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

[doogie_hauser]

Brunson still doesn't look right.
And with a short rest between the next game, the Knicks should really consider resting him (or at least give him a strict minutes limitation) for game 4.

Realistically they probably can't afford to (esp if OG will still miss)

Tell you what though, my Celtics (esp Tatum) can learn a damn lot from how these Knicks esp Brunson play in the playoffs, especially during the pain barrier.

Toughest team in the East for sure.

Knicks are down to many bodies to even consider limiting him. If he can play through it then he gotta play through it.

Wish the NBA was more flexible and allowed the Knicks to sign another player or two from the G League given how banged up they are (even on a short term deal for the length of the playoffs)

The 30 (soon to be 32) teams should discuss about introducing such a rule in the next round of CBA/TV negotiations.

[Hoop Hunter]

Sounds like u got ur excuses ready when Knicks close it out

How is that a excuse? Just facts. Why the hell would I need an excuse for a 6th seed losing to a 2 seed. Your trash talk game needs a lot of work dude.

I said before series started we were playing with house money. We're not supposed to be moving on. This season was about some playoff experience, period. You guys are supposed to beat us.

And we will beat the pacers

To say the pacers didn’t play great when they had their best game against an injured Knicks is ludicrous.

If it wasn’t for the prayer 3 they would’ve lost

That was our worse played game of the first 3. We shot way worst % than the first two games. We missed so many easy, open shots. TJ missed 2 point blank layups. Nembhard was awful, til the lucky 3, he'd played well till tonight. Our bench had worst game of the entire playoffs.

Your injuries have no concern to me. We can only play who's in front of us. All season we have played our worst against the worst teams. Guys out, we always let scrubs hurt us.

And back at you, if it wasn't for 2 horrible calls with in the last minute or so we'd won game one.

So here we are. I'm liking our chances in game 4.

[Nuntius]

My whole point is that exaggerating contact once or twice doesn't make one a flopper. When I, personally, use the word flopper, I use it for the habitual offenders and none of the 3 players mentioned here are habitual offenders.

And my whole point, is that announces actually called Haliburton "one of the best floppers in the league" - it's not just me saying he flops.

Individual clips don't put Brunson and Hart in that same category.

Which announcers were those, though? It was Milwaukee's announcers on December 14th. We had already beat Milwaukee twice before that game (126-124 on November 10th and 128-119 on December 8th, less than a week before the game in question). Haliburton had 29/10/6 on that November game and 27/15/7 on that December 8th game.

Oh, and that December 8th game? It was the IST Semifinals and we beat the Bucks IN Milwaukee. Haliburton did the "Dame Time" celebration.

Don't you think that those announcers were pretty annoyed by Haliburton by this point? Don't you think that they were biased?

It would be one thing if national TV guys (who generally try to be neutral) were constantly calling him a flopper (like they do with CP3, Harden et cetera). But that's not what's happening here. It's a biased source.

[Capn'O]

If Brunson is somewhat better Sunday I think we take it, then the series. He was missing bunnies tonight. OG is a bit of an x factor as well.

[cgf]

I’m convinced a fully healthy Knicks team would have won the championship this season.

I'm not. I think they're better without Julius Randle. The three Villinova guys with interior role players is their best look.

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We all have our opinions but there's nothing really supporting the idea that we're better without Randle. Even playing on an ankle that required surgery last spring he had an On-Off of +2.5 and Brunson's eFG dropped more than 10% without Randle on the court with him.

And that was before Julius remembered that nobody can stop him from getting to the rim without help...which caused him to play the best basketball of his career before getting hurt; around 25-9-5 on a TS of 59-60% since game 6 of the season. He's a huge loss for us, despite people that don't watch the Knicks much saying otherwise.

[Capn'O]

Also, Thibs' decision to go small late when we weren't hitting and Siakam was abusing us was a curious one. Pacers did a great job getting 50 50 balls.

