INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the New York Knicks at three games apiece on Wednesday night, riding a 39-point fourth quarter and 35 points from guard Tyrese Haliburton to a 117-106 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse that sends the series back to Madison Square Garden for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Friday.

The win, in front of a crowd that the team said was the third-loudest reading of the season on its in-arena decibel meter, came after Indiana fell behind by 14 points in the second quarter and trailed by nine entering the fourth. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, who had publicly criticized the officiating in Monday’s Game 5 loss in New York, said afterward that his locker room had spent two days “with one foot in the offseason and the other foot stuck in the door.”

“We talked all day about what we wanted to feel at midnight tonight,” Carlisle said in his postgame news conference. “We wanted to feel like we were getting on a plane to New York with a chance. That is what we earned.”

Haliburton, the All-NBA second-team selection who had been held to 18 points in Monday’s loss, registered 35 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds, and scored or assisted on 17 of Indiana’s final 19 points. The Pacers shot 14-of-26 from three-point range, including 7-of-11 in the fourth quarter, with forward Aaron Nesmith — who returned to the lineup after an ankle injury limited him in Game 5 — connecting on four three-pointers in 19 minutes.

For the Knicks, who had a chance to close out their first conference finals appearance in more than two decades, Wednesday’s loss was the latest reminder of how thin the margins have become in a series that has now produced three lead changes inside the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. Guard Jalen Brunson finished with 32 points but committed seven turnovers, six in the second half, with three of those turnovers coming during Indiana’s decisive 18-4 third-into-fourth quarter run.

“We had it,” Brunson said in a brief postgame appearance at the courtside microphone, towel draped over his head. “We had it and I let it get away. We will be fine. We are going home. That is all you can ask for.”

New York head coach Tom Thibodeau, asked whether the Knicks’ rotations were beginning to show the effects of an unusually heavy minute load for his starting lineup, said the issue would be assessed Thursday but pushed back against the framing. “Everyone is tired in May,” Thibodeau said. “We have not played enough basketball at this level for me to let anybody off the hook on minutes. We will be ready Friday.”

Forward OG Anunoby, who had emerged as the Knicks’ defensive fulcrum during the first five games of the series, was called for his fifth foul with 8:42 to play and sat for 4:12 of the fourth quarter as Indiana extended its lead. He returned with the deficit at nine and was on the floor for the bulk of the closing stretch, but his absence during a critical window of the period was, by Thibodeau’s later admission, “the part of the game I will think about most.”

Forward Pascal Siakam, who had been held to 14 points in Game 5, scored 24 on 9-of-15 shooting and added 11 rebounds. Center Myles Turner contributed 16 points and four blocks, including a strip on Knicks center Mitchell Robinson with 3:14 to play that turned into a transition Haliburton three.

The Pacers shot 51.9 percent from the field overall and outscored the Knicks 56-38 in the paint, partially a function of New York’s foul-line trouble: Brunson and forward Mikal Bridges combined for eight fouls, four of them on drives by Haliburton during the third quarter.

Carlisle confirmed that Nesmith, whose left ankle had been the subject of pregame uncertainty as recently as Wednesday afternoon, would be available for Game 7 on a maintenance protocol. “He is going to be sore. He is going to play,” Carlisle said.

Game 7 is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday at Madison Square Garden, with the winner advancing to face the Boston Celtics, who closed out the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night to take their semifinal series 4-2. Boston is now in its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance since the 2024 run that ended in a championship loss.

In the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder hold a 3-2 series lead over the Denver Nuggets entering Thursday night’s Game 6 in Denver, while the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers are also through five games, with the Wolves holding a 3-2 advantage. Both Game 6s tip off Thursday.

Brunson, asked at the end of his brief appearance whether the team would alter its preparation for a Game 7 on its home floor, paused for several seconds. “We have done what we needed to do for six games to be in this position,” he said. “We are going to do what we need to do for one more.”

The Knicks travel back to New York on Thursday morning. Practice is closed.