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2024 Playoff Thread: Knicks vs. Pacers, Game 1, Second Round Opener, which is a thing

The Knicks host the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the second round, the first time since the 2013 Playoffs that the Knicks are no doubt about it favorites in a round.

And you know what? It feels pretty fucking sweet. I was bullish on the Knicks in all of their playoff series in the Thibs era, but I’ll admit that they were all close enough that I wasn’t absolutely sure that the Knicks would pull them out. Here, though, it would be a major shock if the Knicks lose this series.

They’re 10-1 to win the WHOLE FUCKING THING!! Do you know how amazing that is? They have a real shot at being NBA champions. That is so fucking cool.

So, well, you know, just don’t flop here, guys, take care of business like I know you will.

Let’s fucking go, Knicks!

502 replies on “2024 Playoff Thread: Knicks vs. Pacers, Game 1, Second Round Opener, which is a thing”

Let’s Go Knicks – Let’s Go Knicks – Let’s Go Knicks!

De-Fence De-Fence De-Fence!

I spent my day sleeping and practicing the chants for tonight game…

I don’t like all the media snubs on the Pacers, we’re widely undermanned but people seem to forget it…

In the last series the narrative was the 76ers were the banged up team, now it’s Hali who isn’t himself… do the words “Julius Randle” mean something to anyone?

And a warm welcome to CBJ, it’s always nice to have new riders on the storm…

Let’s Go Knicks!!!

PS — Knicks in 4

i want whatever your smoking…

Make it so! Bang bang!

Let me take a moment to recognize the awesomeness of one particular thing, seeing as we’ve debated the optimal means of talent acquisition here since time immemorial.

Some teams get their chrome & leather by stockpiling picks. Others clear cap space for max cats. Still others try to land them in a blockbuster trade.

We didn’t do any of those things, not really. We didn’t draft or trade our star, nor did we sign him, because when we signed him he wasn’t a star. We raised Jalen Brunson. The team’s management, coaching, past greats, even our fans… we may indeed employ his literal father as an assistance coach, but it takes a village, and we have been that village.

That is magical, and unheard of in 21st century sports. This is IMO the fact that lies at the heart of Brunson’s infinite rootability, even though his profile as a player isn’t incredibly different from say, Carmelo Anthony.

There are other factors, like the way he gets it all done with incredible skill and intellect more than physical gifts, but IMO that’s the core of it. He’s our team’s son and we’re proud of him.

There’s some spookiness to this Pacers team — our last three playoff series losses have all been to lower seeds, beginning with a letdown at home in Game 1. The first of these three losses was to this very team. Tonight’s game is immensely important.

I know it’s strange coming from me, but I do believe this team is not the same old Knicks. We’ve already taken punches that would have sent prior iterations of our team reeling and gotten right back up to keep throwing haymakers.

Let’s beat these hicks so bad that 40-year old fans on Pacersblogger will be ruminating in 2054 about the childhood trauma we inflicted on them.

Let’s fucking GO!

In 2054 I hope 40 yr old fans on Pacersblogger will be recalling how well they played despite being swept by the eventual champions in that weird wide open year when the Knicks won their first of seven straight titles 😉

I think this series is not going feature as many games that go down to the wire. I think on the nights the Pacers are successful at running and hitting 3s they are going to open up on us and on the nights we can slow them down make them miss we are going to open up.

Pags I’m on board with 99% of that, but have to nitpick the idea that Brunson and Melo are similarly productive players. I think Brunson has flatly overtaken Melo in that regard.

Pags I’m on board with 99% of that, but have to nitpick the idea that Brunson and Melo are similarly productive players. I think Brunson has flatly overtaken Melo in that regard.

I agree but the profile superficially is not dissimilar:
-Ball dominant, massive usage
-Seemingly bottomless scoring bag
-Massive scoring volume
-Not insanely efficient from the field (peak Melo slightly better TS+)
-Not an elite playmaker for the position
-Not a standout defender

I do think Brunson is a lot better on defense/intangibles/chemistry, but it’s hard to deny the similarities!

Off topic, but it looks like New Orleans is ready to move on from Ingram. They aren’t going to extend him. That means he will be traded. Anyone think NY will be interested or is he too fragile?

Off topic, but it looks like New Orleans is ready to move on from Ingram. They aren’t going to extend him. That means he will be traded. Anyone think NY will be interested or is he too fragile?

They’re keeping Zion but moving on from Ingram because he’s too fragile?

Pags, essential to consider the difference in league average efficiency at their respective positions. Brunson’s efficiency is significantly more valuable as a guard than Melo’s was a ls a 3/4, even though they were in the same range TS+ wise.

Ingram turns the ball over a lot and isn’t terribly efficient as a scorer, so on paper he’s not very appealing. That said, he can be very effective in actual games. He does the other, less analytically important stuff well for the most part.

Pags, essential to consider the difference in league average efficiency at their respective positions. Brunson’s efficiency is significantly more valuable as a guard than Melo’s was a ls a 3/4, even though they were in the same range TS+ wise.

I agree with you there as well TFNH, but just as there were much more efficient positional peers at similar volume at the position in Melo’s case (KD/Bron), there today are much more efficient peers than Brunson at the PG (SGA/Doncic). Relative to their peers, their efficiency looks pretty similar.