[Nuntius]

Yep we are a 6th seed. 12 of our 15 guys are under 3 years experience. Teams at extreme differences in timelines.

Wow, you guys won a whole 3 games more than us.

Sounds like u got ur excuses ready when Knicks close it out

How is that a excuse? Just facts. Why the hell would I need an excuse for a 6th seed losing to a 2 seed. Your trash talk game needs a lot of work dude.

I said before series started we were playing with house money. We're not supposed to be moving on. This season was about some playoff experience, period. You guys are supposed to beat us.

It's really weird indeed. It looks like some Knick fans (definitely the minority, imo) are hellbent on making us, Pacer fans, be the villain of the story. They keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Oh well, what can you do

[Nuntius]

Sounds like u got ur excuses ready when Knicks close it out

How is that a excuse? Just facts. Why the hell would I need an excuse for a 6th seed losing to a 2 seed. Your trash talk game needs a lot of work dude.

I said before series started we were playing with house money. We're not supposed to be moving on. This season was about some playoff experience, period. You guys are supposed to beat us.

And we will beat the pacers

To say the pacers didn’t play great when they had their best game against an injured Knicks is ludicrous.

If it wasn’t for the prayer 3 they would’ve lost

Haliburton and Siakam had their best game of the series but Hoop isn't wrong either. Our bench had its worse game by a pretty huge margin and Nembhard had his worst game of the series up until the shot (Turner and Nesmith had similar games with what they had in game 1). And, yes, we definitely would have lost without that prayer 3.

Look, the fact of the matter is that all 3 of these games have been really competitive. All of them have been close with teams trading leads back and forth. The difference between this game and the previous ones was that we executed better down the stretch. It doesn't mean that we played better basketball throughout the game than we did in our losses.

[Luv those Knicks]

My whole point is that exaggerating contact once or twice doesn't make one a flopper. When I, personally, use the word flopper, I use it for the habitual offenders and none of the 3 players mentioned here are habitual offenders.

And my whole point, is that announces actually called Haliburton "one of the best floppers in the league" - it's not just me saying he flops.

Individual clips don't put Brunson and Hart in that same category.

Which announcers were those, though? It was Milwaukee's announcers on December 14th. We had already beat Milwaukee twice before that game (126-124 on November 10th and 128-119 on December 8th, less than a week before the game in question). Haliburton had 29/10/6 on that November game and 27/15/7 on that December 8th game.

Oh, and that December 8th game? It was the IST Semifinals and we beat the Bucks IN Milwaukee. Haliburton did the "Dame Time" celebration.

Don't you think that those announcers were pretty annoyed by Haliburton by this point? Don't you think that they were biased?

It would be one thing if national TV guys (who generally try to be neutral) were constantly calling him a flopper (like they do with CP3, Harden et cetera). But that's not what's happening here. It's a biased source.

I guess we're just going to have to disagree.

[Nuntius]

And my whole point, is that announces actually called Haliburton "one of the best floppers in the league" - it's not just me saying he flops.

Individual clips don't put Brunson and Hart in that same category.

Which announcers were those, though? It was Milwaukee's announcers on December 14th. We had already beat Milwaukee twice before that game (126-124 on November 10th and 128-119 on December 8th, less than a week before the game in question). Haliburton had 29/10/6 on that November game and 27/15/7 on that December 8th game.

Oh, and that December 8th game? It was the IST Semifinals and we beat the Bucks IN Milwaukee. Haliburton did the "Dame Time" celebration.

Don't you think that those announcers were pretty annoyed by Haliburton by this point? Don't you think that they were biased?

It would be one thing if national TV guys (who generally try to be neutral) were constantly calling him a flopper (like they do with CP3, Harden et cetera). But that's not what's happening here. It's a biased source.

I guess we're just going to have to disagree.

Yep, we can always agree to disagree.

