2025 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #3 New York Knicks vs #4 Indiana Pacers (IND leads 2-0)

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

They were down 3-1 before Tatum went down let's not pretend now. KP sure but he barely played last playoffs either and Brown was playing like his normal self regardless.

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

It’s okay, us Pacers fans understand. Pacers haven’t gotten credit for a single playoff series in two years.

[Raps in 4]

Just took Brown with a torn meniscus, KP with SARs and Tatum with a torn achilles.

They were down 3-1 before Tatum went down let's not pretend now. KP sure but he barely played last playoffs either and Brown was playing like his normal self regardless.

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

We all want to dunk on the Knicks but it was 3-1. Tatum went down at the very end of game 4, with the game already lost.

[Im Coming Home]

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

It’s okay, us Pacers fans understand. Pacers haven’t gotten credit for a single playoff series in two years.

You will for this one though. I am saddened but also impressed by the Pacers. I figured we had this in the bag since we were up 2-0 last year before injuries killed us against this same roster(albeit much better team this year) and took it to 7 with like half our roster injured. It's rare to see a roster not change but have a huge improvement. Gives me hope for next season with Knicks having a 2nd year to build chemistry. Still feel like we haven't seen the full ability of a Brunson/KAT pick n roll at all really.

[Raps in 4]

Carlisle is running circles around Thibs. I didn't think Thibs was that bad of a coach, and I'm still not sure he is, but Carlisle is just in a league of his own. He's always been a top-5 coach, but for some reason gets criminally underrated year after year.

[Marrs-Law]

I’m not calling you out or coming at you sideways with this, but it’s just a common misconception people have when it comes to Haliburton.

People need to stop expecting Haliburton to score 25 a game. That isn’t how the Pacers offense works. Haliburton had 11 assists and only one turnover in a playoff conference finals game in Madison Square Garden. Sure, he didn’t shoot the best tonight, but he was getting everyone else involved, which is what the Pacers offense does. We don’t need or want Haliburton to drop 25 a game, because then we become one dimensional. We need him to step up in certain situations and he’s been insanely reliable in that regard. Despite his shot being off tonight, he drilled a big three right in Brunson’s face with the games momentum on the line.

Yea, he could have shot better, but Haliburton still had a good game. I think people underestimate how difficult having 11 assists to only one turnover actually is, especially on the road in the playoffs.

I understand you. This occurred to me in regard to Pascal actually. He went off much more than he usually does, but part of that is just simply out of necessity due to the Pacers' offense functioning extremely terrible. It's really good Siakam did that, but it would have been better if he didn't need to, because we aren't Pascal or Hali iso, and our team would not function that way.

Back to Hali. My issue is not that he didn't score 25; like you said that's not how our offense works. But he really struggled taking people off the dribble this game. For the turnover, he got locked up by Josh Hart and was obviously taken out of rhythm by that. He struggled taking Mitchell Robinson off the dribble.

Now the Pacers' run a ton of pick-in-roll, screens etc. and so maybe (probably actually) HALI ISO doesn't matter. I've only followed this game for a couple of years; you probably understand the offense better than I do. I just had the feeling watching the game that the offense struggled at specific times where the struggles could have been alleviated if Hali were a better self-creator.

I mean, people have been saying that he isn’t a self-creator, yet in the postseason, he continues to make plays to win games. Took Giannis off the dribble to get to the basket before hitting a step back 3. Had over 30 points last game. Routinely got to the basket against the Cavs too. He can take Robinson off the dribble, thing is, Robinson is a very good defender with a tonnnnn of length. Even if you beat him, he can still block you, because that’s just who he is. Same thing we see with Turner a lot. Turner watches little guys go around him, then blocks them from behind.

Point is, when push comes to shove, Haliburton has consistently delivered when needed. I mean, the dude is what, 12-14 this season on shots to tie or take the lead with less than two minutes left? You don’t do that if you can’t create offense for yourself.

He does it at times, but that's the problem, he's inconsistent. This has been a common theme for the entire time he's been here. He disappears, and the offense suffers. We would have lost the game today if Pascal didn't act like a number one option.

I don't know, maybe it won't matter because nobody's really successfully slowed us down, but the Thunder are supposed to be a good defense, and I worry that, without consistent elite self-creation ability, we are going to suffer from it. I am not super familiar with the Thunder, but, after Hartenstien, I don't think there's really anyone for our guards to have a mismatch on? If pick n roll doesn't work, what's the play? That's what I'm concerned about. Sometimes you just need to get to the hoop period, and I don't know if Ty can do that consistently against OKC's (presumably, haven't watched them much) elite defense.

I am sounding a lot like a Pacers' hater today (very bad, we get enough hate); I just try to stay realistic win or lose.

[Mamba81p]

I wonder if Bradley will play ahead of Bryant in game 3. Maybe Carlisle found the solution by luck with those early foul troubles

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

It’s okay, us Pacers fans understand. Pacers haven’t gotten credit for a single playoff series in two years.

