NEW YORK – The Knicks were obliterated Tuesday in their season opener, which was kicked off by a record-breaking flurry of Boston Celtics triples.

That taste was still in the Knicks’ mouths when they took the floor for their home opener on Friday night, and the club used it as fuel to defeat the Indiana Pacers 123-98 in Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges’ home debut at Madison Square. Garden.

“Any time you get taken down on national television in the NBA, it means you have to step up,” said winger Josh Hart, one of four New York starters to finish with 20 or more points against Indiana. Bridges and Towns had 21 each, while floor general Jalen Brunson finished with a game-high 26.

“I liked the way our guys responded,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “The fight we showed was much bigger.”

The result was satisfying for the Knicks, who, in addition to the embarrassing loss to the Celtics, also sought revenge for last season’s Game 7 loss to the Pacers (1-1) at the Garden in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The reversal of the Knicks’ season-opening loss was most apparent on the defensive end. In Boston, the Knicks had great difficulty defending the perimeter. On Friday, New York held Indiana – the league’s second-best offense last season – to 3 of 30 from the arc.

The Knicks’ wings were especially aggressive against Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton, holding him scoreless on eight shots.

“I was just bad, mate. It happens,” Haliburton said.

Bridges started the game defensively on Haliburton before giving way to Hart and OG Anunoby on a handful of possessions at a time. The Knicks (1-1) broke out in transition several times after Pacers turnovers and scored 29 points on Indiana’s 16 miscues during the game.

The Garden crowd was lively from the jump, lighting up to support Towns – a local product from suburban New Jersey – and Bridges for their first meaningful action on the home floor. The game was more or less over midway through the third, when New York took the lead by 30 points. But the fans were still loud at the time because of not only the Knicks but also the New York Yankees, who were playing in Game 1 of the World Series.

A huge “Let’s Go Yankees!” The chant broke out in the fourth quarter after Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer to put the Yanks up 2-1, and the chant was repeated as soon as Stanton’s shot was shown on the arena’s video screen. Towns was among the fans who did this, waving his towel wildly as he watched the play unfold.

“Oh, I definitely looked up (to the jumbotron),” said Towns, a Yankees fan who watched the game — which was ended by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman with a walk-off grand slam — intently in the locker room while doing his postgame interview.