Turns out all the New York Knicks needed was a little urgency to snap their two-game losing streak.

Facing the same Indiana Pacers team that eviscerated them from three just under two weeks ago, New York cranked up the defensive intensity to 2020-21 vintage levels en route to a 92-84 win over Indiana.

“I think we all had a high sense of urgency,” Immanuel Quickley, who led the Knicks with 16 points and four threes, said. “We didn’t want to let three games in a row slip away.”

And yet, slip away it almost did, thanks to another below-average effort in the third quarter by the starters. However, that shouldn't undercut the significant progress made by the starting unit in the first half.

Though the shots weren't falling (the Knicks went 0-9 on threes in the first quarter on their way to just 16 points in the period), the process was much improved for New York, which jived nicely with the Derrick Rose's assessment after practice Sunday that the Knicks were running “a lot of play sets moving the ball from one side to the other, finding each other, communicating, talking.”

Julius Randle and Evan Fournier's two-man game was reignited. RJ Barrett was getting open looks. And, perhaps most importantly, Kemba Walker got his groove back driving to the basket, getting to the cup multiple times on his way to an 8-point first quarter.

Neither the Knicks nor the Pacers could get anything going throughout the first half, entering the halftime break with the Knicks down one.

A typically struggle-filled third quarter saw the Knicks drop to 12 points down before the starters fully exited, punctuated by a particularly listless sequence by Randle on what was overall a bounce-back night for him.

He would go on to redeem himself with some stalwart defense and creative playmaking down the stretch, along with Barrett, who had gone scoreless in the first half but poured in 12 in the second.

But Quickley and Derrick Rose, as they have recently, carried the Knicks towards victory in the second half. Rose had 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds on 7-14 shooting in 25 minutes of action.

“Even from the start, I liked the energy from the team on both sides of the ball,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “I thought we played really hard defensively, and I thought offensively there was great movement and there was great pace. And we missed some open shots, but they were the right plays, and if we play like that we’re going to have a great chance to win.”

Fourth quarter defense returned to its previous highs from last season, with the Knicks holding the Pacers to just 10 points in the final frame behind a number of fantastic defensive sequences like this one from Alec Burks, that got the Garden crowd to its feet in appreciation:

The closing lineup consisted of Rose, Quickley, Barrett, Randle, and Taj Gibson, after at times featuring a small-ball look with Randle and Obi Toppin after Mitchell Robinson re-aggravated his ankle injury. Thibodeau's flexibility was key to the Knicks' victory, and his trust in his star — despite his recent struggles, particularly closing games — paid off in a big way.

“The way Julius played was huge for our team,” Thibodeau said. “His energy energized our team, and then the willingness to make plays and spray the ball out, get the ball moving side to side was huge for us.”

The Knicks' redemption schedule from some of their earlier losses continues on Wednesday, when Orlando — the team that embarrassed the Knicks and handed them their first loss near the beginning of the season — visits Madison Square Garden.