It seems like Ingram has been around forever but this was only his age 26 season. I wouldn’t be all that interested in him. He has still never really put it all together despite his size and talent, and at this point I wouldn’t bet on him to do so. He’s a good-not-great player who is going to command a contract that he will not be able to provide surplus value on. Pass.

I’m going to be so frustrated this series with the amount of open 3s Indiana is going to get…

I love J-Hart but he makes some of the dumbest turnovers in the league…

We’ve had some really nice defensive possessions, but we are only up by four. It’s worrisome.

Haliburton is unwilling to even try to take iHart off the dribble, so we can safely assume he’s pretty compromised

If Knicks are gonna defend the 3pt line this poorly its gonna be a long series.

But thankfully Knicks can get whatever they want offensively too!

The difference in physicallity from the Sixers series is to this is pretty stark.

I knew it was gonna be a different series compared to Philly but man it really is a stark difference so far…

Based on my subjective recollection of Obi, guard him from the corners but let him chuck as much as he wants from the wings. He does not hit those.

I will not make any Kris Murray jokes.

Ooo, The Pests are guarding each other — Deuce and TJ. Should be a fun show within the show…

…and TJ draws first blood.

They’re getting so many open threes and it’s keeping them afloat…

The two-bigs offense must run at every chance because halfcourt spacing is terrible…

And Deuce is losing the pest match…

I guess the idea with this lineup is to avoid the problems the spacing presents in the half court by simply foregoing the half court and running all the time

If you are playing Precious at the 4, you can’t have Hart there at the same time.

He really brought Brunson back with 1.5 seconds left instead of just letting him get an extended rest.

This is the kind of game we will need to play. 8 FTA to 2, and we held them to 5-14 on 2PA. Pace is in our favor also

Bad lineup decision by Thibs. Not sure Mitch is an impact guy here.

Terrible end to the quarter, sigh.

We’re gonna see a lot of that whenever Brunson sits, they just have nobody. We’re running point-Hart sets.

There is no need to have Hart in this lineup, Jesus. You can’t play 3 non-shooters.

He really brought Brunson back with 1.5 seconds left instead of just letting him get an extended rest.

And to inbound?? At first i thought it was to get the ball to Brunson to see if he could score.

Maybe I’m totally insane but their non-Haliburton lineups seem better to me

Jeez, we’re in a classic offensive doldrum. Just some dumb-ass decisions happening out there.

Indy looking much tougher than Philly is not what I was expecting.

If you play Hart/Precious/I-Hart and get out-rebounded, you might as well try something else. That said, I don’t think this will continue.

Indy looking much tougher than Philly is not what I was expecting.

Philly ran up big leads on us game after game. They do not look “much tougher” than Philly

Great passing Hart tip to iHart, touch to JB, kick to OG for the 3

DDV’s shot is off so far and the Deuce-Mitch-Precious shift killed our momentum…
Worry-Meter at 5…

They have better conditioning
We should slow the game down

I didn’t mean tougher as in the actual matchup, I meant tougher with the way they’re crashing the boards.

We’re playing pretty horribly and are down 1. The Pacers do not look impressive.

Precious at the 4 was always going to be a problem. The only way to do it is to have shooters at the 1-3 positions. If you play Hart, it is just very hard to score.

Ok who the fuck is Isaiah Jackson?

Early returns on having no bench are not good. TJ McConnell is gonna destroy us.

You’d think we’re down 20 by this thread. OG needs to play smarter overall. Seems like he’s on a mission to prove something and it’s not going well other than hitting the threes he’s been assisted on.

Yeah my bad, Knicks are down only 1 and had an 8 pt lead late in the 1st quarter. Gonna be alot of wild swings during this series due to the style of Indiana.

I-Hart had his moments against the Sixers, but he’s not been great so far these playoffs.

If we can’t score against this fucking shit defense, we’re done.

Unless iHart and Mitch have actually forgotten how to rebound I’m not that worried, but our need for a non-Brunson scorer is as clear as it gets.

Is that Alan Brooks’ music?

Knicks aren’t even going to need a bench after this series. The starters are going to be able to play 60 minutes a game after all the cardio.

The good news is the Pacers don’t have Oubre-kind of defenders, and Brunson is getting every one of them in foul trouble.

Knicks offensive options:

1. Hart fastbreak
2. Brunson
3. Brunson
4. Deadball TO
5. Brunson
6. Brunson

I just saw a pic of Ben Simmons at the Met Gala. That was jarring. Way to work on your jump shot, Ben!

Let’s put Precious back in just for a minute to bitch-slap TJ.

Worry meter at 6. An upset in the series would very likely start with a game 1 loss

Turner is the most important player in the series.

We have missed a LOT of shots we don’t usually miss, across the board. I’m keeping my worry meter at 5.

I-Hart with the 60 feet floater!

Two bad end-of-quarters but in general we’re playing like shit.

That awful bench lineup with Precious really brought Indiana into the game. They need to figure out the offense and the rebounding, because this quarter was ugly.

It’s like you guys haven’t watched this team at all this year. Down by 4 at the half ain’t shit.

