2025 EAST FINALS: (3) New York Knicks Vs. (4) Indiana Pacers

I love this series. These are my two favorite teams left in the playoffs. Gotta root for my hometown team but it's fine if the Knicks prevail.

 

Knicks win each round in 6 to get the 666 on the road to the Finals.

 

What if they lose a series by 6....does that count as well.

The Devil surely knows his numbers.

 

First, the history:

This will be the eighth time in the last 31 years that the Knicks and Pacers have met in either the second round or conference finals.

Three of those series went 7 games, three went 6, and 1 went 5.

The Pacers went 5-2 in those series.

Both teams last Finals appearance came from beating the other one.

The last four times the Knicks made the conference finals, the Pacers were waiting for them.

The Pacers have won the last 3 series and haven't lost to the Knicks in 26 years.

In the 90s the moniker HICKS VS. KNICKS was born. Of course these were the famous Reggie Miller heroics, LJ game winning 4 point play (taking a dribble between the foul and the shot), John Starks crapping the bed in 2000 game 7 with Ewing missing a last second finger roll to the call "Ding dong the witch is dead"

I am going Pacers in 6. Thibs playing starters 40 minutes, leading to 4th quarter fatigue

 

Go knicks. Should be a classic.

 

Funny you would use those exact words. Here's some Rockets/Knicks history from a few years earlier:

Rockets fans from the 90s know all about John Starks epically imploding in a game 7. He was heroic in game 6 of the 93/94 NBA Finals and I'm convinced if Hakeem hadn't gotten a fingernail on Starks' game-winning attempt at the buzzer, Knicks would have been celebrating a 4-2 series win in the Summit. It was a moment I'll never forget, ever!

In game 7, Starks had a career worst shooting (2/18, 0/11) and repeatedly sabotaged the Knicks because Pat Riley wouldn't pull him and told him to keep shooting.

 

I was looking forward to hearing your thought on this series and you appear lol

 

Go Pacers. Should be a blowout.

 

reggie miller should shoot lights out. patrick yuwing suxs

 

I cannot say I predicted this ECF match up.

 

The devil is in the numbers.

 

I like the Pacers more than the Knicks, but I’m rooting for NY because a MSG finals environment would be absolutely insane

Ant or Shai having to play a finals game under the bright lights

 

Pacers in 6. Deeper bench will matter later in the series.

 

Interesting that the Knicks actually have a slightly (one year) longer Finals drought than the Pacers

going to be a refreshing NBA Finals one way or another I guess

 

Knicks play 7-man rotation. The starters average 38 mpg. Knicks played 12 playoffs games so far.
Pacers play a 8.5-man rotation. The starters average 32 mpg. Pacers played 10 playoffs games so far.

You can see which team has fresher legs.

 

Good points, especially considering there are no two-day breaks in the conference finals. But four days off since clinching should help the Knicks.

Hopefully the Pacers win one of the first two to ensure a long series magnifies fatigue as a factor.