Big questions about Indiana Pacers v New York Knicks – lineups choices, Haliburton, rebounding, more

Big questions about Indiana Pacers v New York Knicks – lineups choices, Haliburton, rebounding, more

It’s the Hicks. It’s the Knicks in the playoffs. And I want to look deeper into the Knicks. Some questions about the Knicks that might be challenging for the Pacers that might not at all be challenging for the Pacers. In what ways will the new Look Knicks shape this series and how will the Pacers respond? We’ll get to all of it today on a Sunday. Locked on Pacers podcast. You are Locked on Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What up y’all? Happy Sunday and welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers. As always, my name’s Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and today I have some questions about the New York Knicks and how it will look in this series. And by questions I don’t necessarily mean like I don’t understand this thing about the Knicks. More so how will this shape the conference final series between New York and Indiana. So much fun diving into these teams. Obviously watching them all quite a bit but you get a better sense for it when you look at the numbers, the playoff numbers, the everything. And I follow a lot of Knicks people kind of randomly. So I do see a lot of the chatter I would say around the team and things they find good and concerning. And everybody’s very excited for this series. Tomorrow uh lockdown Nicks Gavin Shaw and I are going to do our series preview crossover. And then Tuesday we’ll do our typical where we think the Pacers could find advantages in the series show. Jay Rigdon and I nailed that one before the Cavs series. Then Wednesday we get rolling. Let’s dive into the New York Knicker boxers. So, one thing that I think is going to be fascinating and I think a weirdly misperception by anyone outside of like those who really are into the Knicks is the way the Knicks actually thrive lineup wise, right? They start that group of Brunson Hart, the two really good wings of Bridges and Anobi and Cat. Great players, five awesome players I traded a lot for two of those guys who weren’t involved in this series last year. But that actual lineup on its own is not having a good playoffs. I’ve seen a lot of chatter about this from the Knicks sphere about the Knicks rotation. 266 minutes in the playoffs is the most of any team or any of any group. It’s actually tied with the Nugget starters right now. So by the end of by the time this episode comes out, it might not be first. But Towns Anobi Hart Bridges Brunson in 266 minutes has a minus 4.7 net rating. Right. It act it’s a good group. has good players on the floor. It’s not like this is some like it’s going to start the game and pitch are going to start up 5 every game. Like it’s still a good lineup. I’m not saying it’s some advantage that it’s been negative, but a lot of the Knicks success isn’t that specific group. And like like think about the chatter after game five of Celtics Knicks. Josh Hart had 24 points in that game. He was very good. I love Josh Hart. Uh however, you know, he doesn’t get guarded the same way other players do. He took nine threes in that game like a lot of teams and I’ve assume the Pacers as well will do. will put a non center on towns and then put their center on Hart. And maybe the Pacers will do something a little different than that because of a question I’ll get to later. But that lineup has not been the killing force for the New York Knicks in the playoffs. Of their lineups with 10 minutes or more, all of them are positive, excuse me, all their lineups with more than 10 minutes are positive net rating except for that starting five and then uh Towns, Anobi, Hart, Brunson, McBride in 13 minutes. So, not even a big enough playoff sample for it to matter is minus as well. Everything else is where they are awesome, right? Plus 2.3 net rating when Mitchell Robinson’s been out there at the five with the starting five. Plus 34 net rating when they get McBride and Mitchell Robinson out there. Towns with some bench guys campaigning. McBride and Robinson has been awesome in over 20 minutes, right? They can mix and match really well. It gives them other sorts of identities. That’s where I will think uh this series will get fascinating to me from a lineup perspective, right? When the Knicks go Robinson Towns, you know, at times I felt like in the Cavs series, the Cavs got away from their two big lineups too much against the Pacers and the Pacers played very well against pretty much regardless of who the Cavs had on the floor in that in that round. But I felt like at the start of game five or Yeah, I you know, the game the Cavs had to win could shift the series dynamics. Evan Rob was scoring at the basket. Jared Allen was like, “Okay, to start the game before he fell off completely.” You know, the two big groups were good. Could a Robinson could the Robinson cat lineups look really good in this game? Robinson’s had an awesome playoffs. He’s defending very well. He’s a great rebounder. You know, that he could present some challenges. Cat is obvious in what challenges he presents. He’s the best shooting big man in the NBA right now and is a very good rebounder himself. I’m not saying those guys don’t have flaws in their game. It’s just I get how they together have posed problems for opponents throughout this postseason. Whereas Duce McBride gives the Knicks another ball handling threat in a way that they they don’t not have it. Mikuel Bridges can handle. Henobi is much better at that than he was early in his career. But like a guard who can do it and is still slithery and like hand in his face doesn’t matter. McBride’s been making shots in his playoffs. Those are the kind of lineups that I think will be where the Knicks and have so far in the playoffs. That doesn’t mean they it will continue to be the case, but so far have been where the Knicks have been at their best is when they have some sort of mixing and matching going on with their top two reserves and their five starters in some way. That is something I will be fascinated