The place to start out?
The storylines are limitless.
The Knicks and Pacers confronted off within the playoffs six occasions in eight years within the ’90s.
Now, after reaching the Japanese Convention finals, they’ve restored that rivalry with a playoff matchup in back-to-back years.
There are a number of causes for revenge.
There are antagonists.
There are clashing kinds of play.
There may be historical past on the road.
Might 2024. Charles Wenzelberg
Let’s dive into the sequence from all angles:
Likelihood for double revenge
The Knicks had been upset by the Pacers within the second spherical final 12 months.
After taking a 2-0 sequence lead, they misplaced 4 of the following 5 video games and misplaced Recreation 7 at Madison Sq. Backyard.
However the Knicks had been decimated by accidents — Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic didn’t play within the sequence, Mitchell Robinson solely performed one sport, OG Anunoby missed a number of contests and Jalen Brunson broke his hand in Recreation 7.
Josh Hart was taking part in via an belly harm as properly.
There may be good motive for Knicks followers to imagine the Pacers obtained fortunate final 12 months.
The Knicks are absolutely wholesome this time round and might proper final 12 months’s incorrect.
The Pacers additionally eradicated the Knicks the final time they made the Japanese Convention finals, within the 1999-2000 season.
Revenge can be twice as candy.
New villain
Tyrese Haliburton shouldn’t be on the extent of Reggie Miller.
No one is.
However he absolutely leans right into a villain character.
After the Pacers eradicated the Knicks final 12 months, he wore a shirt depicting Miller’s well-known choking gesture throughout his postgame information convention.
Haliburton and the Pacers’ potential to get underneath opponents’ pores and skin — particularly when in entrance of their raucous Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd — definitely is an element.
It could actually put on groups down as a sequence goes on.
Observe meet
Talking of sporting groups down, the Pacers type of play is tough to match sport after sport.
They play at an unbelievable tempo — no pun meant — and pace opponents up quicker than they’d need.
Within the common season, they averaged 100.8 possessions per 48 minutes (seventh most within the NBA).
The Knicks averaged 97.08 (fourth fewest).
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Within the playoffs, the Pacers are averaging 99.3, whereas the Knicks are at 95.3.
Defensively, the Pacers typically choose up full-court.
They make the most of a deep bench with a 10-man rotation, protecting everybody contemporary and filled with power after they’re on the courtroom.
No one is averaging greater than Haliburton’s 34.1 minutes per sport this postseason.
Each single Knicks starter is above that threshold, and so they’ve whittled their rotation all the way down to seven gamers most nights.
3-point taking pictures
The Pacers are taking pictures 40.6 % from 3-point vary this postseason — greatest amongst all playoff groups and practically 3 % larger than anybody else.
The Knicks’ 3-point protection has been streaky this postseason.
Take their previous two video games, for instance — they allowed the Celtics to shoot 44.9 % from deep in Recreation 5 after which simply 30.0 % in Recreation 6.
The Knicks themselves have been cold and warm, taking pictures 35.8 % from deep this postseason.
Karl-Anthony Cities’ prowess from behind the arc is extremely necessary to the Knicks, and he went simply 3-for-19 from deep final spherical.
Outdated buddy
Obi Toppin — the Knicks’ 2020 No. 8 general choose whom they despatched to the Pacers for 2 second-round picks — has carved out a gradual function with Indiana.
He’s averaging 8.5 factors in 16 minutes per sport this postseason and is an enormous a part of the Pacers’ energy in transition.
Conflict of cultures
The rivalry has lengthy been dubbed “Hicks vs. Knicks.”
It’s New York Metropolis vs. Indiana.
It’s Wall Road vs. farmland.
It’s the coast vs. the Midwest.
Madison Sq. Backyard vs. Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Let the animosity begin.