I hope the coaches saw something they can adjust.

Yeah my worry meter is around 8, Brunson has saved us from what would have been a disastrous half. If our centers are going to be outplayed by fucking Myles Turner and whoever is Isaiah Jackson, then I’m not confident at all in the series.

They aren’t doubling Brunson and that is making the ORebs not happen.

Knickerblogger:

“I LOVE THIS TEAM SO MUCH THEY NEVER STOP FIGHTING”

Also Knickerblogger:

“WE’RE DOWN BY FOUR POINTS AT HALFTIME
OF GAME ONE, SERIES OVER”

They play pressing high, then zone and search for fast breaks.
We need Serious adjustments to get 4 Wins

They clearly focused on negating our offensive rebounding, and we focused on limiting their fast break points. We might want to play to our strengths and let whatever happens happen…

The worrisome thing is that the Pacers buckets sure seem a lot easier than the Knicks buckets.

Horrible q2.

My prediction was too optimistic. There I go again!

We are losing this game. Pacers in 6 or 7.

Donte needs to stop sucking so hard

OG gets blocked or turns it over on ~70% of his drives

Turner is killing us

The bench is too slow to keep up with their fastbreak

Smart move by Carlisle not to double JB. No other Knick can create off the dribble so he lives with JB pounding the ball and no movement.

Also Knickerblogger:
“WE’RE DOWN BY FOUR POINTS AT HALFTIME
OF GAME ONE, SERIES OVER”

LOL

Randle and Bojan would certainly be nice. Thibs may have to suck it up at some point and see if Alec has remembered how to shoot. This is a tough matchup for us, but it’s 4 points.

Randle and Bojan would certainly be nice. Thibs may have to suck it up at some point and see if Alec has remembered how to shoot. This is a tough matchup for us, but it’s 4 points.

It’s six. But yeah

Come on, I’m a drama queen, you all know it by now lol. I come here to vent during rough games.

It appears that our strategy today is to cripple our offense by playing Precious at the 4 while leaving Turner wide open for 3 but still not protecting the rim somehow.

Looks like we’ll be outcoached again…

We do seem to have a weakness against stretch 5s.

If Pags is saying Pacers in 6 or 7, this is still going ok. If this were going sideways, Pags would be saying Pacers in 4.

Looks like we’ll be outcoached again…

Outcoached again? So we beat Philly despite Nick Nurse outcoaching Tom Thibodeau?

I think I need to sit out game threads because they suck. You guys are ridiculous.

Pacers bench outscored Knicks bench 27-1 and before someone screams about Obi he only had 3 pts.

Brunson should foul out 2 of their guys by the end of the 3rd so that might help.

Give it time Cyber, I may make it that far by the end of this game if I can stand to watch past the inevitable Pacers run to start Q3

I think I need to sit out game threads because they suck. You guys are ridiculous.

So you were not here for game 1 and 2 where Nurse figured out Brunson and we were doomed. Brunson averaged 39 pts in the remaining games. LOL

Didn’t we stipulate that game threads are free zone, used to blow off steam during stressful times?
Every take is acceptable here, even the craziest 😉

Worry-Meter still at 5, but they find good shots easily, our offense is way more clumsy…

I think our struggle to score in the half court is a real concern, we’re just normally able to make up for it with offensive rebounds. I’m cautiously optimistic we didn’t forget how to rebound, so my panic meter is at a 3-4.

Donte’s got some ball skills, would like to see him try to create a little more. The OG creation attempts can be ugly.

Outcoached again? So we beat Philly despite Nick Nurse outcoaching Tom Thibodeau?

I was more referring to Nate McMillan, Spo, and the many other coaches Thibs has lost playoff series against as tbe favorite.

There is also a pretty good case that Nurse was the better coach but lost due to luck/personnel/injuries.

Brunson should probably start his attacks a little earlier in the shotclock, because there were too many possessions where they ran out of time to do anything productive.

I don’t know if the lack of ORBs is due to the Knicks’ fear of the Pacers’ transition, bad bounces, or just a bad I-Hart game. I would try Mitch with the starters for a bit.

My mentality towards this series is that we’re playing with house money. We’re missing our second best player and a key bench piece and we still have a good shot at reaching the conference finals. We’re plucky underdogs and it would be an incredible accomplishment to win this series.

Also, we can play much better than this and probably will.

Thank you, Max. If KB can’t handle us at our worst, they don’t deserve us at our best. 😜

My worry meter is still at zero. I’m expecting 6 hard fought games where we win 4. And for now, this is exactly what’s happening. Anyone thought Indy would be easier than Philly? Not me.

Didn’t we stipulate that game threads are free zone, used to blow off steam during stressful times?
Every take is acceptable here, even the craziest 😉

that’s how I deal with it, I’ll be analytical and calm before or after games, but let me vent steam during games, damnit.

Nice start to the 3rd, rebounding seems much better and Josh Hart is doing Josh Hart things.

JK was right, took less than 4 mins to tie the game after halftime!

I saw on Twitter Marbury was going to be there.

It’s okay, I get it, don’t want to be the thread police here. I’m usually not Mr. Optimism so this feels strange to me. I guess it’s the house money thing. We got nothing to lose. Let’s beat these chumps

I’ll have what Josh Hart is having

Mike & Ikes with a side of breast milk? Comin’ right up!

