INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks now are in the type of deep hole from which the franchise never has recovered.
The Knicks offense continued to disintegrate — along with their once-promising season — as they continue to flop in their first second-round appearance in 13 years.
The Pacers routed the Knicks, 93-82, Wednesday night at Bankers Life Field House, to jack their second-round series lead to 3-1. The Knicks never have rallied from a 3-1 deficit, and just eight NBA teams have all time. Game 5 is at the Garden tomorrow, where the Knicks season may end. Things look hopeless against these tall and burly Pacers.
Carmelo Anthony scored 24 points but didn’t score in the fourth quarter and fouled out with 2:00 left battling for an offensive rebound. His season-long wingman J.R. Smith, still playing with the remnants of the flu, shot 7-of-22 for 19 points to extend his miserable slump to six games. Anthony fouled out on a Smith 3-point miss.
Melo didn’t get any help and looked frustrated at the end as the Knicks were plagued with fouls and couldn’t compete on the boards, as the Pacers’ size proved too much. The Knicks started with a big starting lineup, adding Kenyon Martin at power forward, but it didn’t help.
Indiana slaughtered the Knicks, 54-36, on the boards to continue a series-long trend. Pacers 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert didn’t little (six points) but collected 11 rebounds with three blocks and was a force in the middle, stopping the Knicks’ penetration. Tyson Chandler had another marginal game.
Anthony picked up his fifth foul midway through the fourth quarter and seemed passive after that. He missed all four of his fourth-quarter shots.
The Pacers got a great shooting night from point guard George Hill, who went to the same Indianapolis high school as coach Mike Woodson, punishing the Knicks with 23 points.
Amar’e Stoudemire played 11 nondescript minutes in his second game back, picking up four fouls and four points. Jason Kidd went scoreless for the eighth straight game, even blowing a breakaway layup.
Anthony got frustrated with 6:45 left when Paul George got by him on a drive and he knocked his head from behind as he went up for a layup. It was Anthony’s fifth foul, but he stayed in.
The Knicks offense moved the ball as Chandler requested in the first half but couldn’t move the twine. They started out 2-of-14 from the field. Iman Shumpert, playing with a sore knee, was 0-for-6 and didn’t score.
The Knicks trailed 48-34 by intermission, shooting 32.6 percent (14-of-43, 2-of-14 on 3-pointers).
In one depressing sequence late in the second quarter, Smith was called for an offensive foul as he tried taking it to the hole. Right before, he took it to the basket and the whistle flagged Tyson Chandler for the offensive foul on the pick.
Smith was beside himself at the second call when his scoop layup missed, starting at the referee for several seconds before Woodson pulled him. When he got to the bench, alumni director John Starks, in a spate of irony, walked o the end of the bench to whisper in his ear. Smith and Starks have been compared because of their streaky yet explosive ways.
The Knicks lost their cool with Chandler and Stoudemire picking up technicals in the half for yapping to the officials. Stoudemire gave the Knicks 4:20 empty minutes as he picked up three fouls. He made one basket from the post.
Early in the third quarter, Brooklynite Lance Stephenson drilled a 3-pointer then stared directly at Smith on the Knicks bench. The two have been adversaries all season.
marc.berman@nypost.com