The Knicks have been undersized and outmanned in the frontcourt all season, but were able to get away with it. It came back to bite them Saturday night in a disappointing, 82-71, loss to the Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Center Tyson Chandler was an All-Star reserve this season, but played like anything but as fellow All-Star pivot Roy Hibbert dominated the matchup. Hibbert, a 7-foot-2 wall that anchors the Pacers’ interior, had a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Chandler could only muster nine points, five rebounds and three blocks.

The Knicks were never really in synch, as they trailed almost wire-to-wire and never got their offense going. The dysfunction was evident almost immediately, as New York had more turnovers (eight) by the 4:50 mark of the second quarter than they did all of last game (seven). They ultimately finished with 15 turnovers, something they’ll need to shore up before Tuesday’s Game 4 as they’re not equipped to play as sloppy as they did against the defensive-minded Pacers.

New York now trails the series, 2-1, and is starting to look like a team that’s feeling the pressure – particularly on the offensive end. The Knicks have yet to really duplicate their regular-season success against a Pacers defense that is amongst the stingiest in the league. If not for Carmelo Anthony’s team-high 21 points, the outcome would’ve been much worse for a Knicks squad which has failed to give Anthony a dependable No. 2 option on offense.

J.R. Smith, Anthony’s sidekick for most of the season, has vanished this series. He hasn’t been the same explosive and reliable scorer since the elbowing incident toward the end of Game 3 in Boston in the first round. The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year only gave the Knicks nine points on 4-of-12 shooting in 25 uninspired minutes. Perhaps Smith could be excused for his less than stellar Game 3, as he was suffering from high fever and illness prior to shootaround.

He’ll need to rebound quickly, preferably by Game 4 in Indianapolis, or the Knicks will face the real possibility of going back to New York down 3-1 in the series.

What we saw …

1. The Knicks inexplicably shot poorly from behind the arc, as they went 3-of-11, and were so out of sorts that by the start of the fourth quarter they had only hoisted seven 3-pointers. Nobody in orange and blue had it going from long range, as no one made more than two 3-pointers.

2. The Pacers came into the series with a significant advantage in size and frontcourt depth, but really took advantage of it in Game 3. Indiana began the game shooting a horrid .319 percent from the field, but still held a halftime lead in large part due to a collective crashing of the boards. The Pacers held a 31-20 rebounding advantage in the first half, including 13 offensive boards, en route to a 53-40 lead on the glass (18 on the offensive end). The Pacers were paced by 12 rebounds apiece from Hibbert and power forward David West. Paul George added eight boards from the small forward position.

3. George didn’t have a great offensive game – no one did, really – but he made sure to leave an imprint elsewhere, as he added eight rebounds, eight assists and a game-high five steals. The league’s Most Improved Player finished with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting, including a paltry 2-of-12 from behind the arc, but did what no Knick was able to do – find a way to contribute without having an impactful game on the offensive end.

Follow Knicks beat writer Tony Williams on Twitter @TBone8.

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Many hoops fans complain about how there aren’t any “great buildings” anymore when it comes to making noise, nostalgia and the “big stage” atmosphere. I tend to agree, for the most part. The original Boston Garden is long gone, Chicago Stadium is history, same for the Spectrum in Philly and the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, Calif. rarely houses sports events these days (you’re more likely to see an American Idol taping there).

College basketball still has some great old barns where it gets loud and you can always feel the history: Cameron Indoor at Duke, “Phog” Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas, Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. Madison Square Garden might be the one arena left in pro basketball where you would pay money just for the atmosphere of the building.

But part of the issue with the lack of “big stage” atmosphere today is the fact that there isn’t nearly the same amount of danger involved in professional sports anymore. You will never in a million years again see an NBA fight as “dangerous” as when Houston Rockets center Ralph Sampson decked Celtics guard Jerry Sichting in the 1986 NBA Finals. The fight spilled into the stands and nearly every member of the Celtics and Rockets got involved. Maybe it’s the grainy, dark, ’80s-style video that helps – but you get the sense that you’re watching a horror movie, not a basketball game, when watching that tape.

Today, the NBA likely has a team of 76 people or so in their New York offices that scour the internet daily for traces of “Basket-brawl” videos … all documented footage is immediately ripped down – those guys are good.

The Ron Artest brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills (click here for video while you still can) of course changed the game. Now, if two players even look at each other crosseyed there is a chance both will be ejected. It has taken away a lot of the physicality in the game, particularly under the boards, but we all understand now that it had to be done. When fans are getting decked in the face (like in the Artest melee), there has to be new order.

Obviously, things can still escalate in the league. Last night we saw Roy Hibbert of the Pacers and David Lee of the Warriors “go at it.” Not one true punch was thrown but it was still a bit frightening to see players so close to the fans with tempers reaching that level.

Last November I was in the house for the Kris Humphries-Rajon Rondo tussle that ended up in the first three rows behind the basket. While the TD Garden has absolutely nothing on the original Garden in terms of atmosphere, the place had that “big stage” buzz you read about. I was 100 percent certain that some fool would throw a beer on Humphries as he walked towards the tunnel back to the lockerroom. But it didn’t happen.

I’ll admit, there was a small, evil part of me that was disappointed that it didn’t go down. I wanted to relish just a few more seconds of that atmosphere, that buzz that you can only get when things get a little dangerous. Then, just about a minute after Humphries left the floor, everyone’s right mind took over and we all agreed that we were happy the days of 24-man brawls were over.

Matt Burke is sports editor and a columnist at Metro Boston. Follow him on Twitter @BurkeMetroBOS

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