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

[Enso]

Knicks better take care of the Pacers for basketball fans everywhere. Having to watch a Finals with Halliburton's ugly ass jump shot is an assault on everyones eyes.

[RHODEY]

To be fair to Arky, you DID disappear last year after the Semis. Don't think we don't remember

Disappear from what? We won.

He meant you disappeared after Pacers whooped Knicks again

Oh you mean when they beat a team missing 4 out of 5 starters? That was a year ago I cant recall. But you said the Knicks would win another game last week then you dropped off the radar.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

This is going to be a very interesting back and forth, to be honest. The Knicks have an immense rebounding advantage, that's a given. But will they crash the boards as hard as they have so far knowing that if the board bounces our way, we're immediately running and forcing cross-matches on the other end?

Both teams can be burned here. The Knicks can be burned by our transition offense if they committ too much on the offensive glass and we can be burned by the Knicks' offensive rebounding prowess if we committ too much on leaking out.

Crashing the boards is just what Robinson does, he can do it on his own while everyone gets back.

No doubt about that, he can definitely do it. But what if the rebound is outside of his range? What if it's a long rebound off of a missed 3, for example?

The Pistons played at a similar pace as you all, obviously they're not as good offensively, but it didn't stop Robinson from rebounding on them, and they have better individual rebounders that should have prevented that from happening, he finished that series with 22 offensive boards. It's a lot more demoralizing to play the whole shot clock, only to have him or Hart come in and get another chance.

We had Obi, we know he leaks out, if he's on the floor when Robinson is out there, he better be helping Bryant on the glass. The Cavs were a big team with a soft frontcourt, and small wing players, we're a team that starts small that can go big while maintaining spacing and shooting.

Sure but it's not just about the pace. It's about the passing and the offensive identity as well. The Pacers are relentless both at creating cross-matches in transition and semi-transition and hunting down mismatches whether that's on the open court or the half court.

I get that Detroit also liked to push the pace and that Boston played a 5-out offense but the way the Pacers attack is unlike either of these teams.

And here are some interesting stats to showcase this difference.

During the RS: https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/passing?SeasonType=Regular%20Season&dir=D&sort=PASSES_MADE

During the playoffs: https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/passing?SeasonType=Playoffs&dir=D&sort=PASSES_MADE

The above tables show how many passes a team completes per game. As you can see, both throughout the RS and the playoffs, there were two teams that were way ahead everyone else. The Indiana Pacers and the Golden State Warriors. These were the two teams that passed the ball around the most. Detroit and Boston, on the other hand, were both in the bottom 10 in passes made during the RS. And in the playoffs, they were both at the very bottom of the list. In the playoffs, the Pacers are averaging 337.1 passes per game. Boston averaged 238.2 passes per game and Detroit averaged 239.8 passes per game. So, as you can see, that's a pretty humongous difference of nearly 100 passes.

This passing volume (along with our low turnover numbers) is what makes our offensive approach different than the two teams you've faced so far. You won't really see us trying to isolate against your guys, like Boston did.

Pace is pace at the end of the day, the amount of possessions per game between you and the Pistons is very similar, you're just more efficient on offense, they pushed when they could but the threat of them getting out never stopped Robinson from rebounding or pressuring them, and it had the inverse impact which is they didn't run as much because they had to try and gang rebound when he was on the court. In that series last season we controlled the pace against you, I think we can do that again. Also, the Pistons pressed with Ausar, he would pick up Brunson full court at times, so we've seen some pressure on him full court.

The passes per game is just the nature of teams with elite shot creators, almost every team with a 25+ppg primary ball handler is in the bottom half of team passes made per game rankings. Your offense tries to get guys in rotation, and while we have struggled with that in the past it was mostly against teams with an elite scorer, and because we refused to switch. In that Celtics series we were switching, which is really the first time Thibs has done that, and it's one of the main reasons we beat the Celtics, because we finally just lived with the results of switching and not sinking to protect the paint every single time someone drove.

