Knicks at Pacers
Victor Oladipo made an immediate impact in his first game after missing over a year following surgery to repair a ruptured quad tendon, helping the Indiana Pacers to an overtime triumph over Chicago on Wednesday. Oladipo will try to increase his activity and help the Pacers keep rolling when they host the New York Knicks on Saturday.
Oladipo came off the bench in his return and scored nine points in 21 minutes, with the most important coming on a 3-pointer with just over 10 seconds remaining that forced overtime. "My body feels phenomenal right now," Oladipo told reporters after the win. "I did pretty good with the 21 minutes. I just have to keep getting better. Get my body used to that level of basketball again, eventually my body will come, but my mind will always be there." The Knicks come in losers of 12 of their last 15 games and short a player with point guard Elfrid Payton suspended one game for shoving Memphis’ Jae Crowder into the stands on a late 3-point attempt after a steal in Wednesday’s 127-106 loss to the Grizzlies. "Just disrespectful. The steal, I'm not even worried about the steal," Payton told reporters after the contest. "But then you run your offense, and you shoot a three at the end of the game. That's different. That shot was disrespectful. I'm standing on that. I'd have did it again. It doesn't matter who took that shot. Don't disrespect (me)."
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: MSG, FS Indiana
ABOUT THE KNICKS (13-36): Forward Marcus Morris was fined by the league for his postgame comments about Crowder, who he said had "female tendencies," but was not suspended for escalating the situation. Some of Morris’ frustration came from an individual 5-of-17 effort from the floor and a team defense that allowed the Grizzlies to shoot 50 percent from the floor. “We had some shots that didn’t go down, and you have to play through those, keep finding ways to get stops,” Knicks coach Mike Miller told reporters. "We didn’t get enough stops. I give Memphis credit, they made shots when they had to to keep us from closing that gap more than we did.”
ABOUT THE PACERS (31-17): Oladipo rejoins an Indiana squad that learned to thrive in his absence by sharing the ball, which led to power forward Domantas Sabonis being named an NBA All-Star for the first time on Thursday. "This is a great honor personally, but more importantly a great honor for my teammates, my coaches and the entire Pacers' franchise," Sabonis, who averages 18 points on 53.5 percent shooting and 12.8 rebounds, told reporters. "This is a result of being a team in the truest sense of the word and our record reflects that. I look forward to representing the Pacers, Indianapolis and Indiana at All-Star weekend." Sabonis collected 15 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in Wednesday’s win for for his fourth consecutive double-double and 37th on the season - third in the league.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers C Myles Turner (illness) missed the last two games and is day-to-day.
2. Knicks PG Frank Ntilikina (groin) did not play Wednesday and is questionable.
3. T.J. Warren scored 25 points and Sabonis added 19 points and 15 rebounds in Indiana’s 104-103 win at New York on Dec. 7.