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

[BrianInPhilly]

Why are Knicks fans like this.

Read on Twitter

?

Pretty sure that's the 12 year old Knick fan in this thread

It's not like the dude wearing a Pacers jersey was just walking down the street minding his own business. There was a Knicks crowd that was there.

So it seems to me he was looking for trouble. I get it, Knicks fans shouldn't have done what they did. But he was also wrong. Dude was trying to be a troll. You can't act all shocked after that.

Just because a guy may be DUMB does not mean he is WRONG. Huge distinction. It's like calling a woman WRONG for wearing revealing clothing late at night in a sketchy area & wearing headphones ... It's literally the same exact logic ... You can call both acts dumb because you're increasing the odds you're harrassed but if the harrassing/violence does occur, the woman on the street or the guy in this video is still 100% NOT in the wrong and the people attacking/harrassing are.

C'mon use logic. Or grow up and develop logic.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Why are Knicks fans like this.

Read on Twitter

?

Pretty sure that's the 12 year old Knick fan in this thread

It's not like the dude wearing a Pacers jersey was just walking down the street minding his own business. There was a Knicks crowd that was there.

So it seems to me he was looking for trouble. I get it, Knicks fans shouldn't have done what they did. But he was also wrong. Dude was trying to be a troll. You can't act all shocked after that.

Stupid entitled kids , nothing else

[kenwood3333]

Its a coin toss between these two teams. Expecting this series to go to 7 games, Pacers depth is an edge.

[JJ_PR]

I voted Knicks in 6, but honestly, this series is a toss-up. It'll be whoever gets hot at the right time. Both teams have good shooters and depth.

[bronxknicksfan1]

Pretty sure that's the 12 year old Knick fan in this thread

It's not like the dude wearing a Pacers jersey was just walking down the street minding his own business. There was a Knicks crowd that was there.

So it seems to me he was looking for trouble. I get it, Knicks fans shouldn't have done what they did. But he was also wrong. Dude was trying to be a troll. You can't act all shocked after that.

Just because a guy may be DUMB does not mean he is WRONG. Huge distinction. It's like calling a woman WRONG for wearing revealing clothing late at night in a sketchy area & wearing headphones ... It's literally the same exact logic ... You can call both acts dumb because you're increasing the odds you're harrassed but if the harrassing/violence does occur, the woman on the street or the guy in this video is still 100% NOT in the wrong and the people attacking/harrassing are.

C'mon use logic. Or grow up and develop logic.

Okay, you guys need to stop using a woman being harassed as an analogy here. Women are harassed for being women, unfortunately. Doesn’t matter if they’re wearing revealing clothing or fully covered, they are harassed regardless.

This…this is a fan looking for attention wearing a Hali jersey and going to the biggest Knicks event in 25 years. He knew exactly what he was doing. Doesn’t excuse idiots being idiots.

[oikosnomos]

Pretty sure that's the 12 year old Knick fan in this thread

It's not like the dude wearing a Pacers jersey was just walking down the street minding his own business. There was a Knicks crowd that was there.

So it seems to me he was looking for trouble. I get it, Knicks fans shouldn't have done what they did. But he was also wrong. Dude was trying to be a troll. You can't act all shocked after that.

Stupid entitled kids , nothing else

How many times have we seen a situation like this devolve into this man being beaten unconscious? People turn evil in a mob. You can't assault people for being annoying or trolling.

[TorontoBarneys]

I think the Knicks lose this one with a combination of Thibs running his guys into the ground + the manic pace the Pacers play with.

[Boneman2]

Knicks going down in 6… six games and it’s a wrap for NY. Great season regardless.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Knicks going down in 6… six games and it’s a wrap for NY. Great season regardless.

It will all end in Indiana on May 31st at the latest

Unfortunately it’s the end of the rope for the Knicks

[Im Coming Home]

Is it, though? Throughout this year, the Pacers and the Knicks had the exact same DRTG at 113.3. That put both teams tied at 13th.

And if you want to delve even further and look where our DRTG was after Nesmith and Nembhard returned from injury (circa mid-December), you'd see that for the 3/4ths of the season our defense actually ranked in the top 10.

This take was accurate for last year's team but it's no longer accurate.

