2025 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: #3 New York Knicks vs #4 Indiana Pacers (IND leads 1-0)

[GiannisAnte34]

Mitchell went to the line a lot so idk how Brunson will really be a new thing. Giannis also went to the line a lot, granted he needs to improve his ft% to make teams pay for that

[cgf]

No. I only liked the Knicks as a kid because of Patrick Ewing, even though I grew up in Queens. The closest NBA team that I'm a fan of, is San Antonio.

Wait, what? I also thought that you were a Knicks fan

Same. He always seems so even handed about the team too

Nah chuck be hatin

[cgf]

Wait, what? I also thought that you were a Knicks fan

Same. He always seems so even handed about the team too

I don't root against the Knicks (too many relatives/friends are fans of the team). I just don't root for them either. I can be objective about what I see on a basketball court for the most part. I believe the Knicks have the ingredients to win a chip, just like they had it last year before all the injuries. It's just I don't trust Thibs. That's my one knock.

See, straight hating

[Capn'O]

Same. He always seems so even handed about the team too

I don't root against the Knicks (too many relatives/friends are fans of the team). I just don't root for them either. I can be objective about what I see on a basketball court for the most part. I believe the Knicks have the ingredients to win a chip, just like they had it last year before all the injuries. It's just I don't trust Thibs. That's my one knock.

See, straight hating

Stuff like that is why we all thought he's a Knicks fan.

[stuporman]

It doesn't matter anyway, whoever comes out of the east will be mugged and bear hugged by the Thunder defense all series without a call and foul out of the game on the other end for looking at Shai the wrong way causing him to flail and crumble to the ground.

You know I'm right...

[cgf]

I don't root against the Knicks (too many relatives/friends are fans of the team). I just don't root for them either. I can be objective about what I see on a basketball court for the most part. I believe the Knicks have the ingredients to win a chip, just like they had it last year before all the injuries. It's just I don't trust Thibs. That's my one knock.

See, straight hating

Stuff like that is why we all thought he's a Knicks fan.

Ye of little faith

[cgf]

It doesn't matter anyway, whoever comes out of the east will be mugged and bear hugged by the Thunder defense all series without a call and foul out of the game on the other end for looking at Shai the wrong way causing him to flail and crumble to the ground.

You know I'm right...

Juju will just drag 3 of those smurfs to the rim to make sure the wolves are waiting for us in the finals

[Nuntius]

Confident and arrogant are two different things.

Pacer fans are confident as well but you don't see any of us claiming that we'd beat you in 4/5. I understand that there were some Celtic fans who were obnoxious and disparaging towards the Knicks but that doesn't give you the right to do the same to others

I’m responding to people saying the pacers are going to win in 6. My prediction is Knicks in 5. We need to be confident going into the matchup. That’s how we got here. We aren’t afraid to fail because we are prepared. It’s not being cocky nor arrogant if we know we can beat you in 5 when you played us with a lesser team last year and we took the pacers 7.

How tf does that make us arrogant?

When other team's fans think they can win it's called confident...when it's Knick fans they call it cocky or arrogant because NYers are louder when they say it. Fragile feelings on display it seems.

If you feel aggrieved about the cultural perception of New Yorkers among your fellow Americans, take it up with them. I'm not an American so I'm largely ignorant of those perceptions and my views aren't skewed by them.

When I said that some Knicks fans have been arrogant, it's not because you're from New York. It's because the only fans claiming that this series ends in 4 or 5 are Knicks fans. I'm only speaking to the reality of this thread, nothing more, nothing less.

The Knicks have a huge fanbase in RealGM so that really isn't a surprise, by the way. The arrogance of a few doesn't colour your fanbase as a whole. There's still plenty of Knicks fans who know that this will be a close series.

[31since1990]

It all depends on if Myles would stop trying to play as a 6'11 SG and play as a 6'11 Center and FIGHT FOR REBOUNDS

[The KnicksFix]

I’m responding to people saying the pacers are going to win in 6. My prediction is Knicks in 5. We need to be confident going into the matchup. That’s how we got here. We aren’t afraid to fail because we are prepared. It’s not being cocky nor arrogant if we know we can beat you in 5 when you played us with a lesser team last year and we took the pacers 7.

How tf does that make us arrogant?

When other team's fans think they can win it's called confident...when it's Knick fans they call it cocky or arrogant because NYers are louder when they say it. Fragile feelings on display it seems.

If you feel aggrieved about the cultural perception of New Yorkers among your fellow Americans, take it up with them. I'm not an American so I'm largely ignorant of those perceptions and my views aren't skewed by them.

