Nothing needed to be said, no wild exhortations to the crowd or animated play. And still, there was no doubt what the intentions were in Jalen Brunson’s mind as Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals tipped off at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.

The game was 18 seconds old when Brunson drove into the teeth of the Indiana defense and dropped in a short jumper. Then he did it again and again until by the time the first quarter was halfway over, he had scored a dozen points to give the Knicks a double-digit lead.

Facing elimination, down three games to one, it was the time for the captain, but he would not be waiting for the late-game heroics. Brunson set the tone and his teammates followed, playing with a fury as they built leads of as many as 22 points on the way to a 111-94 victory in a convincing wire-to-wire performance.

The series now shifts back to Indiana for Game 6 on Saturday night.

“Set a tone for sure,” Brunson said. “It wasn’t through putting the ball in the basket. That happened, but just trying to make sure we were all on the same page and ready to go. Our backs were against the wall . . .

“We knew we had to do something. We had to. It’s win or go home. We had to do something.”

Brunson led the Knicks with an efficient 32 points in 33:40, exiting in the final minute with fans chanting “Knicks in 7.” He scored 14 points in the first quarter and 16 in the third.

Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points and 13 rebounds and Josh Hart had 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Equally important was the defensive effort, primarily by Mikal Bridges, limiting Tyrese Haliburton to eight points and 2-for-7 shooting.

Pascal Siakam was the only Pacers starter in double figures with 15 points. Bennedict Mathurin came off the bench to score 23 points in 24:42 for Indiana.

“I think this team has a very high character,” Hart said. “It starts with [Tom Thibodeau] and it trickles down. Obviously, JB, KAT, [Bridges], OG [Anunoby]. We never give up. I think that’s the biggest thing. That’s just how we play.

“We know when we’re messing up. We hold each other accountable and pick it up where we need to. It’s the same situation going into their place. It’s a tough place to play, they have great fans that are going to bring the energy. We’ve got to, like I said, be even better.”

The Knicks had good reason to believe in Brunson. He’s already done it before in the postseason — repeatedly. Last year in Game 5 against the Pacers, he scored 44 points. A year earlier, in Game 5 against Miami with the Knicks facing elimination, he had 38 points and seven assists.

And this time, Brunson made sure the Knicks were not going to have one of their lethargic starts to this game. On the first possession, he worked his way into the lane for a short jumper and then on the next trip it was a mid-range jumper on the baseline. He then made it 6-0, and by the time he sank back-to-back pull-up three-point field goals to give the Knicks a 23-13 lead, he was gesturing to the home crowd as the Pacers called timeout with 4:23 left in the first quarter.

Brunson went scoreless in the second quarter — Towns took over the offense with 12 points — but the Knicks got solid contributions from a lineup that included Towns with Hart, Delon Wright, Landry Shamet and Deuce McBride.

While there was little offense produced from the second unit, Shamet was scrambling all over the floor defensively and Hart was orchestrating the offense. The Knicks went ahead by 14 before settling for a 56-45 halftime lead.

The Knicks started the second half just as they had started the game, with Brunson scoring eight quick points.

On the other end of the floor, Mitchell Robinson was a force — causing a travel on Aaron Nesmith as he cut off a drive and swatting Haliburton’s driving shot into the seats. When the Pacers inbounded again, Robinson was all over Myles Turner, forcing him to lose the ball out of bounds, and on the ensuing possession, he followed Brunson’s miss with a layup for a 66-50 lead 3:11 into the second half.

The Pacers closed the gap to 10 in the third quarter, but a drive by Brunson, a baseline jumper by Bridges and a four-point play by Brunson pushed the lead back up to 18.

Precious Achiuwa’s layup on a break and McBride’s jumper completed a 12-0 run that gave the Knicks a 22-point lead.

Still, the Pacers had shown in Game 1 that no lead is safe. The Knicks made sure that there would not be a repeat of that historic collapse. They led by as much as 20 in the fourth quarter and never let the Pacers get closer than 12.

“I feel like we played that game not to lose,” Hart said of Game 1. “We slowed it down, we got stagnant and kind of played into their hands. This time it was continue to push, continue to get stops and run and keep playing the way we got the lead . . .

“We didn’t reference it. It was kind of let’s keep doing what got us here. That’s the biggest thing. When you get the lead, you don’t want to abandon how you got the lead.”