Knicks crumble in season-opening loss to Pacers

It started all so swell for Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks.

A club that was not touted for scoring exploded for 66 points in the first half and RJ Barrett started his second season with a big bang, making his first eight shots in the season opener.

But rookie backup point guard Immanuel Quickley was lost for the second half with a hip pointer and all the electricity short-circuited with that injury.

After taking a five-point lead at the intermission, the Knicks went down with a whimper in the final two quarters as the Pacers routed them, 121-107, in a season-opening defensive dud Wednesday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The Knicks scored 41 points in the second half as they played oddly detached down the stretch in Thibodeau’s Knicks head-coaching debut.

The major bright spot was Barrett, who finished with 20 of his 26 points in the first half with eight rebounds and five assists.

Indiana center Damontas Sabonis pummeled the Knicks for 31 points as the Pacers won their ninth game in 10 tries against the Knicks.

RJ Barrett and the Knicks dropped their season-opener tonight. AP

Quickley came off the bench for starter Elfrid Payton and was a plus-5 in 12 minutes before suffering the hip pointer in a collision with Myles Turner.

Quickley didn’t play in the second half and Thibodeau used no point guard for a stretch of the third quarter when the game got away from his club. Thibodeau finally turned to Frank Ntilikina to start the fourth and he was ineffective.

Foul trouble to the Knicks’ big men hurt the interior defense, with Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel picking up three first-half fouls each. Julius Randle (17 points, nine assists, eight rebounds) also picked up his fourth midway in the third.

It was a solid Knicks debut for Alec Burks, who scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half.

Rookie lottery pick Obi Toppin showed flashes but got too 3-point happy in his debut. He shot 3 of 12 — 3 of 7 from 3.