Your offense makes a lot of passes out of necessity, I think it's fair to say that Siakam is probably your best isolation scorer, it's not like Haliburton is going to clear out against elite man to man defenders and get a bucket, right? He'll call for a screen, but what I'm hoping for is that Turner has OG on him, so that calling for a screen from him just results in a switch, after that I can live with Turner trying to post up Hart or Mikal. Per 100 possessions you guys are the 2nd worst rebounding team in the playoffs, and the absolute worst offensive rebounding by a very wide margin, there's not a lot of second chance points coming your way. Your offense is prettier and more complex than ours, but with that complexity comes more things that can go wrong. We're a sledgehammer in comparison, simple and not much can go wrong outside of meeting up with a harder compound, and I don't think the Pacers are a harder compound

[ArksNetsSince99]

Disappear from what? We won.

He meant you disappeared after Pacers whooped Knicks again

Oh you mean when they beat a team missing 4 out of 5 starters? That was a year ago I cant recall. But you said the Knicks would win another game last week then you dropped off the radar.

Never did , I was here at all times

[durden_tyler]

The Knicks aren’t cool. All of you in the betting crew should root for the pacers!

…we don’t want your bad luck

Liking my Knicks in 6 initial prediction. Leaning hard in locking in that now but maybe i have to listen first to the Pacers’ fans thoughts! i do think Indiana is a good team and like New York have just been resilient since the first round! Tough decision to make!


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We only play 7 guys because their 11th man (Walker) could get real PT for us; they run & press fullcourt for 48 minutes. Carlisle is better than Thibs. Turner will drag Mitch away from the paint. KAT struggles defending teams who move the ball well and can force him to make reads on D. Haliburton is almost as clutch as Brunson, Siakam knows how to deal with OG, and Nembhard is just absurd once the playoffs start.

Now bet on them to beat us!

Re: Coaching

Impressed with Carlisle this postseason (and how he developed this to a fullnblown deep team in recent years) but is he better than Thibs or is it just because of how the Knicks roster was built? Basically getting KAT and stripping down depth in favor of star power. i do agree Thibs is NOT creative over the years but he makes sure it's a top heavy squad and he had make it work this season (so far, barring injuries at this point of the playoffs).

Re: Haliburton vs Brunson clutchness

Credit where its due, Haliburton has had some impressive takeover games vs Bucks and Cavs but the opposition did not really have the defensive star power to send at Haliburton those series? Brunson has had to deal with the Pistons and Celtics defenses and those are more legit and hyperfocused on stopping Brunson.

Who will guard Brunson? Thinking Nesmith first then secondary is Mathurin then hope Nembhard and Haliburton can have spot minutes in that matchup? Flipside is Bridges, Hart and OG vs Haliburton and all those guys may be play physical but could be too slow in stretches against Hali.\

Voted Knicks in Six in this poll but really not convinced yet which team i should pick this series.

[syrus3]

I don’t like the Pacers or their coach. I hope the Knicks send their asses to Cancun.

[Capn'O]

Is it Wednesday yet?

[LFGK]

Disappear from what? We won.

He meant you disappeared after Pacers whooped Knicks again

Oh you mean when they beat a team missing 4 out of 5 starters? That was a year ago I cant recall. But you said the Knicks would win another game last week then you dropped off the radar.

Let him be man the man has to root for the nets, they think they going to land Giannis but will in fact be rooting for that scrub Claxton, temu version of an NBA team.

[RHODEY]

He meant you disappeared after Pacers whooped Knicks again

Oh you mean when they beat a team missing 4 out of 5 starters? That was a year ago I cant recall. But you said the Knicks wouldn't win another game last week then you dropped off the radar when we did.

Never did , I was here at all times

yeah here dodging the fallout.

[RHODEY]

I don’t like the Pacers or their coach. I hope the Knicks send their asses to Cancun.

We appreciate the support sir, we will do our best.

[RHODEY]

He meant you disappeared after Pacers whooped Knicks again

Oh you mean when they beat a team missing 4 out of 5 starters? That was a year ago I cant recall. But you said the Knicks would win another game last week then you dropped off the radar.

Let him be man the man has to root for the nets, they think they going to land Giannis but will in fact be rooting for that scrub Claxton, temu version of an NBA team.

Outside of Claxton I cant name one other player on that scrub azz team.

[ArksNetsSince99]

I don’t like the Pacers or their coach. I hope the Knicks send their asses to Cancun.