Of course everybody can vent, Bruno, Max and all. And frankly it’ll be hard to beat the Nurse figured out Brunson, so we’re ready for your doomsday predictions based on the smallest of samples. 😉 😛

Don’t understand what we’re challenging here. Sure looked like Brunson jumped into Turner’s body before blocking the shot.

Donte needs to wake up, it feels like he’s trying too hard and it’s resulting in those dumb fouls and turnovers. The pick and roll with Turner is a real problem, we have no idea how to defend it, adjustments will be necessary.

Maybe he figured it will give the guys an extended rest.

The ‘marginal contact’ thing goes our way once! Miracle!

The foul on Siakam felt much more challengeable than this one. Thibs just got annoyed with fouls being called 4-5 consecutive possessions.

I would put Brunson on Nesmith now that they are going to Nembhard P&Rs.

Van Gundy very angry.

It feels like we’re down 20 but we’re tied. I think it’s because we’re making regular stupid mistakes — we COULD be up 20.

Middlebrow centers all across America heading out tomorrow to learn iHart’s floater.

Are we going to do the thing we did against the Sixers that whenever we can open a good lead we do some stupid shit?

KYN’s keys of the series:
Fuck offrebs
Play zone D
Slow the game down

Every time Knicks look like they might build a lead Indiana goes on a run in less than a minute.

Quick note: it went our way, but this “marginal contact” skit is a joke, the NBA refs are so bad…

They just score so easily and we have to work so hard, it feels like we’re down by 15

I’m worried now that the Pacers brought in 6th man of the century TJ McConnell

McConnell is terrifying how us he not a superstar when he shoots like 60% from the field

Hartenstein is playing like crud on defense.

I’d go with Precious here but I guess we’re gonna watch Mitch limp around for a while.

Downgrading to a firm prediction of Pacers in 6. They pretty much score at will and easily negated our defining strength.

That JB dime to Mitch was leadership. Lets the big guy get immediate redemption.

I’m sorry but losing a playoff game to TJ McConnell and Myles Turner will be a disgrace, house money or not.

Game 2 will ve so miserable to watch after losing this. Downgrading to Pacers in 4, we look totally outmatched

Mitchell Robinson should not be playing in this game now. He’s too slow. But of course Thibs is not making the adjustments on that or the pick and roll defense. Easy fixes being ignored

That was set up great before the buzzer beater, we had survived the Mitch/Deuce minutes fairly well and actually clawed back a couple points.

Well, it’s the last quarter, time to figure this out and get the win

I’m sorry but losing a playoff game to TJ McConnell and Myles Turner is a disgrace, house money or not.

Amen to that, their 2 best players Hali and Siakam really aren’t doing much it’s those 2 that are killing us

Haliburton and Siakam have been garbage, but the scrubs are killing us, this can’t happen.

They are just a younger, more athletic team, so we have to shoot better and play smarter.

They are not really scrubs, Bruno, the Pacers have more depth than Knicks.

People wanted to avoid Philly to play Indiana in the 1st rd instead….

As we found last year against Miami some teams have more good players than we do because they don’t roster Jacob Toppin and Ryan Arcidiacono

This is like Deuce from the Miami series.

I think the Knicks’ injuries finally caught up with them today.

They are not really scrubs, Bruno, the Pacers have more depth than Knicks.

They’re only scrubs when they’re on Thibs’ bench.

Bench looks horrendous. McBride should be embarrassed right now. Nothing on offense and getting outplayed by TJ

do because they don’t roster Jacob Toppin and Ryan Arcidiacono

They roster the same kind of player. Every team does. Except they don’t have a starter and their 6th man currently injured, which has chain effects in the rest of the rotation.

A lot of mental mistakes on our end contributing to the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Hart said in the interview basically ~ “we want to play fast.” Not sure about that.

Turning off. TJ McConnell is the best player in the series. We are completely fucked. I hate having homecourt and losing every fucking game 1.

I dont know why TJ McConnell has our number every time we play the pacers, but something tells me it involves copious amounts of the drug from limitless being freebased off michael jordan’s sneakers

Looks like its playing out exactly same as the previous couple of 2nd rd series when the Knicks had homecourt…

I never got the memo that TJ McFuckface was now prime CP3, did y’all?

They roster the same kind of player. Every team does. Except they don’t have a starter and their 6th man currently injured, which has chain effects in the rest of the rotation

Don’t want to hear it. Their best player is like 40% healthy. We might have some depth if we didn’t incinerate all our draft picks

Slow down. Poise. The Philly series gave our guys some wisdom. Let Indy choke.

EDIT: Exactly. Play like winners. Not guests.

No offense off the bench with Bogey

Also Carlisle is a better offensive mind than Nurse

Pagliacci please fucking stop, you’re single-handedly ruining this game thread

When I saw all the experts pick Knicks

I thought Pacers undervalued

McConnell is better than anybody we bring off the bench

Is that the same Pags who said the Knicks would collapse and had no chance to beat Philly

Not tired yet?

McConnell is better than anybody we bring off the bench

Well, in a parallel universe, Randle starts and Josh Hart is coming off the bench, no?

