, Brunson’s man was screening first, making it harder for Brunson to hard hedge and easier for Haliburton to run through the A Gap straight to the rim. And hey, look what the Knicks ran in Game 5:

The NBA is truly a copycat league. Teams borrow from one another all the time to help find advantages. Thibodeau was no different in Game 5 against the Pacers, and it worked perfectly. Now, he and the Knicks will hope they can once again follow Indiana’s lead by winning a third game this series, even the score at 3-3 and push these Eastern Conference Finals to a do-or-die Game 7.