Knicks have the #1 remaining DRTG in the playoffs and are #2 overall(111.0). Pacers are #7 overall(112.7), #3 remaining behind Knicks and Nuggets

I'm not sure where you're getting the numbers, because NBA website has OKC with the best DRTG in the playoffs still, by a huge gap at 102.5. Knicks are #5 overall. Also the NBA stats website has the Knicks at 110.6 and Pacers at 111.9, so not the same numbers you're saying.

The net rating by teams remaining

OKC 11.5
MIN 7.9
Pacers 5.5
Knicks 0.1
Denver -3.2

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/team-defense-rankings-this-playoffs

Oops I thought it was sorting by DRTG but it wasn't. My bad lol.

[benhillboy]

I respect the hell outta the Knicks starting 5 and yet I can’t watch them for more than a few minutes. Still better than the Celtics who I would have to be paid $100 tax free to watch a full game telecast. I watched the Pacers all season on my dime and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Regardless of opponents and “who beat who when and how healthy they were” yada yada it’s the playoffs at the end of the day. A team that scores 118 to 112 surrendered in the tournament shouldn’t have much of an issue with one at 107 to 106.

The Knicks runs are usually sparked by Hart throwing his body all around the arena. His hustle and nose for the ball are real basketball skills but not by much lol. Meanwhile the Pacers runs are spearheaded by timely defensive swarming (if Nesmith and Nembhard aren’t locking down iso) and genius level ball movement. The Basketball Gods will reward the far more polished product.

[xBulletproof]

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/team-defense-rankings-this-playoffs

Oops I thought it was sorting by DRTG but it wasn't. My bad lol.

It's all good, I figured it was something like that. Sometimes when stat hunting it's easy to think you're looking at 1 thing and something minor is wrong.

I checked my post several times to make sure I didn't do it. I was like, it's this year, right? It's set for playoffs, yes?

I didn't figure you were making it up.

[IMF]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Kat doesn’t scare me. I’ve always thought he was a paper tiger, guy who puts up numbers but isn’t a winning player. Minnesota looking stronger with Randle in his place is certainly interesting.

A lot of casual takes in this thread, especially the defense comments. Pacers are the #8 defense since January, this is not the 2023 Pacers. Every Pacers series thread so far has had some overconfident dudes who don’t watch games saying their team is gonna win in four or five. We’ll see.

[bronxknicksfan1]

I respect the hell outta the Knicks starting 5 and yet I can’t watch them for more than a few minutes. Still better than the Celtics who I would have to be paid $100 tax free to watch a full game telecast. I watched the Pacers all season on my dime and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Regardless of opponents and “who beat who when and how healthy they were” yada yada it’s the playoffs at the end of the day. A team that scores 118 to 112 surrendered in the tournament shouldn’t have much of an issue with one at 107 to 106.

The Knicks runs are usually sparked by Hart throwing his body all around the arena. His hustle and nose for the ball are real basketball skills but not by much lol. Meanwhile the Pacers runs are spearheaded by timely defensive swarming (if Nesmith and Nembhard aren’t locking down iso) and genius level ball movement. The Basketball Gods will reward the far more polished product.

If Derrick White and Jrue Holiday and their 8 All Defensive team selections between them couldn’t stop Brunson in iso situations…I’m wondering how Nesmith and Nembhard will be the ones to do it. And how will they contain KAT? Pacers are a bottom 5 team when it comes to points in the paint. Who’s going to stop Mitch from grabbing offensive rebounds? Knicks have 2 of the best defensive wings in OG and Mikal…have the Pacers faced anything like that so far in the playoffs? It’s easy to just look at scores, but let’s look at the context of them too.

[Pharmcat]

Surprised starts on Wednesday this rest is huge for ny

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Kat doesn’t scare me. I’ve always thought he was a paper tiger, guy who puts up numbers but isn’t a winning player. Minnesota looking stronger with Randle in his place is certainly interesting.

A lot of casual takes in this thread, especially the defense comments. Pacers are the #8 defense since January, this is not the 2023 Pacers. Every Pacers series thread so far has had some overconfident dudes who don’t watch games saying their team is gonna win in four or five. We’ll see.

You're 9th defensively since January, which is worse than the Celtics who were 3rd over that stretch and the Pistons who were 5th.

The Celtics were also better on offense and had a higher net rating.