If you say you’re turning it off turn it the fuck off, Pags. Don’t lie to us, too.

Well, in a parallel universe, Randle starts and Josh Hart is coming off the bench, no?

Well yeah, but we don’t have that luxury.

Alec Burks being a huge flop is bad

Brunson needs to cut the pull-up 3 from his game, has not been making them

Backhanded compliment, but we haven’t really let either of their earth shattering dunks phase us

The bench points is the story of the game

This team

Have Duece , Mitch and Precious coming off the bench

If Duece does nothing they aren’t scoring

The play that made me most nervous? Three Knicks standing and watching the rebound bounce on the ground. Even though we got it eventually. Not used to seeing that.

I actually feel “okay” unless McConnell comes back. (Hahaha).

Zach Zarba taking over. So many missed foul calls on the Knicks players driving

They don’t have anyone good but we should still draft two guys from Nova

Well that fat fuck Barkley was wrong. Brunson has now scored 35.

And here I was hoping for games that do not give you heart disease.

Nyk bench 2 pts

Somehow we got last year’s Deuce tonight. It happens, but that cannot continue.

This bench needs to fired into the sun

Only reason this is a game

They were literally grabbing Brunson in front of the refs and no calls.

I feel like having Brunson go to a corner and then dribble out isnt optimal but what do i know

Don’ WANNA win!

(infant cry of the Knicks…)

Not mad at Hart for the TO. You take the bad with the good. Basically all we have is Brunson and Hart right now.

Yeah. We lose this challenge. It’s the TO’s killing us. Focus. Brunson has seemed a bit off (mentally) all game despite the good scoring. It’s like he needs to see what they’re going to do against him and then improve.

i think that would have earned a good old fashioned BANG from breen

NOW — GET YOUR HEADS ON STRAIGHT FOR THE LAST POSSESSIONS!!!!

I’m glad Donte decided to play half the game tonight.

And wow did the refs blow that kicked ball call

It sure looked like they did

What a ridiculous call to give the Pacers possession there. It was so obvious.

These inbounds plays are torture, though we win the challenge

crazy that jalen is all alone in the back court there but it’s probably one of the costs of the minutes being so high

Definitely off his foot. Ball changes direction.

Good. Can’t take the reviews with you and we get rest for our guys.

Zack Zarba on suicide watch after admitting the knicks challenge was successful

We could use another balhandler

WOW

Terrible call but i will take it

By the book, illegal screen. But I have never, ever seen that called in an even remotely tight situation.

I feel this is going to be a tough 12 seconds…

It’s the right call, but should have been no call at the end of a game like this

We fucking STOLE that but no such thing as a bad playoff win.

We had every reson to lose, but we had Jalen Brunson and they didn’t.

Game 1 in the bag!
I can’t see any blow-out games in this series.

I guess having 4 prior champions in your starting lineup is a thing.

Hali was strangely passive in this game

And in all fairness I’d be super pissed about the officiating if I was a Pacers fan

We keep stealing these games. I need beta blockers or Valium or something

Josh Hart suddenly a Pippen / Rodman hybrid, I mean what the actual hell?

Next game Knicks pull away early and win by 20, please…

You guys keep forgetting this is what we do. 😛
The game thread will be a hilarious read tomorrow. 😀

I’m telling you. The Philly series has steeled our guys. This one is ours to lose.

Sam Mitchell suddenly 75 years old, didn’t he play 20 years ago?

Stole this but I’ll take it! Would like to see some better refereeing the rest of the series. Worked out to our benefit this time but they were terrible.

Give credit where it’s due. Pags won this one with that departure schtick.

How the fuck did we win that?!?!

We didn’t play all that great and still won. Deuce has to play better and Thibs should consider Achiuwa over the too slow Mitch. Nova crew to the rescue and it’s clear we are battle tested for the big moments at the end of games.

Guys…I thought we were done with the dramatic finishes!

Refs took control of the game while the two teams tried to explore every possible way to lose a game…

I can’t go on like this, I’m exhausted, I need a 15-point win…

They really should let Hart bring up the ball more often, it was creating breakdowns in the Pacers’ defense and could lead to more spot up opportunities for Brunson.

Next game we should just play Brunson, Donte, OG and Hart 4 on 5. At least they’d have more room.

Huge win, we gut it out better than any other team. Hopefully Thibs implements some adjustments to the Turner-Hali/TJ PnR because it destroyed us all night. I don’t think the Pacers can really do anything if we manage to slow the game down at all. That said, we really need Deuce or even…Alex Bork to give us some productivity off the bench. I don’t know how much longer we can sustain a 7 man rotation (you already see the fatigue in late game scenarios, which are error-filled.)

I’m just glad we didn’t lose the game in which the Knicks shot 47% from deep.

Josh Hart suddenly a Pippen / Rodman hybrid, I mean what the actual hell?

Josh is just a winner. People ask, ‘What position does he play?’ He plays winner

Everyone agrees that we got a call that was correct but shouldn’t have been called, which makes no sense.

But yeah we got a nice whistle there at the end.

Jesus, Brunson (and the refs) bailed us out so much. Nice to see Divo with big plays, OG clamping in the fourth and Josh Hart showing how important he is.

