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

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

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For all the years Pacers fans have called Myles Turner soft, dude was getting mocked by the fans, laughed, the proceeded to have a monster quarter. All on the road in MSG during a playoff game.

Yea…he’s not the best rebounder, but he’s still got that dawg in him.

Turner is a valuable player at C. Can run the floor, attack the basket, nail the open three. He is one of keys to Pacers' success.

Oh yea, I’ve always defended him.

[FlatearthZorro]

Knicks on paper are the more talented team but the Pacers just play a better brand of basketball.

I'd disagree. Pacers have Hali, Pascal, 3 point shooting center in Turner, Nesmith and Nembhard starting. Great backup pg in McConnell and whole bunch of talented and still developing young guys in Mathurin, Sheppard, Walker, Jackson.

When it comes to top heavy- the Knicks do seem to have more talent, on paper Brunson/KAT/OG/Bridges is better than the Pacers, the Pacers are deeper though and play 8-9 men deep, which helps quite a bit. Toppin, McConnell, Mathurin, Sheppard. While the Knicks play their starters 40 mins a game and are pretty much 7 men deep....

[bronxknicksfan1]

Give Carlisle the Knicks roster instead of the Pacers roster…he’d still be up 2-0.

We might have the worst coach left in the playoffs and it’s showing in embarrassing fashion.

[bronxknicksfan1]

Knowing how Thibs is, now that the season is on the line…he’ll finally make an adjustment on the starting lineup and will start either Mitch or Deuce

[FlatearthZorro]

Give Carlisle the Knicks roster instead of the Pacers roster…he’d still be up 2-0.

We might have the worst coach left in the playoffs and it’s showing in embarrassing fashion.

The obvious flaw with Tom is he's never adjusted his rotations and minutes distribution. He always runs people into the ground.
However, I'm on record saying that Joe Mazulla may be one of the most clueless coaches to win a championship. We pretty much do the same **** over and over again. And I think we could've had 2 titles(and I'm not saying this year, too many issues, but 2 years ago, no reason we for us to not win it all, Joe is a liability) if we had better coach who actually makes players run offensive sets.

[Asian Celtic]

Thibs effect showing on the ECF. We can see Siakam and Toppin sprinting full court in the 4th while the NY players can barely catch up. Fatigueeee is killing the Knicks.

[iggymcfrack]

Pacers this playoffs:

Milwaukee
Game 1: Win by 19
Game 2: Win by 8
Game 3: Lose by 16

Cleveland
Game 1: Win by 9
Game 2: Win by 1
Game 3: Lose by 21

New York
Game 1: Win by 3 (OT)
Game 2: Win by 5
Game 3: ???

The Pacers are the better team and I have no doubt they’re gonna win the series, but I really don’t think the Knicks are just gonna roll over and get swept. I think they win Sunday and make it a series. Especially since Thibs actually got his starters some rest for a change.

[iggymcfrack]

Thibs effect showing on the ECF. We can see Siakam and Toppin sprinting full court in the 4th while the NY players can barely catch up. Fatigueeee is killing the Knicks.

The Knicks’ starters played 36, 29, 28, 45, and 39 minutes tonight. Thibs was a model of restraint. Why does he get the same criticisms no matter how he chooses to play it? Like yeah, the Knicks were tired because they played OT 2 nights ago, but Thibs made a huge adjustment playing his starters less and I don’t see why everyone’s ignoring it to **** on him like they all played 42+ minutes.

[iggymcfrack]

Knicks on paper are the more talented team but the Pacers just play a better brand of basketball.

I'd disagree. Pacers have Hali, Pascal, 3 point shooting center in Turner, Nesmith and Nembhard starting. Great backup pg in McConnell and whole bunch of talented and still developing young guys in Mathurin, Sheppard, Walker, Jackson.

When it comes to top heavy- the Knicks do seem to have more talent, on paper Brunson/KAT/OG/Bridges is better than the Pacers, the Pacers are deeper though and play 8-9 men deep, which helps quite a bit. Toppin, McConnell, Mathurin, Sheppard. While the Knicks play their starters 40 mins a game and are pretty much 7 men deep....

IDK, I think the top end talent is a lot more equivalent than people realize. I'd say Haliburton's better than Brunson and Siakam is probably even a tiny bit better than Towns in a playoff series. Nembhard's probably about as close to Anunoby as Towns is to Siakam. Both are virtual toss ups. Ultimately though, the difference, even more than the depth, is that the Pacers run a real offense where they move the ball better than anyone in the league, and everybody fits incredibly well together while the Knicks just kinda feel like pieces all squeezed into a puzzle where they're just managing to make it fit even though it's not smooth.