You will for this one though. I am saddened but also impressed by the Pacers. I figured we had this in the bag since we were up 2-0 last year before injuries killed us against this same roster(albeit much better team this year) and took it to 7 with like half our roster injured. It's rare to see a roster not change but have a huge improvement. Gives me hope for next season with Knicks having a 2nd year to build chemistry. Still feel like we haven't seen the full ability of a Brunson/KAT pick n roll at all really.

People forget how inexperienced the Pacers were last year. Outside of Siakam, no one had any real playoff experience. They were also a very young team. Against both the Bucks and the Knicks, they were playing playoff veterans. That makes a significant difference. Especially when those veterans had earned the right to be called veterans, because they stuck around in the league because of their tenacity and physicality. For a young team, without playoff experience, those are tough opponents regardless of star talent. Wasn’t pretty, but the Pacers ultimately won out obviously.

The thing was, last year the Pacers struggled in late game situations all season. In the ECF you could argue the Pacers should have won 3 of those 4 games, but just choked because of the youth and lack of playoff experience. I mean, they choked that first game away in an absurd fashion.

This year though, they’ve learned from their mistakes and how to keep their composure. This isn’t just a playoff thing, all season long the Pacers have been deadly in late game/clutch situations. An amazing job by Carlisle and the players to change that drastically in one offseason, but I think a lot of that is the Pacers knowing they had Boston in 3 of those 4 games and gave it away. They worked hard in the offseason and even took a team-building trip to Nashville together. Whatever it was that did it, this team trusts one another, and when all 5 guys on the court are a threat, it’s tough to defend them all.

[Im Coming Home]

Carlisle is running circles around Thibs. I didn't think Thibs was that bad of a coach, and I'm still not sure he is, but Carlisle is just in a league of his own. He's always been a top-5 coach, but for some reason gets criminally underrated year after year.

Thibs is a floor raiser. But his limited offense and is semi-arc archaic defense that focused on defending the paint over giving up wide open 3s definitely isn't helping the Knicks right now. He looked good last series and sometimes his defensive schemes can still look good but you can't in a modern NBA run a defense that gives up so many open 3s, this ain't the 90s or 2000s or even the earl 2010s anymore.. almost every NBA team has 4 guys if not 5 who can hit open 3s.

Weird thing is he made an adjustment against the Celtics against this but now has reverted to drop coverage again against the Pacers

[ArksNetsSince99]

Carlisle is running circles around Thibs. I didn't think Thibs was that bad of a coach, and I'm still not sure he is, but Carlisle is just in a league of his own. He's always been a top-5 coach, but for some reason gets criminally underrated year after year.

You got the point , I also think Knicks should extend Thibs contract ASAP while he’s available for minimum 5 years

[Chuck Everett]

Mothereffin Ben Sheppard with another +8 performance in 13 minutes. This freakin' guy man.

[RB34]

They were down 3-1 before Tatum went down let's not pretend now. KP sure but he barely played last playoffs either and Brown was playing like his normal self regardless.

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

Knicks have been doing that to the Pacers for the last 12 months. Same old story though, Celtics injuries don’t count, they never do.

It’s hilarious people are saying a 9 point game is over with 3 minutes. Like I said it my earlier post, I just watched this very same Knicks team blow a 14 point in less time. Delusion.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Carlisle is running circles around Thibs. I didn't think Thibs was that bad of a coach, and I'm still not sure he is, but Carlisle is just in a league of his own. He's always been a top-5 coach, but for some reason gets criminally underrated year after year.

Thibs is a floor raiser. But his limited offense and is semi-arc archaic defense that focused on defending the paint over giving up wide open 3s definitely isn't helping the Knicks right now. He looked good last series and sometimes his defensive schemes can still look good but you can't in a modern NBA run a defense that gives up so many open 3s, this ain't the 90s or 2000s or even the earl 2010s anymore.. almost every NBA team has 4 guys if not 5 who can hit open 3s.

Weird thing is he made an adjustment against the Celtics against this but now has reverted to drop coverage again against the Pacers

Weird thing is that you failed to realize Pacers didn’t shoot that many threes this game , not even attempted

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Ben Sheppard has been such a sneaky good player in this series.

Dude pretty much fell out of the lineup, has his number called, and not only shows up, but has made some massive plays with defensive stops or a three while the Knicks are building momentum.

Even last year as a rookie, he looked like a 10 year veteran with how he played in the playoffs.

[Im Coming Home]

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

Knicks have been doing that to the Pacers for the last 12 months. Same old story though, Celtics injuries don’t count, they never do.

It’s hilarious people are saying a 9 point game is over with 3 minutes. Like I said it my earlier post, I just watched this very same Knicks team blow a 14 point in less time. Delusion.