Every win is a good win in the playoffs but damn, if I was a Pacers fan I would be absolutely seething at the refs… but oh well, I’m glad I’m not because then I wouldn’t have Jalen Brunson on my team.

Carlisle smart to apply full court pressure as much as he did, kind of wild that it didn’t cost us the game, as we clearly had trouble getting into the offense and turned the ball over a bunch

We do badly need to figure some things out, but fuck it we’ll take this win and go to work

Hali did not look good at all. Maybe it was his back? He never looked to shoot or penetrate. If that continues, the Knicks should go under screens every single time. It would help their P&R coverage a lot.

Pre series prognosticators said if indy scores over 110…they win…not so much

And in all fairness I’d be super pissed about the officiating if I was a Pacers fan

In a paranoid universe, the NBA men behind the curtain have suddenly realized they have a really good story in Jalen Brunson/NY.

One thing that is still up in the air: is Jalen Brunson really a 1A?

Now that that’s all done, Pags is insufferable but he’s not wrong that our weird use of fringe roster spots is biting us in the ass.

Remember this?

@NBAHistory:
Jalen Brunson is the 3rd player in NBA History with four consecutive playoff games of 35+ points and 5+ assists in a single postseason, joining:
LeBron James (2009)
Michael Jordan (1989, 1990)

Well this is the 5th game and Brunson had 43 pts and 6 ast!

Brunson and the Nova crew (and some great moments from OG) bailed out a poor Thibs game. He needs to make adjustments on D and give someone (Burkkaas) extended bench minutes. Josh Hart is playing insane minutes and needs a breather

Its bizarre we only have one guy who can dribble and who we can inbound the ball to late. It’s just not smart. But whatever, if it ain’t completely broke…

Got a last minute ticket to go tonight. Incredibly fun. We won by 4, that’s like a blow out for us.

Our offense looks like the Teen Wolf team a little too much but fuck it we do have the Wolf, so….

Bill Simmons upset on his x account

Glad Reggie Miller isn’t calling any games in this series

Now that that’s all done, Pags is insufferable but he’s not wrong that our weird use of fringe roster spots is biting us in the ass.

I’ll go to war over this: every team has scrubs on their bench. There are not enough above replacement players for all teams. The problem is that the Knicks have 2 major rotation pieces missing, a third one who seemingly has forgotten how to play basketball, and a fourth one who is a good third string center but cannot be played at PF. At the trade deadline we were all here debating whether Thibs would go for a 10 man rotation.

Our offense looks like the Teen Wolf team a little too much but fuck it we do have the Wolf, so….

Wiiiiiin in the End….I’m Gonna Win in the Eeeeeeend!

You all think Mikal Bridges is watching this thinking that he should be part of the Villanova crew at MSG?

I mean they have Alec Burks on the bench

Bojan got hurt

Is Shake Milton that bad?

Does MSG have any of the games in this series? Need to hear Clyde and Breen.

Just like Game 1 against Philly, they took the other team’s best shot and still won. That is absolutely gutting to be on the other end of that kind of game.

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The good thing is that this Min/Den game will erase all the ref discourse from NY/Ind.

We were fortunate to get the call on the moving screen but hey, we were still in the game at the end and crazy things happen. You can’t guarantee what would have happened after that, we could have very easily found a way to make another play.

Remember when the guy who sang Win in the End made a version during Linsanity called Lin in the End?

Maybe tomorrow I’ll see if there’s some way to quantify it, but it sure seems like Jeffries, Brown, and Obi’s bro are uniquely unplayable even among the league’s scrubs. Either that or we just choose to play them even less than most of the league’s scrubs, which is its own problem.

It’s a liiiiiiiiiittle odd to me there’s been no talk of Shake. It seems like “absolutely devastating injury situation” is the scenario you have in mind when you make that signing. Funnily enough, he’s an example of a good use of a fringe roster spot IMO. So maybe this is all irrelevant because we’re just sticking with 7 and praying anyway.

Yeah TNFH I think Shake needs a chance. He is the only option other than Burks that you could hope to provide some scoring .

We won because of the power of the will. Because of the steel this team is made of. We could have lost but we got the calls at the end, and we have Brunson on our side. Make no mistake about it, however: our defense HAS to get better. We cannot rely on scoring 120+ every night to win. Indy was way too comfortable on offense. We must somehow slow them down. We must cut down our turnovers, improve our pick and roll defense, perhaps switch more, defend the paint better, and so on. I don’t know how but we have to make them think twice before making a move. They have to be uncertain, tentative. This is not how this game felt.

After 5 quarters of the Nuggets series I’m very impressed by the Wolves.

And I can’t believe how bad the refs are, the number of non-calls/bad-calls is out of scale (just like in our game).

As much as I complain about our defense Indiana is much worse so the Knicks actually can win this series this way but it would be alot easier if they cleaned up their defensive rotations.

I wonder if 3 points off the bench is some kind of playoff record low for a winning team.

Refs definitely need to be more consistent. But we don’t control what they call. Both teams could have walked away with this game and neither did.

Watching Carlisle it’s refreshing to see a coach upset with the refs but not come off as a whiny bitch like Nurse comes across.

