'He guards the best player': Nesmith holds red-hot Brunson to 10-for-26 in Pacers' win

INDIANAPOLIS -- One of the most difficult jobs in sports right now is guarding Jalen Brunson. No one is going to stop him. Not completely, anyway.

The New York Knicks’ guard had his Willis Reed moment Wednesday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Pacers, emerging from the locker room after missing the second quarter with a foot injury with a 24-point second half to lead his team to a rousing victory in a Madison Square Garden madhouse.

For Game 3, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle decided to try something different with his team down 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. He moved Aaron Nesmith, aptly described as a “Swiss Army knife” by teammate T.J. McConnell, to guard the 6-2 Brunson. Nesmith has length (6-foot-6) and energy (24 years old) in his corner. In the first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, Nesmith had an entirely different matchup against 6-7 Khris Middleton.

“You can’t give New York a recipe of the same thing over and over again,” Carlisle said. “They are going to adjust. Brunson is too great a player. So, the idea was to change the matchup and get a little more size and Aaron did as good a job as you can possibly do. Brunson is so good. He’s the best scorer in the playoffs, I believe.”

Pacers score: Andrew Nembhard hits deep 3 late to give Pacers gritty win and save series vs. Knicks

Brunson’s stat line: 26 points on 10-for-26 shooting with six assists and five turnovers in 38-plus minutes. That is a win for the Pacers. And so was Friday night’s outcome, a 111-106 victory in Game 3 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to make it a 2-1 series and set up an even larger Game 4 on Sunday afternoon in front of the home crowd.

“I’ve got to give a big, big shout out to Aaron,” Myles Turner said unprompted in the locker room after the game. “I think he did a good job on Brunson tonight. We know Brunson is going to get some shots and he’s going to make some. But it’s a team effort.”

That team effort starts with Nesmith and it likely will again on Sunday. Carlisle mostly used Friday’s hero, Andrew Nembhard, to guard Brunson in the first two games, mixed in with McConnell. But it was no surprise to Nesmith to draw the assignment with his mix of speed and size.

What was he up against? In the six previous playoff games against Philadelphia and the Pacers, Brunson scored 39, 47, 40, 41, 43 and 29. When he was stopped, it usually resulted in trips to the free-throw line (he was 55-for-68 from the line in those six games).

“He’s playing at a phenomenal rhythm right now,” Nesmith said. “I’m just trying to do whatever I can to get him out of that rhythm and make it as hard as possible and make sure he takes as time in the game to find that rhythm and when he does, try to shut it off again.”

The maddening aspect for the Pacers is that even with Brunson held relatively in check, the hobbled Knicks, playing without OG Anunoby, still would not go away. Donte DiVincenzo scored 35 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the 3-point line and Alec Burks, after playing 44 seconds in the entire playoffs, scored 14 points off the bench in 21 minutes.

But it all starts and ends with Brunson.

“I think Aaron did an amazing job tonight, speeding (Brunson) up at times, not fouling him, and being super competitive on that side of the floor,” Nembhard said. “He’s a tough player. He’s going to make shots. You gotta move on when he does that.”

Nesmith said the “herky jerky movement” that Brunson plays with makes him difficult to guard – and certainly difficult to guard without committing a foul.

“He knows how to use his body and he’s good at attacking angles,” Nesmith said. “It’s just tough. You have to be locked in at all times because he’s really deceptive coming off pick and rolls … you have to be on your toes.”

If there is a similarity going from guarding Middleton to Brunson in the playoffs, it is that Nesmith knows there is no time to let one made shot lead to another.

“They are great players, and they are going to make tough shots,” Nesmith said. “When their team relies on him like that, he can shoot the ball 30 times if he wants to. I’m not going to stop everything. It’s just trying to make his life as hard as possible.”

After Nembhard’s 31-foot 3-pointer put the Pacers ahead 109-106 with 16 seconds remaining, Brunson had one more chance to the game. Nesmith was briefly screened, then flew in front of Brunson as he attempted the shot. But instead of shooting normally, he tried to draw foul on Turner, who stood straight up to his left as the ball clipped the front of the rim.

“Terrible decision,” Brunson said. “Something I need to learn from.”

Nesmith ended up with the ball, hitting the two clinching free throws to finish with 10 points and six rebounds. But no one will remember those numbers. His impact on the Game 3 win was on the defensive end.

“He guards the best player,” McConnell said. “At one point this year, he was guarding Joel Embiid. You can’t put a value on what he does for us offensively and defensively. We wouldn’t be here without him or Drew. Those two guys defensively for sure have anchored us all year.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Nesmith up to challenge defensively on Brunson in Pacers' Game 3 win