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

2 years ago during the "beam" season a lot of observers (Zac Lowe etc) advised prudence & caution with the Kings - "Just keep at it with this team, you don't want to short circuit your window" - but they actually did do that and it was obvious after 2024 that the beam season was kind of fluky (no injuries, overachieved, down year for the west) and now they're just as screwed as if they overreacted.

 

Holy ****, I watched this whole game and turned it off when the Knicks were up by 5 in the last minute. I thought the refs were taking too long on that replay so I turned it off!

 

I knew at that time that they traded the wrong guy. Should have traded Fox and kept Hali. Kind of like OKC should have traded Westbrook and kept Harden.

 

Lol that's around the time I turned in. It felt like I was watching history in the making live.

 

If I were a Knicks fan, I'd probably still be on the phone with the suicide hotline. That's a nasty way to lose a game, and likely the series.

 

And to the Pacers. They still hate the Pacers from all those epic matchups in the 90's.

 

Reggie Miller might get death threat because this game brings back all the old wounds the Pacers inflicted on Knicks fans.

 

If I remember correctly, Ranadive (Sacramento Lead Owner) was impatient and didn't want the King's FO to wait until the Summer to make a trade.

So February 2022

Sacramento
In: Sabonis + Justin Holiday + Jeremy Lamb + 2023 Second Round Pick
Out Haliburton + Hield + Tristan Thompson

Indiana
In: Haliburton + Hield + Tristan Thompson
Out: Sabonis + Justin Holiday + Jeremy Lamb + 2023 Second Round Pick


In hindsight, Sacramento would have been much better off by waiting until the Summer and get rid of Fox even if it meant just giving him away with no real value returned. Of course, it would have taken some time to build a team around Haliburton and Ranadive has never been known for patience and sound judgement.


They tried to build around Fox and Sabonis with neither being a top tier player.

Eventually they morphed the roster to a West Coast version of the Bulls and of course that was destined to be a failure.

I haven't checked lately, but the last time that I did the gossip was that Ranadive is still impatient and won't permit a teardown - rebuild.

 

They should hire Morey then.

 

Probably best play-off opener of a series since then too.

 

The "pacman" win probability meter for game 1

 

screen shot of one of the low points, where the odds were less that 0.05% and so it rounded to 0.0 instead of 0.1

 

Rockets Game 6 in 2015 (can't believe it's 10 years already!) against the Clippers, we were down by 25 points early in the 4th quarter. I remember they said that the odds of us winning that game at that point were less than 0.5% or something like that.

 

The Tracy McGrady 13 points in 35 seconds game in 2004 had to be 0.1% or less before he went off

 

I just looked up Andrew Nembhard’s stats, and was shocked to see he shot 29% from deep this season

was not expecting that at all

Indiana seems to be shooting like that 8th seed Miami Heat team that made the finals where everyone on the roster was on fire

 

Nembhard missed 16 games with knee and back injuries and really struggled with his shot when he returned. Was 36% the year before. Shot 51% last postseason from 3 and 48% the postseason before. He likes playoff ball!

 

Knicks need to play zone or something because they are incapable of keeping Towns from getting switched onto Haliburton

 

Isn't that traveling (last shot in 3rd Q)? Brunson picks up his dribble with both feet on the ground beyond the ft line and takes one more step.

 

Not sure why so many people still want Myles Turner here. The guy looks like deer in headlights right now and his awareness on defense and on the glass has gone AWOL.