[cgf]

Devincinzo (sp?) has to come back down to earth. His three-point shooting percentage is not sustainable.

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lol

just say you haven't watched him play all season

His last 8 games are anomalous even for him.

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RS 40.1% on 8.7 3PA/game
PS 42.7% on 7.5 3PA/game

[granger05]

lol

just say you haven't watched him play all season

His last 8 games are anomalous even for him.

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RS 40.1% on 8.7 3PA/game
PS 42.7% on 7.5 3PA/game

This Series: 56.3% on 10.7 3PA/game

I'm sure we're giving up more open shots, but it feels a bit ridiculous.

[xdrta+]

His last 8 games are anomalous even for him.

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RS 40.1% on 8.7 3PA/game
PS 42.7% on 7.5 3PA/game

This Series: 56.3% on 10.7 3PA/game

I'm sure we're giving up more open shots, but it feels a bit ridiculous.

It's ridiculous when a good shooter gets hot? It happens all the time.

[cgf]

RS 40.1% on 8.7 3PA/game
PS 42.7% on 7.5 3PA/game

This Series: 56.3% on 10.7 3PA/game

I'm sure we're giving up more open shots, but it feels a bit ridiculous.

It's ridiculous when a good shooter gets hot? It happens all the time.

Yeah Donte didn't make 3.5 3PA every single game. He'd go 5-14, 2-8, 3-9 in a few and then 8-11, 5-9, 6-12 in a few.

[kodo]

Haliburton hobbling.

[NiceLikeChrist]

How is that a excuse? Just facts. Why the hell would I need an excuse for a 6th seed losing to a 2 seed. Your trash talk game needs a lot of work dude.

I said before series started we were playing with house money. We're not supposed to be moving on. This season was about some playoff experience, period. You guys are supposed to beat us.

And we will beat the pacers

To say the pacers didn’t play great when they had their best game against an injured Knicks is ludicrous.

If it wasn’t for the prayer 3 they would’ve lost

That was our worse played game of the first 3. We shot way worst % than the first two games. We missed so many easy, open shots. TJ missed 2 point blank layups. Nembhard was awful, til the lucky 3, he'd played well till tonight. Our bench had worst game of the entire playoffs.

Your injuries have no concern to me. We can only play who's in front of us. All season we have played our worst against the worst teams. Guys out, we always let scrubs hurt us.

And back at you, if it wasn't for 2 horrible calls with in the last minute or so we'd won game one.

So here we are. I'm liking our chances in game 4.

You weren’t winning game. You can believe that as much as you want but Brunson was reasonably healthy that game. You guys weren’t winning a close game in the 4th.

You guys pulled a miracle out of a hat plus ref home cooking just to win this close game in the 4th where we were missing even more players than game 1 and Brunson is playing hobbled.

[NiceLikeChrist]

Kinda funny watching these games and the Pacer fans complaining about calls. They have been mugging Brunson all series but especially in Game 3. It's obvious Carlisle's instructions were to be very physical with Brunson since he knew after his outcry that the refs wouldn't dare call all these fouls on his team at home. Pacer fans not seeing the obvious fouls that their team is committing is funny as ****.

I wonder if everyone complaining even watched this pacers team during the reg season. If they did they’d know they commit more fouls than any other team and have the most undisciplined defense in the league. They act like it’s some revelation and conspiracy against a small market team when they foul just as much if not more in the playoffs than in the reg season.

[Nuntius]

Haliburton hobbling.

It's funny to me that some people still swear up and down that he's not playing through injuries.

[sol537]

One of the worst refereed 4th quarters I’ve seen in the playoffs in a long long time. The Carlisle complaining and media complaining over game one reffing seems to have had an impact.

[___Rand___]

Haliburton hobbling.

It's funny to me that some people still swear up and down that he's not playing through injuries.

IKR. Here's a 23 year old dude walking like a 65 year old man. Even Lowry when he had his back issues didn't have his gait altered.