Hali is probably hurt but that gives Thibs time to figure out how to stop TJ McJodan

This Timberwolves team is the best defensive team I’ve seen in a while

I don’t know if you can even play this version of Murray. Really sucks how many injuries there are in these playoffs.

Someone mentioned on Twitter Pacers probably win this game if TJ plays most of 4th quarter instead of Hali.

do people ever think it’s hard for the players to play defense because of the minutes they have to play every game

Considering Zach Zarba is a Knicks nemesis and almost gave the ball to Indiana on a clear “off-his-leg” play, the ref discourse shouldn’t be as bad as it’s gonna be but Twitter is gonna Twitter. Free throws also started to even out for Indy too even tho there were several missed calls on Knicks driving to the hoop.

On another note, Minnesota looks like a team on a mission. They may win the series, hell they may sweep!

Honestly, if McConnell closes that game, I think we lose.

We won by 4, that’s like a blow out for us.

I will be laughing at this for a while 😉

If only we had Kendall Brown and James Johnson at the end of our bench like Indy does the series would be a blowout 🙄

McConnell was good but at the end of the day he had 18 points on 16 FGA. It seemed like he never missed but that isn’t a brutally efficient line. Meanwhile DDV had 25 points on 17 FGA.

that our weird use of fringe roster spots is biting us in the ass

I’m sorry but there are enough basketball players on this roster today for our coach to find some combination of bench players that can play against TJ McConnell, Ben Sheppard, and Obi Toppin without getting blown out.

Our top 5 is much better than theirs but we started getting our asses kicked the second coaches started making decisions in both halves.

I don’t want to hear our bench guys are unplayable when we just got our asses kicked by the last guy coach said couldn’t play.

MAKE THEM PLAYABLE. THAT’S THE JOB.

The announcers also suggested that McConnell was looking gassed after a while. Not everyone is an indestructible hustlebunny like Josh Hart.

McConnell was good but …

For me it wasn’t just McConnell’s scoring. He had the most *disruptive effect overall (for lack of a better word). The end was chaos and TJ seems their best instrument of chaos … for now.

Educate_the_weaksays:
May 6, 2024 at 22:25
Bill Simmons upset on his x account

Glad Reggie Miller isn’t calling any games in this series

I’m pretty sure they said Reggie is part of the crew for Wednesday. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but at least the Garden will give him a metric fuckton of shit.

I love the guy, but Hart has to be juicing, right? I mean ….

I can’t believe we literally do not bring one wing off the bench. That’s definitely uncharted territory.

Josh Hart had twice as many rebounds as anyone on the Pacers (he also probably played twice as many minutes).

Minny putting the hurt on Den. Never seen Joker and Murray so frustrated and discombobulated.

Never understood the “Denver is invincible” hype. To the extent a championship can be a cakewalk, they had a cakewalk last year.

Great team — obviously a contender — but the West is better at the top this year and a team with actual talent might make it out of the East instead of Spo’s genius getting the most out of his hustle bunnies

Vorkunov: “Referee Zach Zarba told the pool reporter that the kicked ball violation call with 52 seconds left wasn’t correct and hit Aaron Nesmith’s hand instead. But the call wasn’t reviewable.”

Last time the Nuggets got their ass kicked this bad they were at Madison Square Garden facing metal bats.

Denver is suffering from the same problem we have – great starters, almost no bench. Losing Bruce Brown and Uncle Jeff really hurt them.

Hopefully Deuce wakes up and Thibs decides to play Shake Milton or Alec Burks for 5-10 mins. You can’t keep rolling the dice like this with the heavy minutes and expect the same results. Well, maybe you do but for a long playoff run you gotta find minutes of rest

Thibs in his free time must be wondering how he will get Hart 40min of court time when Julius Randle is back next year.

Someone mentioned on Twitter Pacers probably win this game if TJ plays most of 4th quarter instead of Hali.

i was sure glad when he left for the bench…

i’ll be honest – i was watching the game on delay…i started seriously debating whether i’d watch the 4th quarter, cheated and saw we won…

needless to say, it made watching the 4th a lot less stressful…

gotta love thibs with the innovative strategy of just playing the starters the whole game…

how has no one else ever thought of this before?

Can we talk for a minute about how fucking awesome Jalen Brunson is?

I know the moving screen call at the end was silly, but Donte was also called for one just a few minutes earlier. The fact that it wasn’t the last minute shouldn’t matter.

The refs also missed a terrible call on the Brunson out of bounds that went off the Pacer defender’s foot, we were lucky Thibs had a challenge left.

Brunson might be the only player who can solve the Wolves defense.

Scored more points in a 5 game playoff stretch than any player in the last 30 years

Brunson is ridiculous. The fact that he does this while there is literally nobody else on the team who can create a good shot blows my mind.

This might be a good time to remember the relatively soft playoff path the Nuggets got last year.

I was thinking the Lakers lost to the mighty Nuggets, but that take isn’t looking so good at the moment.

The kvetching about the refs doesn’t move me at all. They missed calls both ways, and the call on Turner’s moving screen was correct, and the only objection to it is the “they don’t make that call at the end of games” objection.