We appreciate the support sir, we will do our best.

It’s out of your hands , Knicks can book Cancun for June 1st

[RHODEY]

The last regular season game we played Ondy KAT dropped 40 and Hart dropped 30 OG didn't play and Brunson only scored 8 points...we beat them decisively. Many say regular season doesn't matter. and that's probably true to some extent. But has the Pacers defense improved so much since February? I doubt it versus a healthy team.

[cgf]

The last regular season game we played Ondy KAT dropped 40 and Hart dropped 30 OG didn't play and Brunson only scored 8 points...we beat them decisively. Many say regular season doesn't matter. and that's probably true to some extent. But has the Pacers defense improved so much since February? I doubt it versus a healthy team.

It's not just about them improving or not, it's also about how Carlisle schemes to stop us specifically and how playoff refs impact the way their defense wears us down...especially as the series wears on. If we drop one of the first two games at home and this becomes guaranteed to be a long series, we could end up just gassing out.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

The last regular season game we played Ondy KAT dropped 40 and Hart dropped 30 OG didn't play and Brunson only scored 8 points...we beat them decisively. Many say regular season doesn't matter. and that's probably true to some extent. But has the Pacers defense improved so much since February? I doubt it versus a healthy team.

It's not just about them improving or not, it's also about how Carlisle schemes to stop us specifically and how playoff refs impact the way their defense wears us down...especially as the series wears on. If we drop one of the first two games at home and this becomes guaranteed to be a long series, we could end up just gassing out.

They have depth, but some of that depth is terrible defenders like Obi and McConnell, and Obi has that nasty habit of leaking out which isn't really costly against other teams, but there are going to be times he's on the floor with Hart, KAT and Mitch all in the lineup, and that would be an unfortunate decision on his part to leak out

[xBulletproof]

The last regular season game we played Ondy KAT dropped 40 and Hart dropped 30 OG didn't play and Brunson only scored 8 points...we beat them decisively. Many say regular season doesn't matter. and that's probably true to some extent. But has the Pacers defense improved so much since February? I doubt it versus a healthy team.

I guess guys missing games only get mentioned when it happens to the Knicks, and we will leave out that Myles Turner didn't play that game.

That our C rotation was Obi Toppin and Thomas Bryant. I bet that's good for the defense. Yes, I imagine the defense is better with rim protection

[durden_tyler]

Via Yahoo Sports.

New Yorkers probably know this is their rare chance to get back to the NBA Finals, we can understand why these ticket prices are wild, eh?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RHODEY]

The last regular season game we played Ondy KAT dropped 40 and Hart dropped 30 OG didn't play and Brunson only scored 8 points...we beat them decisively. Many say regular season doesn't matter. and that's probably true to some extent. But has the Pacers defense improved so much since February? I doubt it versus a healthy team.

I guess guys missing games only get mentioned when it happens to the Knicks, and we will leave out that Myles Turner didn't play that game.

That our C rotation was Obi Toppin and Thomas Bryant. I bet that's good for the defense. Yes, I imagine the defense is better with rim protection

Mitch Robinson also didnt play so why didnt you mention that?

Thats the problem your center rotation is weak considering your starter only averages 6 rebounds a game. Blocked shots ok sure but we still win that battle 9 times out of ten. Meanwhile our defense is greatly bolstered by Mitchell Robinson's presence which explains why you havent beaten us this season with him in the lineup.

[cgf]

Finally getting to watch game 6 and man is this double big lineup everything I had hoped it would be when they're not out there with with Payne, Shamet, and McBride

If they can stay out of foul trouble they should be able to control the glass and pace.

[Helsbyte]

Finally getting to watch game 6 and man is this double big lineup everything I had hoped it would be when they're not out there with with Payne, Shamet, and McBride

If they can stay out of foul trouble they should be able to control the glass and pace.

Man if I am the Pacers I am begging you to employ that double big line up. Watching Kat and Mitch up and down the court at the same time with our pace plays right into our hands. Just a quick reminder that one of the reasons we don't have very many off rebounds is due to the fact that we have been shooting a very high percentage from the field. Maybe that changes this series, maybe it doesn't.