Karl-Anthony Towns took the bruise from his left knee and together with his Knicks teammates planted it squarely on the Pacers’ foreheads, keeping the Eastern Conference finals alive for at least another game.

Towns shook off a sore knee and “questionable” designation on the injury report to go for 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jalen Brunson turned in another monster game with 32 points and New York beat Indiana 111-94 Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

The Pacers still lead the series, 3-2, with Game 6 at 8 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis. Their stars struggled mightily in Game 5, with Tyrese Haliburton, the series MVP up until this point, managing just eight points on 2-of-7 shooting. A bench player, Bennedict Mathurin, was Indiana’s leading scorer with 23 points.

The Knicks are trying to become the first team in history to lose the first two games of the conference finals at home and go on to win the series.

“You just take it game by game, you’ve got to keep fighting every game, every possession,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.

The Pacers had won six consecutive road playoff games prior to Game 5. They can still close out this series and punch their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2000, and second in franchise history, by winning Game 6.

Towns, an All-NBA selection, was averaging 25.8 points and 11.4 rebounds and is shooting 45 percent from 3-point range in this series prior to Game 5, but has been targeted defensively because he struggles to guard in space – where the Pacers thrive.

Indiana managed to ring up five fouls against Towns, but he played with much more force than his counterparts. He shot 10-of-20 from the field and added three assists. His baseline drive through Mathurin for a basket (he missed the free throw) with 2:44 left put the Knicks back up by 16, and the game was about over.