DDV sold the foul, the official called it in real time, and there’s no way you can overturn it on replay BECAUSE IT WAS A FOUL.

Obi would help this bench. Were the trade pieces Rose got back really worth it…

Random thing that I haven’t seen brought up with the refs… right before the illegal screen call when Brunson turned the ball over… I thought that should have been our ball because it only hit Brunson after he established himself as out of bounds. Will be interested to see what the L2M says.

My understanding is that if you’re standing completely out of bounds with two feet on the ground like Brunson was and the ball hits you, it’s not off you. You’re the same as a stanchion or a fan.

The Knicks scored 72 points in the second half. Hopefully they found something offensively that works and that they can go to in the rest of the series.

The moaning about the Turner moving screen call reminds me of the finish to the UConn/Iowa women’s Final Four game. People are upset about the refs making a by-the-book call they’d been calling all game because it was bad for the game’s entertainment value. And it ran contrary to their expectation that refs will let more things go in crunch time.

I admit that I was one of these frustrated people when Aaliyah Edwards got called for clipping Gabbie Marshall. It’s very interesting now to watch it in this game with the shoe on the other foot because of my fan alignment.

I say that to say this: TOO BAD SO SAD DIE MAD INDIANA.

I like this Indy matchup for us much better than Philly.

The big deal (to me) was 14 turnovers. Hart had 5. Brunson 4. I think that will/should stop going forward.

Also Mitch had only two boards in 12 minutes and Deuce’s entire line was zero: 10 minutes, 0 for 2, 1 assist. That’s it. – 13. If they bounce back even a little, we’ll be okay.

Let’s also give thanks for iHart’s prayer 3 to end the half. We won by … 4.

Game 2 is huge, huge, huge. If we win, we break their will. They will have to win four out of the next five.

My understanding is that if you’re standing completely out of bounds with two feet on the ground like Brunson was and the ball hits you, it’s not off you. You’re the same as a stanchion or a fan.

Nope, I’m a high school basketball ref and have made that call many times. If the ball hits you and you’re out of bounds it goes to the other team.

‘If only we had Kendall Brown and James Johnson at the end of our bench like Indy does the series would be a blowout 🙄’

Don’t forget Jarace Walker! (Everyone else has, including Carlisle…)

Another gutty win by the Knicks. I feel like they are going to force Pagliacci into believing in them for real, only to pull the football away at the last minute. Poor guy.

Thanks, dmar. I was going to say I remember a Knick doing this under the basket, I suppose to a Sixer, in the last series. Jumped up, grabbed the ball, and as he was falling out, threw it off the guy who had already gone out of bounds.

Brunson was ridiculous. I still can’t believe he is capable of what he is capable of but he just keeps doing it.

I want to give OG a shoutout too. He came up with some huge plays also.

PS, that foul call on Turner was terrible. It had no impact on the play whatsoever. It shouldn’t have been called. Players gotta play. (Knicks still probably would have won, but it would have been much more exciting to watch:)

It had no impact on the play whatsoever.

Donte was the primary defender on the play!

He created a 5-on-4 illegally. What are people talking about here? That’s a legit foul.

It was 30 feet from the basket, and Donte created the 5 on 4 by falling to the floor to try sell a lame call.

Nobody would have thought twice if there was no call on that play, it would have simply been the default setting.

Ewing got called for a similar foul at end of Game 3 in the 1994 Finals that cost them a chance at winning the game after Cassell’s 3pter.

If they don’t make that CORRECT call, Turner is wide open for a 3. No impact on the play?! Come on now…

If they don’t make that CORRECT call, Turner is wide open for a 3. No impact on the play?! Come on now…

C’mon. After game 2 vs the Sixers, Philly fans showed photographic evidence of Brunson grabbing Maxey’s jersey, and Knick fans were like “it didn’t impact the play, it was a good non-call, Nick Nurse is a whiner, fuck Joel Embiid”. And knick fans were probably right. But don’t turn all holier-than-thou now. This “foul” impacted the game far less. Even if Turner was wide open, the Knicks still would have had a 65% probability of retaining the lead. They have to let that play out.

Knick fans were like “it didn’t impact the play, it was a good non-call, Nick Nurse is a whiner, fuck Joel Embiid”.

That’s not what people said – they said Brunson held the jersey for a half-second because Maxey got open after pushing Hart away with two hands. Which wasn’t called. Personally I wouldn’t have griped if the illegal screen weren’t called on Turner, but it was an actual foul. If you’re Indy it seems weak to be whining about it.

As for “Fuck Embiid”… No notes.

Interesting that nobody is talking about the kick ball that went off a Pacer’s hand instead…

Oddly however, it went off a Pacer’s hand into another Pacer’s foot who kicked it straight to Siakim. Dmar, is that a kick ball? Van Gundy said “it went straight to Siakim” but that wasn’t the case at all…

But it was still a terrible call that went against the Pacers at the end of the game. I know, fuck Embiid…

They’ll get the calls in indy…shit will even itself out…

Mcbride better get his act together….mitch looks like he’s not going to be right till next yr…and precious is Mas o menos…..it’s like a 6.25 man rotation

other than a game where we had grant hill – it seems like every game announcer has been rooting against the knicks…

SVG and RJ have just been the worst…

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