about with this series when it comes to the Pacers. They’re not as topheavy as people say. That’s only kind of true. It’s true in that they play their top five players a lot of minutes, but that specific group alto together is not particularly, you know, the the reason the Knicks have been good, right? And credit to the people who cover the Knicks for being just all over this the whole time. So, I think the mix groups will be key for the Pacers, too, with starters and reserves because starters on starters might just, you know, be a thing that they go back and forth and then when the Knicks make their subs and have what have been in the PL stronger lineups in the floor, are the Pacers making subs? Are the is their pace still able to be successful? Are they going to have to respond to how the Knicks sub? Like if it’s Mitchell Robinson, is the Pacers first sub going to have to be Obi Toppin or a center? If it’s Duce McBride, will it be McConnell or Matherin? Like I think that will be interesting. And that’s what Carile kind of mentioned at practice on Saturday for the Pacers is it’s not just the Knicks best guys that being good. It’s that they play more, right? The way they handle their rotation versus the Pacers is different. like the best guys in the Knicks just play more, which sounds great, but like there’s a level of fatigue and all that that the Pacers try to avoid with the way they build out their rotation. It’s like what percentage of a guy’s peak are you trying to hit every second he’s on the floor? It’s just different thinking. I’m not saying one’s better than the other, but that is how the Knicks handle it. And so for the Pacers to wear them down, right, the wear down effect we heard about so much in Pacers calves with the speed and the passing and the just it’s so exhausting playing the Pacers. The Pacers to me to combat air quotes the Knicks and where they had success with their rotation will have to be speedy with subs. Their bench groups have to be fast. Their their bench is still a fast group in general, right? TJ McConnell can play with tempo. Obie Topphen’s very clearly good in the Pacers style, right? I think Ben Matherin who had his career high or yeah his career high uh and his highscoring game this season against the Knicks actually has a setup for a good series but he’s got to be on his agame with the speed and the decisions in this series to make sure that bench groups are mixed and matched groups of reserves and starters for the Pacers are playing with tempo to make it so that the Pacers can try to get that wear down effect that speed going against any Knicks group and force the Knicks to kind of make decision ision reacting to what the Pacers are doing instead of vice versa where the Knicks have these lineups that are really good that aren’t their starting five. Make the Knicks mess up. Make them change their lineups in response to what the Pacers are doing because the inverse has worked out so well for New York throughout the playoffs and their best groups have either a big interior or like a scoring identity secondary kind of group. So, I think that the perception of the Knicks is right and that they play their best players a lot. But the perception of the Knicks is wrong and that their starting five all collectively together has just been this bludgeoning incredible lineup that will really, you know, cause problems for the Pacers and it will in some ways I will get to them later. Like Inobi, Bridges, Hart, Brunson, Cat is an amazing group of five players to be clear, but as the Pacers have shown, their starting five is just as amazing as playoffs. And Andrew Nhard and Nmith have been amazing. Hallebertton star level stuff. Seakkum their stabilizer, Miles Turner having another great playoffs. Those lineups can go round for round with each other, right? It will be fun to see them go back and forth. But when subs come in, that’s where I will have a lot of intrigue about how this looks, where it’s going, what comes next. And the Knicks offense is very intriguing to me, how the Pacers will handle it, and where this will go. Uh the Knicks offense is good, but not for the reasons many seem to think. Again, people who cover the Knicks are all over this. Let’s talk about the Knicks offense, the challenges it will present the Pacers, and why, oh boy, rebounding, just like last year, where the Pacers did slowly figure it out throughout the series, but did not start on it well, will be very important in this series. Before we talk about that, we got to talk about Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, entertainment, it’s easy to lose track. That is where Monarch Money comes in. your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. 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You might be listening to this and that game’s already over. Um, one of them will be conference finals bound one will be out. Will the Knicks have the best record left after today? That would be fascinating. Of the final four teams, the Knicks offense very good, more balanced in the playoffs, but the regular season just a very good offense for the New York Knicks. It was fifth in the league at 117.3, two full points for 100 possessions ahead of the Pacers. That’s a regular season stat. In the playoffs, the Pacers have been the best offense of the team still alive. But I think the reason the Knicks offense score isn’t really the perception I think I see from a lot of people about what makes them so good. They were ninthish in the regular season, depending on if you go to a site that estimates effective field goal percentage or actually tracks it specifically in just that effective field goal percentage. their per shot efficiency just barely inside the top 10. The actual shots they generated ninth best. That’s still good. That’s still very good. You’re very happy if you have a top 10 offense in terms of the stats you generate. This is where the perception of the Pacers always gets screwy. Where their offensive rating was pretty good, but not exceptional. The Pacers were fourth in that stat. They generate and make good shots all the time. Their