When I said that some Knicks fans have been arrogant, it's not because you're from New York. It's because the only fans claiming that this series ends in 4 or 5 are Knicks fans. I'm only speaking to the reality of this thread, nothing more, nothing less.

The Knicks have a huge fanbase in RealGM so that really isn't a surprise, by the way. The arrogance of a few doesn't colour your fanbase as a whole. There's still plenty of Knicks fans who know that this will be a close series.

How is it arrogant? I’m actively telling you, providing a basis for my prediction. We played precious and Burks a combined 50+ minutes in a game 7 last year. We added two major cogs in KAT and Mikal. Donte is not the defender that Mikal is. KAT is a better shooter than Ihart who spaces the floor much much more. We also move McBride back to the bench, whereas he was STARTING last year. Come on man

We had last year a lineup of Brunson, Divo, McBride, precious, Ihart, hart, Burks in a game 7 where hart had a torn abdominal, Brunson fractured his hand, OG had not played since game 2 with a hamstring strain and Mitch didn’t play the entire series.

Now our seven is Brunson, Mikal, hart, KAT, OG, deuce, Mitch.

That’s a huge huge difference. And that’s why we say Knicks in 5

[ArksNetsSince99]

I’m responding to people saying the pacers are going to win in 6. My prediction is Knicks in 5. We need to be confident going into the matchup. That’s how we got here. We aren’t afraid to fail because we are prepared. It’s not being cocky nor arrogant if we know we can beat you in 5 when you played us with a lesser team last year and we took the pacers 7.

How tf does that make us arrogant?

When other team's fans think they can win it's called confident...when it's Knick fans they call it cocky or arrogant because NYers are louder when they say it. Fragile feelings on display it seems.

If you feel aggrieved about the cultural perception of New Yorkers among your fellow Americans, take it up with them. I'm not an American so I'm largely ignorant of those perceptions and my views aren't skewed by them.

When I said that some Knicks fans have been arrogant, it's not because you're from New York. It's because the only fans claiming that this series ends in 4 or 5 are Knicks fans. I'm only speaking to the reality of this thread, nothing more, nothing less.

The Knicks have a huge fanbase in RealGM so that really isn't a surprise, by the way. The arrogance of a few doesn't colour your fanbase as a whole. There's still plenty of Knicks fans who know that this will be a close series.

I’m a New Yorker

And with pure arrogance I’ll say it PACERS IN 5

I learned how to be arrogant from Knicks fans

[OldSchoolNoBull]

So, Knicks fans, I know better than to think Thibs is doing to deviate from his tried-and-true rotations, but my question is, do you think he should?

The current rotation, I believe, is something like this:

KAT(30) / Robinson(18)
OG(40) / KAT(8)
Bridges(40) / Hart(8)
Hart(29) / McBride(10) / Payne(9)
Brunson(39) / McBride(9)

The Knicks have had an obvious lack of depth all season, but the other thing I see here is Robinson only playing 18mpg. I understand that the Hack-A-Mitch is an issue, but he is arguably the most defensively impactful player on the roster, so I think it's reasonable to wonder if he should be playing more, and if the Knicks should be using their size more. If you start Robinson and KAT together, that's two 7 footers going against 6'11 Turner and 6'8' Siakam. Also, moving OG and Bridges down to SF/SG gives you a size advantage defensively against Nesmith and Nembhard, respectively.

A possible "giant" rotation with Robinson's minutes pushed to 30 might look like this:

Robinson(30) / KAT(18)
KAT(18) / OG(24)
OG(16) / Bridges(24) / Hart(8)
Bridges(16) / Hart(24) / McBride(8)
Brunson(38) / McBride(10)

Another option might be to use use OG as a super-sub off the bench, although that somewhat negates the "going big" strategy:

Robinson(30) / Kat(18)
KAT(18) / OG(30)
Bridges(40) / OG(8)
Hart(32) / McBride(10) / Payne(6)
Brunson(38) / McBride(10)

In either case you can shave a few minutes off of Bridges/OG if you want to give some burn to Precious/Payne/Tucker.

But again, we all know Thibs would not make any adjustments. I was just curious if you Knicks fans think a "giant" rotation like this would be beneficial.

[ArksNetsSince99]

sure brother, make sure you got your haliburton jersey on today and the nuggets or thunder jersey ready in a few days. No talk of any Net Jersey , you know, the team you root for? since they are an absolute dumpster fire organization.

