2024 NBA Playoffs: East Semifinals: #2 New York Knicks vs #6 Indiana Pacers (IND WINS 4-3)

[Black Jack]

The injuries were caused by our Hoosier Space Laser. If we win this series, we'll focus it on Tatum and Brown.

Nobody tell MTG

[Lord Commander]

I dont care about Knicks fans crying about injuries, your coach is known for running players to the ground with a 7 man rotation and now they're paying the price, boo hoo.

You realize that if Giannis was healthy the Pacers would've been in Cancun a long time ago right? And it still took 6 games to do what they should have done in 4. Let's not act like this team is some kind of juggernaut. Just making sure you're aware. And the injuries to 3/5 of the Knicks starting rotation, and one key bench piece was not a result of overuse, any imbecile knows that. One was a fall, and two resulted from dirty plays. Even if you wanted to make the argument that OG's injury was from overuse, that's still dumb because he was out for a month prior to the start of the playoffs. But go crazy, it's your world...until you get to Boston anyway

[Wizop]

You realize that if Giannis was healthy the Pacers would've been in Cancun a long time ago right?

FWIW, the Pacers had winning records against the Bucks and Knicks in the regular season.

[DaGawd]

You realize that if Giannis was healthy the Pacers would've been in Cancun a long time ago right?

FWIW, the Pacers had winning records against the Bucks and Knicks in the regular season.

never played the knicks with og in the regular season tho.. not ironically we’re struggling to beat y’all again now that he’s out

[Lord Commander]

You realize that if Giannis was healthy the Pacers would've been in Cancun a long time ago right?

FWIW, the Pacers had winning records against the Bucks and Knicks in the regular season.

never played the knicks with og in the regular season tho.. not ironically we’re struggling to beat y’all again now that he’s out

Minor technicality...in his mind anyway.

[BrianInPhilly]

So annoying all this "IF WE WERE HEALTHY" talk in the playoffs .. Um that's half what the playoffs is about - Half is about staying healthy, being fresh, and playing through fatigue - the other half is talent. Always has been at least the past few years. Health is partially luck - but it's not all luck. A team can limit injuries, stay fresher by:

1. Signing guys who have limited injury history
2. Managing starters minutes all year to not overwork them
3. Creating an offensive philosophy that gives lots of guys touches, to limit heavy load on main guys
4. Having an offensive system that is not reliant on just a couple guys - can plug in bench guys & system won't fall apart.
5.. Create a young team, with fresher legs to work through fatigue better.

Pacers have done the above, and are benefiting from the rewards of it right now.

#1 - They've done that
2 - Carlisle routinely played starters 30-34 mpg
3 - They share the ball like crazy, no guy is dominating the ball and forced to go 1 on 1
4 - Their bench is big part of what they do. McConnel is like a mini version of Haliburton, Toppin plays like Jackson who can run like Siakim. They can plug guys in and play the same way the whole game, no matter who's in there.
5. Done, prioritize youth.

[Wizop]

never played the knicks with og in the regular season tho.. not ironically we’re struggling to beat y’all again now that he’s out

that's fair. the Knicks are much better with OG. OTOH, the Paces are better with Siakam.

[Wizop]

3 - They share the ball like crazy, no guy is dominating the ball and forced to go 1 on 1

some of that is by necessity. we don't have anyone as good at going one on one as Brunson. Siakam can do it a little, but he gets loose with the ball. Mathurin is out.

[iLLmatic860]

So annoying all this "IF WE WERE HEALTHY" talk in the playoffs ...

Did you have this same energy when peopl were saying the same about Embiid?

[BrianInPhilly]

So annoying all this "IF WE WERE HEALTHY" talk in the playoffs ...

Did you have this same energy when peopl were saying the same about Embiid?

I'm not even a Sixers fan, just live in Philly. But yes I keep the same energy with everything because I'm CONSISTENT. Sixers built a team around Embiid so yes they pay the price for it every season - and the dumb GM still can't add a legit big man to back him up so team doesn't fall off when he's not in there. It's hilarious really.

[BrianInPhilly]

3 - They share the ball like crazy, no guy is dominating the ball and forced to go 1 on 1

some of that is by necessity. we don't have anyone as good at going one on one as Brunson. Siakam can do it a little, but he gets loose with the ball. Mathurin is out.

True to an extent but that's my point - When you create a team around a 1 on 1 player like Brunson, when he's fatigued/injured your team is going to fall apart. Meanwhile Haliburton is hobbled too but he impacts the game outside of 1 on 1 basketball & Pacers can still function. So again, goes back to creating a team that shares the ball and is not overly reliant on 1-2 guys.

Just tiresome to see bunch of people act like it's totally luck when teams get fatigued/injured/hurt and can't function. It's not. Pacers created a team that shares the ball, limits load on any individual, and therefore can look fresher than other teams on short rest.

[iLLmatic860]

So annoying all this "IF WE WERE HEALTHY" talk in the playoffs ...

Did you have this same energy when peopl were saying the same about Embiid?

I'm not even a Sixers fan, just live in Philly. But yes I keep the same energy with everything because I'm CONSISTENT. Sixers built a team around Embiid so yes they pay the price for it every season - and the dumb GM still can't add a legit big man to back him up so team doesn't fall off when he's not in there. It's hilarious really.