A lot of what makes the Pacers fit though is that Haliburton is just such an incredible passer that you can build a complex offense where he helps all the role players play to their strengths and elevates their play. I think there's almost a little bit of a D'Antoni/Nash effect with Carlisle and Haliburton where Tyrese's incredible passing gives you the ability to run a really smart complex offense that makes everyone else better if you have a coach smart enough to rework the team to play to his strengths. So much of the last couple years, Haliburton's had nagging injuries that kept him from operating at 100% and obscured the kind of lift he was capable of, but his ceiling's incredibly high and he's played ridiculously well in stretches when he's actually fully healthy. With everyone at 100% health, I'd probably take him over everyone, but Jokic, SGA, Giannis, Luka, Tatum, and Wemby. Likewise, Nembhard and Nesmith both fit their roles perfectly and are absolutely crucial to the team concept so it's a big loss when either of them misses time as well.

[mfletcher4177]

Rick Carlisle doesn't get the respect he deserves. Rick is a mastermind coach.

[FlatearthZorro]

Rick Carlisle doesn't get the respect he deserves. Rick is a mastermind coach.

If you check my posts I've said this 10 years ago and I still believe it. I think he's easily top 3 coach if not the best in the NBA.

[mfletcher4177]

Rick Carlisle doesn't get the respect he deserves. Rick is a mastermind coach.

If you check my posts I've said this 10 years ago and I still believe it. I think he's easily top 3 coach if not the best in the NBA.

I am with you brotha. Rick has been doing it forever.

[Tomhomes33]

Pacers this playoffs:

Milwaukee
Game 1: Win by 19
Game 2: Win by 8
Game 3: Lose by 16

Cleveland
Game 1: Win by 9
Game 2: Win by 1
Game 3: Lose by 21

New York
Game 1: Win by 3 (OT)
Game 2: Win by 5
Game 3: ???

The Pacers are the better team and I have no doubt they’re gonna win the series, but I really don’t think the Knicks are just gonna roll over and get swept. I think they win Sunday and make it a series. Especially since Thibs actually got his starters some rest for a change.

Pacers got rest too, Their starters played appx 33min each.

[benhillboy]

Knicks fans should feel privileged to watch the Pacers. The Knicks are one of the worst 50 win teams I’ve seen but hopefully I don’t have to watch much longer. So many painfully limited-skill offensive players with no real connection on defense. Without Brunson foul-baiting they’re lost.

Just two totally different levels of team basketball philosophy & sophistication. Siakam gloriously ate the Knicks alive. Haliburton’s pacing and situational play just too intelligent for anyone on the Knicks sideline to counter.

[iggymcfrack]

Pacers this playoffs:

Milwaukee
Game 1: Win by 19
Game 2: Win by 8
Game 3: Lose by 16

Cleveland
Game 1: Win by 9
Game 2: Win by 1
Game 3: Lose by 21

New York
Game 1: Win by 3 (OT)
Game 2: Win by 5
Game 3: ???

The Pacers are the better team and I have no doubt they’re gonna win the series, but I really don’t think the Knicks are just gonna roll over and get swept. I think they win Sunday and make it a series. Especially since Thibs actually got his starters some rest for a change.

Pacers got rest too, Their starters played appx 33min each.

Right, I’m not saying the Knicks have a rest advantage. I’m saying they don’t have the rest disadvantage they normally do.

[Doranku]

Damn. The playoffs were so good up until this point, but now we very well may see two sweeps in the conference finals followed by a sweep in the finals.

[JShuttlesworth]

I'm happy for Pascal, what a game from him!

[Bergmaniac]

Knicks' defensive rating in Towns' minutes - 141.5 (beyond awful)
Knicks' defensive rating when Towns was on the bench - 97.5

This was the difference in the game - the Knicks offense was horrible when Towns was on the court. Just a bad matchup for him and Carlisle exploits ruthlessly.

[Karate Diop]

Give Carlisle the Knicks roster instead of the Pacers roster…he’d still be up 2-0.

We might have the worst coach left in the playoffs and it’s showing in embarrassing fashion.

Eh, this is really on the players. Can't be bleeding points like this and hoping for bailouts from the refs to succeed.

[Memories]

Do you guys even like basketball?

Let me go check the market size rankings so I know if I'm allowed to like a particular series

Sent from my SM-S921W using RealGM mobile app

They ain't lying tho.

Ratings for that series is going to be an alltime low

You guys wanna pressure the NBA to move guys to your cities so bad lol. That’s the only reason anyone would care that much.

Who said anything about me? I'm just speaking facts. Casual fans won't like watching that series. That's just a fact.