When you finally visit New York let me know ,I’ll gift you nice Claxton jersey

I work in NYC lol

Tell me more about how the Nets sucks tell me now

Because after this game I won’t find you near this boards as usual

Game 1 - 109-92 Pacers

[The KnicksFix]

When you finally visit New York let me know ,I’ll gift you nice Claxton jersey

I work in NYC lol

Tell me more about how the Nets sucks tell me now

Because after this game I won’t find you near this boards as usual

Game 1 - 109-92 Pacers

Not for nothing, LFGK has been a madman for us on the general board. 100 men vs. 1 gorilla, he the one gorilla. He’s here on the general forum, win or lose rain or Shine. That dood shows up

[ArksNetsSince99]

Knicks in 4

Knicks after 4 will join Curry in Cancun

[Nuntius]

When other team's fans think they can win it's called confident...when it's Knick fans they call it cocky or arrogant because NYers are louder when they say it. Fragile feelings on display it seems.

If you feel aggrieved about the cultural perception of New Yorkers among your fellow Americans, take it up with them. I'm not an American so I'm largely ignorant of those perceptions and my views aren't skewed by them.

When I said that some Knicks fans have been arrogant, it's not because you're from New York. It's because the only fans claiming that this series ends in 4 or 5 are Knicks fans. I'm only speaking to the reality of this thread, nothing more, nothing less.

The Knicks have a huge fanbase in RealGM so that really isn't a surprise, by the way. The arrogance of a few doesn't colour your fanbase as a whole. There's still plenty of Knicks fans who know that this will be a close series.

How is it arrogant? I’m actively telling you, providing a basis for my prediction. We played precious and Burks a combined 50+ minutes in a game 7 last year. We added two major cogs in KAT and Mikal. Donte is not the defender that Mikal is. KAT is a better shooter than Ihart who spaces the floor much much more. We also move McBride back to the bench, whereas he was STARTING last year. Come on man

We had last year a lineup of Brunson, Divo, McBride, precious, Ihart, hart, Burks in a game 7 where hart had a torn abdominal, Brunson fractured his hand, OG had not played since game 2 with a hamstring strain and Mitch didn’t play the entire series.

Now our seven is Brunson, Mikal, hart, KAT, OG, deuce, Mitch.

That’s a huge huge difference. And that’s why we say Knicks in 5

The basis of your entire argument is last year's series which makes it a pretty bad argument, in my opinion. Both teams are wildly different than they were during last season's series. Both are also much better.

[ArksNetsSince99]

I work in NYC lol

Tell me more about how the Nets sucks tell me now

Because after this game I won’t find you near this boards as usual

Game 1 - 109-92 Pacers

Not for nothing, LFGK has been a madman for us on the general board. 100 men vs. 1 gorilla, he the one gorilla. He’s here on the general forum, win or lose rain or Shine. That dood shows up

On the Knicks board he goes as the Green arrow right ?

[Nuntius]

Tell me more about how the Nets sucks tell me now

Because after this game I won’t find you near this boards as usual

Game 1 - 109-92 Pacers

Not for nothing, LFGK has been a madman for us on the general board. 100 men vs. 1 gorilla, he the one gorilla. He’s here on the general forum, win or lose rain or Shine. That dood shows up

On the Knicks board he goes as the Green arrow right ?

Alright, that was gold

[ArksNetsSince99]

Not for nothing, LFGK has been a madman for us on the general board. 100 men vs. 1 gorilla, he the one gorilla. He’s here on the general forum, win or lose rain or Shine. That dood shows up

On the Knicks board he goes as the Green arrow right ?

Alright, that was gold

[Capn'O]

It's because the only fans claiming that this series ends in 4 or 5 are Knicks fans.

As one of those fans (Knicks in 5), I'll qualify by saying I think this will go similarly to the way the Boston series went for you last season where it's a relatively short series but one where the Pacers are tough in all of the games. A difference being I think there will be at least one game where we can't stop your offense and you run out in a blowout. I just think we have more talent than you do and we have a star who has just dominated late game situations when we get in close quarters. With Mitch back we have a huge advantage on the boards and he and Deuce McBride have formed lineups that are VERY hard to score on. Mitch has trimmed down and has guarded the perimeter very well these playoffs. We're also deeper now than when we last met so we should be able to keep some gas in the tank, unlike last year, unless something happens. I'd give you the coaching advantage but only slightly.

With that said, nobody should be looking past these Pacers. You have an elite offense, you're well coached, you've got versatile defenders, you're disciplined in late game situations, and you've got another year of seasoning. Even shorthanded, making quick work of those Cavs was a surprise to me. You can win and should be taken very seriously, which I know the Knicks will do.

So we'll see. We finally get to play the games though! Let's go!