Ok I respect that

I was just making sure cuz I seen your name had Philly

But yeah unfortunately injuries are apart of the game. Last man standing

Whatever happens i'm still proud of my team and makes me optimistic that we come back stronger and stay healthy next season

I do feel like we would easily beat them if we are healthy but we aren't so no point in that kind of talk

[Capn'O]

Much has been written about Thib's short rotations in the regular season being a possible cause of injuries and a likely cause of tired legs, but it has also caused the starters and the reserves to not be familiar with playing with each other. OTOH, the Pacers are playing combinations that have often played together.

I think this is astute. Maybe because it's similar to something I've previously written

Thibs rotations are not only short but they are rigid in terms of who plays with who. At minute 8, Mitch comes in for iHart and so forth. Which works great when you have everyone but then when you don't you have to adjust quickly. Phil Jackson would always make sure he tried out different player combinations throughout the season to get players that sort of experience playing together. This led to some of the postseason magic by unexpected heroes. Everything was familiar.

He only switches up when the injuries force his hand.

Has he ever explained why?

I went to one gsw-twolves game and saw him barking like a maniac all game. Thibs is pretty out there if you ask me.

"Thibs is a maniac" has been my mantra on these forums all year.

I mean, there's obviously some method to his madness. Both individual players and units of players with the Knicks have performed beyond what I ever imagined possible and most of the guys that move on from the Knicks do not reach the same level elsewhere. The Knicks have done a great job identifying players who would succeed under him and this group seems 100% behind him. But as a fan you always feel like you're in a racecar held together by duct tape with him at the wheel. You're near the front of the race but when is it gonna fall apart?

[Capn'O]

To the other discussion happening, Randle was a secondary offensive hub and he suffered a freak injury where... maybe he shouldn't have been playing but a lot of coaches would have. That was really bad luck and Brunson was often compensating for not having his second AND third offensive options out there. Other guys stepped up but hyper focusing the offense on Brunson was by necessity. There are a lot of reasons for Knicks fans to be optimistic about this roster construction if we run it back.

What we cannot, cannot, absolutely cannot do is run OG for 40 mpg in any stretch ever. We're hyper reliant on his play and his susceptibility to injury/pain tolerance is a going concern.

[Lord Commander]

So annoying all this "IF WE WERE HEALTHY" talk in the playoffs ...

Did you have this same energy when peopl were saying the same about Embiid?

I'm not even a Sixers fan, just live in Philly. But yes I keep the same energy with everything because I'm CONSISTENT. Sixers built a team around Embiid so yes they pay the price for it every season - and the dumb GM still can't add a legit big man to back him up so team doesn't fall off when he's not in there. It's hilarious really.

[Nuntius]

We’re not passing the price because of the minutes played by game guys lol… most, if not all, of the injuries are not related to playing too much. As a matter a fact, the only injury where you can possibly debate that fatigue played a factor is OG’s injury. But he’s only played like 30 games for Thibs, with about 4-6 weeks of rest in the middle of those 30 games.


There’s definitely no argument that Thibs plays his guys an insane amount of minutes and has them out there too long but the Knicks injuries are not a result of fatigue or playing too much

LOL. The wheels are falling off and you’re still in denial that the heavy minutes are NOT taking its toll?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

it’s hard to say… when you look at the injuries to some of the guys out it seems more like just freak accidents/bad luck.. are minutes to blame for batum rolling in to bogdanovic’s leg pretty much as soon as he checks in to the game in game 4 of the philly series which ended his season? or randle getting undercut by jaime jacquez trying to take a charge and him landing square on his shoulder? or embiid flailing and rolling over mitchell robinson’s already surgically repaired ankle ? the one guy who possibly has a case for injury caused my overuse is OG.. and maybe brunson’s latest injury as he’s been hobbled since game 2

I didn't see Bojan's or Randle's injuries but Mitchell Robinson's injury was definitely not due to minutes. That was primarily due to Embiid.

[Nuntius]

You realize that if Giannis was healthy the Pacers would've been in Cancun a long time ago right?

FWIW, the Pacers had winning records against the Bucks and Knicks in the regular season.

never played the knicks with og in the regular season tho.. not ironically we’re struggling to beat y’all again now that he’s out

This is true. The games the two teams played in February were hardly representative. We DID beat you once before we got Siakam in a game where you had both Randle and Brunson but that was still before the OG injury so, yeah, it was not the same Knicks team either.

The games we played against the Bucks in the RS, though, were a bit more representative than the ones we played against you.

[Capn'O]

nm...

[Nuntius]

Did you have this same energy when peopl were saying the same about Embiid?

I'm not even a Sixers fan, just live in Philly. But yes I keep the same energy with everything because I'm CONSISTENT. Sixers built a team around Embiid so yes they pay the price for it every season - and the dumb GM still can't add a legit big man to back him up so team doesn't fall off when he's not in there. It's hilarious really.

To be fair, if you take a look at his posting history, that does seem accurate. He has way more posts in the Raptors board than the Philly board and he's primarily known as an Alex Len fan.

[bisme37]

Bilal Coulibaly with some random bulletin board material from a player on a lottery team lol.

Read on Twitter