INDIANAPOLIS — There’s been a common thread to the Knicks’ recent defeats. They can’t close.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that for a top-heavy team with a high-priced and starry starting lineup.
But for the third time in the past four games, those starters were pummeled when it mattered most and the Knicks lost Sunday to the Pacers, 132-121.
Defense and rebounding were the predictable problems down the stretch for the Knicks (4-5), who took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter and were subsequently outscored, 40-27.
They couldn’t stop a shorthanded Pacers squad as Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin combined for 73 points.
Haliburton, who was a big part of eliminating the Knicks in last season’s playoffs, had his best game of the season with 35 points and 14 assists.
Indiana shot nearly 70 percent in the fourth quarter.
Offensively, the Knicks were good enough. Jalen Brunson (33 points, 10 assists), Karl-Anthony Towns (30 points) and OG Anunoby (25 points) scored efficiently.
But the porous Knicks allowed the Pacers to drop 21 3-pointers — including eight in the fourth quarter — and only mustered seven total themselves.
They lost the equation.
“You have to understand the math of the game where somebody is making 20 3s and you’re making 10, it’s going to be hard to win that game,” coach Tom Thibodeau predicted before the game.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse has been a House of Horrors for the Knicks.
Their depleted squad lost all three of their playoff games in the building last season, including the massacre on Mother’s Day and the game-winning 3-point shocker from Andrew Nembhard.
But the infirmary lines were swapped Sunday. The Knicks were relatively healthy, minus the duo of Precious Achiuwa and Cam Payne.
The Pacers, meanwhile, were missing three of their top 7 — Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Obi Toppin. Nesmith, who has given Brunson problems in previous matchups as a bigger/stronger defender, is out until “sometime in December” with an ankle injury.
The Pacers also entered with a Haliburton issue.
Their All-Star guard’s production was way down while averaging 14.7 points on 38 percent shooting overall — including an abysmal 25 percent from beyond the arc.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle unloaded the excuses before the game.
“Listen, he’s a great player and he’s going to be fine,” Carlisle said. “As I’ve been through this whole thing a couple of times now, this summer, even though he was on the Olympic team, he didn’t play much and he didn’t get to work out much because he actually got injured when he was there.
“And then he was dealing with another ailment into the fall. Really it’s just he’s playing catch-up in terms of his NBA game conditioning, his rhythm, the fact that our team is significantly different. He’s playing with guys that are different type of players. We’ve got to help him get better looks and more high percentage looks and those type of things.”
But neither the injuries nor Haliburton’s struggles mattered against the Knicks’ Swiss cheese defense — especially in the fourth quarter.
