We will never be tired of talking about the NBA Playoffs, let alone this season. That may be recency bias, but this year has been one of the best in terms of postseason basketball. We’ve seen incredible teams overcoming huge deficits, dark horses racing to victory, and favorite teams performing excellently throughout their playoff series.
This time, we’ll talk about the Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks, which is currently 1-0 in favor of the Indiana Pacers, a series that featured what many consider one of the best playoff games of all time.
However, who has what it takes to win the series and ultimately advance to the NBA Finals? Let’s take a look.
Indiana Pacers
This team has surprised pretty much everyone in the basketball world. It’s safe to say that they’re the most on-the-rise team of the year, as they have proven time and time again they can’t be ruled out at any point in a series. They’ve been one of the most clutch and performance-driven teams in the entire NBA this postseason, and this series has been no exception.
After trailing by eight points with less than 40 seconds left, they managed to win against a confident Knicks team at home in overtime. Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith, Pascal Siakam, Obi Toppin, and Andrew Nembhard have raised the level and set the bar when it matters most, delivering excellence on the basketball court, especially on offense.
The pace of this team is relentless, and it’s very hard for the Knicks to keep up with them once they reach a certain speed and momentum. In terms of what the Pacers need to watch: overconfidence and their defense. The Knicks are a highly offensive team that have also proven they can turn the tide in seconds. Indiana must improve their defense, make it very hard for New York to score, and force them into poor shot selection if they want to win three more games and advance to the NBA Finals.
New York Knicks
The Knicks are a very different team, but similar in the sense that they’ve also had an unlikely rise this year. After overcoming a lot of deficits and being underdogs, they now find themselves favorites, but they still need to play as if they have nothing to lose, just like they did in the two previous playoff series.
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson, Josh Hart, OG Annoy and the rest of the team have already met and exceeded expectations in every way imaginable. Unlike in Game 1, they need to avoid overconfidence and simply play the same way they’ve played all postseason. They cannot afford any mistakes, especially not allowing open possessions or turning the ball over in clutch time.
In the last five minutes of the game, they must be able to close games out in a positive fashion to avoid outcomes like Game 1. Offensively, they’ve been performing well, but they need to maintain consistency and give the Pacers as little room as possible in terms of court spacing.
Conclusion
Honestly, we would be very surprised if this series doesn’t go to seven games. We expect both teams to give it their all for a chance to advance to the NBA Finals and potentially win a title for their franchise. Regardless of whether they’re playing at home or away, it will be a hard-fought battle in every sense of the word.
A seven-game series is what we expect, and as for a winner — we don’t really have a clear prediction. Both teams have knocked out the top two favorites in the Eastern Conference. If we had to make a prediction, we’d go with the Knicks in seven games — purely because of home court advantage. But again, the Pacers are more than capable of winning the series and advancing to the NBA Finals.
Text sources: NBA.com, ESPN.com