[California Gold]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Kat doesn’t scare me. I’ve always thought he was a paper tiger, guy who puts up numbers but isn’t a winning player. Minnesota looking stronger with Randle in his place is certainly interesting.

A lot of casual takes in this thread, especially the defense comments. Pacers are the #8 defense since January, this is not the 2023 Pacers. Every Pacers series thread so far has had some overconfident dudes who don’t watch games saying their team is gonna win in four or five. We’ll see.

You're 9th defensively since January, which is worse than the Celtics who were 3rd over that stretch and the Pistons who were 5th.

The Celtics were also better on offense and had a higher net rating.

Difference is the Celtics never played like those stats in the semifinals. Pacers are honestly player better offensively than they did in the regular season when you factor in how much half court ball is forced in the playoffs with the pace slowing down.

[bronxknicksfan1]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Kat doesn’t scare me. I’ve always thought he was a paper tiger, guy who puts up numbers but isn’t a winning player. Minnesota looking stronger with Randle in his place is certainly interesting.

A lot of casual takes in this thread, especially the defense comments. Pacers are the #8 defense since January, this is not the 2023 Pacers. Every Pacers series thread so far has had some overconfident dudes who don’t watch games saying their team is gonna win in four or five. We’ll see.

KAT just reached his 2nd conference finals in a row in a different conference. If that’s not a winning player then what does that make this Pacers team that’s gotten by against injured rosters 2 years in a row?

Now it’s Minnesota looks stronger than they did last year. Why? Because they took out the weakest team left in the playoffs?

Celtics were better than the Pacers all season including that stretch since January and got taken out in 6

[bronxknicksfan1]

Kat doesn’t scare me. I’ve always thought he was a paper tiger, guy who puts up numbers but isn’t a winning player. Minnesota looking stronger with Randle in his place is certainly interesting.

A lot of casual takes in this thread, especially the defense comments. Pacers are the #8 defense since January, this is not the 2023 Pacers. Every Pacers series thread so far has had some overconfident dudes who don’t watch games saying their team is gonna win in four or five. We’ll see.

You're 9th defensively since January, which is worse than the Celtics who were 3rd over that stretch and the Pistons who were 5th.

The Celtics were also better on offense and had a higher net rating.

Difference is the Celtics never played like those stats in the semifinals. Pacers are honestly player better offensively than they did in the regular season when you factor in how much half court ball is forced in the playoffs with the pace slowing down.

Now why did they not play like those stats? Could it have to do with the fact the Knicks defense had something to do with it?

[ballzboyee]

It's hard to really judge this Knicks team. Detroit almost took them to seven games, and they very easily could have lost that series as every game was decided by a couple of points. After blowing multiple 20+ point leads I think it's basically a borderline miracle that Boston did not eliminate them. You have to give them credit for storming back, but nine times out of ten that's not happening, especially on the road. Also the Knicks getting blown out by a Boston team that not only did not have Tatum but also with Porzingis basically not being able play is very troubling. I think Porz played 12 minutes and had like 1 point. How do they get blown out by that Boston team in a close-out game? Knicks were a .500 team after the all-star game. Their overall record is not that great when you realize they got swept against nearly ever good team they played in the regular season. They were 0-4 against Boston, 0-4 against Cleveland, 0-2 against OKC, 0-2 vs Clippers, 0-2 vs Warriors, 0-2 vs Lakers, etc. They had so few quality wins in the RS. They padded their record through by beating up on the worst teams in the league in the East like the Wizards, Toronto, 76ers, Charlotte, Miami, etc. They basically had to sweep all of those teams otherwise they are a sub forty-five win squad.

On paper this Knicks teams is ever so slightly above average. Definitely not an elite team. Maybe they are just getting hot at the right moment or maybe they matchup well with the Pacers and this carries them to the Finals. But, generally, teams are what their regular season record reflects, especially when you starting talking about tier one matchups in the playoffs. Pacers closed the season on fire and were 20-9 after the all-star break. Pacers lost three of four against the Bucks in the RS and in the playoffs almost swept them. Cleveland actually did not play bad at all n their series against Indiana, the Pacers just displayed a flawless brand of unbeatable basketball. They were just utterly dominant. The series against Cleveland was an insane display of masterful coaching and execution at all levels.

In summary, a lot red flags in my book for the Knicks. I'll take the Pacers to win in six or seven games.