Celtics aren't Pacers and the Knicks had all the momentum in the world at that point before the injury.. even if you don't wanna believe it was over you can admit it was more than likely over. This is just an attempt to discredit the Knicks.

It's different than last year's Pacers because they never went up 2-0 against an un-injured team before team they were playing got injured. They were losing the series to the Knicks before injuries killed the Knicks. Knicks proved twice they can beat the Celtics before Tatum went down. And they proved it a 3rd time with all the momentum up 9 with 3 minutes to go.

It's funny how all these people who said the Knicks would be lucky to win even 1 game against that same Celtics team(with KP not playing much in previous series either, and Brown playing injured) yet when the Knicks win suddenly they act like the Celtics roster was drastically changed.

[ballzboyee]

Haliburton with the oopsie doopsie!

Haliburton really looks like Magic out there at times. Obviously, a long ways to go before he' in that conversation but he has a lot of the same characteristics as a player in terms of his ability to affect the game without scoring. Magic must be smiling watching him work. Hali proves pretty convincingly that Magic would dominate this league today.

the pacers are the nash/dantoni suns fully realized.

Maybe in the sense that both are running innovative systems. D'Antoni ran a pick & roll with the wings spread on the corners. Very much a forerunner to today's high ball screen and 5-out action. What makes the Pacers interesting is that they can put 3 to 5 elite passers on the court in what is really a read and react offense that is super unpredictable. When you have player like Haliburton running a system like that, it's pretty scary. I think Hali being a big point guard is really a huge advantage for the Pacers. Like Magic he doesn't have to depend on a lot of screen action to get to his spots or see the floor. Haliburton can get quality looks and can get to the rim on his own and this frees up their offense. But by far the most intimidating part of their offense is that they can all really pass the ball and they know where they are going with it.

[Im Coming Home]

Carlisle is running circles around Thibs. I didn't think Thibs was that bad of a coach, and I'm still not sure he is, but Carlisle is just in a league of his own. He's always been a top-5 coach, but for some reason gets criminally underrated year after year.

Thibs is a floor raiser. But his limited offense and is semi-arc archaic defense that focused on defending the paint over giving up wide open 3s definitely isn't helping the Knicks right now. He looked good last series and sometimes his defensive schemes can still look good but you can't in a modern NBA run a defense that gives up so many open 3s, this ain't the 90s or 2000s or even the earl 2010s anymore.. almost every NBA team has 4 guys if not 5 who can hit open 3s.

Weird thing is he made an adjustment against the Celtics against this but now has reverted to drop coverage again against the Pacers

Weird thing is that you failed to realize Pacers didn’t shoot that many threes this game , not even attempted

Not talking about this game specifically. Just talking about Thibs core defensive philosophy.

[Capn'O]

No, it was 2-1 when Tatum went down. Brown was clearly not as explosive or as dominant on defence because of the injury. KP is still a 20 ppg regardless of if he played last year or not.

I don’t want to derail this too much. Congrats Pacers!

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

It’s okay, us Pacers fans understand. Pacers haven’t gotten credit for a single playoff series in two years.

Assuming you hang on you get this one clean.

[RB34]

It was essentially 3-1. Knicks went up 9 before Tatum got hurt and had all the momentum going their way too so you can chalk that one up too. Knicks showed they were the better team before Tatum went down that's all, people attempting to retroactively discredit Knicks due to Celtics injuries, especially Tatum's look silly

Knicks have been doing that to the Pacers for the last 12 months. Same old story though, Celtics injuries don’t count, they never do.

It’s hilarious people are saying a 9 point game is over with 3 minutes. Like I said it my earlier post, I just watched this very same Knicks team blow a 14 point in less time. Delusion.

Celtics aren't Pacers and the Knicks had all the momentum in the world at that point before the injury.. even if you don't wanna believe it was over you can admit it was more than likely over. This is just an attempt to discredit the Knicks.

It's different than last year's Pacers because they never went up 2-0 against an un-injured team before team they were playing got injured. They were losing the series to the Knicks before injuries killed the Knicks. Knicks proved twice they can beat the Celtics before Tatum went down. And they proved it a 3rd time with all the momentum up 9 with 3 minutes to go.

It's funny how all these people who said the Knicks would be lucky to win even 1 game against that same Celtics team(with KP not playing much in previous series either, and Brown playing injured) yet when the Knicks win suddenly they act like the Celtics roster was drastically changed.

Where did I say the Knicks would be lucky to win 1 game?

The difference is the Knicks are a better team than the Magic and the Magic had injuries of their own. None of this nuance seems to be accounted for when speaking about the Celtics though. Standard.

[Capn'O]

I'm actually more demoralized about this one then G1. We played our style, didn't let up, and still lost. Getting dark for my Knicks.

Of course, losing G1 is a bigger issue with this one lost too.

[cgf]

Ugh. We needed this one. GG Pacers bros, hope we can steal the next two in Indy.