offense was behind the Knicks because the Knicks had a lot of possessions and their per possession numbers were very good because they got a lot of offensive rebounds, right? They are a they are by being a good at both of those stats team a very good offense. They put the ball in the basket at a pretty good rate and they give themselves a ton of chances to do so. There’s clearly more to their offense when they’re ninth in effective field goal percentage but top five in actual offense. Very few teams split it out like that. The Bucks and Pacers were two teams with very good effective field goal percentages, but just kind of offenses. That sounds harsh to say. Those are top 10 offenses, but just like not quite at the elite level because of the rebounding part of this, right? The Pacers in the playoffs have been an unbelievable offense, the best in the league. Last year, they were second behind Boston. I have no questions about the Pacers offense in the series. Now that 13 minutes in, I need to remind listeners who are going to comment and go, “Oh, the you make it sound like the Pacers are screwed.” No, these are just questions or challenges I think the Pacers will face in this series. There are also lots of advantages they will have. They’re this far because they’re very good. Okay. Anyway, let’s continue on the Knicks offense. The rebounding part of this and the turnover part of this are very important. They have good scorers. Brunson’s amazing, right? They were talking about him at practice yesterday. The Pacers were how he’s mastered the angles of, you know, turning the corner and when to attack and how to get to his shots. Cat is an amazing shooter. Anobi’s got some pop and verve now. He’s looks great. Bridges is handling it after his slow start to the season with his shot. It’s better now. Like, they have good offensive players. They also get a lot of chances with the other stuff. What I mean by that is in the regular season, their offensive rebound rate was very good. It was ninth, right? Uh their turnover rate was also very good. They never turned it over. It was also seventh, right? Being in the top 10 of both of those things gave them lots of chances to score. And having more possessions doesn’t actually help your offensive rating. It’s not on a per possession basis, but it gives you lots of chances to score. And offensive rebounding does give you more possessions. And they were very good at that. And they that is how their offense really became elite is that they could beat you down in the possession part of the game. And that is where the Pacers are going to have to be mega focused in the series. You know, early in the Cav series, the Pacers were playing well because they were scoring a lot of their shots, but their turnovers were too high. Like, we talked about that on this podcast all the time. They knew it. There was like 15, 13, 16 a couple times early in that series. And the Pacers kept saying rightly, they cannot give the Cavs many extra chances. They were losing the rebounding battle quite badly. Game three, that was one of the stories of the game. The turnovers were not where it needed to be. And so, yes, the Pacers made so many shots that it was great. And they could still do that again. In fact, I think that that should be an assumption is that they’ll make enough shots to keep up in that way. But they have to against the Knicks, similarly to the Cavs, keep their turnovers down, not let the Knicks get a bunch of extra chances by them forcing turnovers and never turning it over themselves. And rebounding will be huge once again, right? The Knicks cannot outpossession the Pacers in the series. That will be tough. They’re they are good enough from an efficiency perspective for that to be a concern. Obviously, the Cavs, the theory was that they’re so good from an efficiency perspective that that would be a concern. It wasn’t. But the Knicks cleaned up the rebounding battle against the Pacers this year. They won in every single game. All three games the Pacers played in the regular season, the Knicks won the rebounding battle. Cat is great on the glass. Mitchell Robinson is two. The Cavs just had success with the bigs, right? The Pacers can solve this. This is not an insurmountable problem. This is just what the Knicks present and what they’re good at. But it’s not just the bigs. And this is the difference from the Cavs to the Knicks that I think will be very telling in this series. The Cavs have the big super on the glass and that’s kind of it. You know, the Knicks have Josh Hart who’s like nearly a double double guy on the glass who’s 6’5, right? And OJ Anenobi’s become a better rebounder. He’s close to five a game. That is where this one will be important for the Pacers. They are good on the glass. They need to be boxing on those guys. Whoever’s on Josh Hart is one of the keys of the series for the Pacers in terms of rebounding. I’ll be very curious how that match up looks. We’ll get to that later. And defending Carl Towns, whoever’s on Towns has to be like that, too. Whoever’s on Anobi, like basically, if you’re guarding Jaylen Brunson, yeah, maybe you don’t have to like be the best box out guy. Everybody else, you got to be locked in, ready to go because if you if not, you’re giving the Knicks extra chances. And that was a huge thing in the playoffs last year. I said this on yesterday’s show. The team that won the rebounding battle won every single game in that Knicks series last year. That is kind of a missed shot stat, but that’s also a rebounding stat. The Pacers have to be on their agame on the glass. Hold them to one shot as much as they can. It’s not easy to do. Every team would do that if they could. But just between the bigs, the Josh Hardit, the OG, the possession battle, how the Knicks actually score and get themselves lots of chances to be the efficient team that they hope to be is a little bit unique. It’s a big series for whoever is boxing out those guys. And it’s on the Pacers to not give up the ball a lot themselves, right? The turnovers they had in the Cavs series were not like they were that rushed. I never felt like, oh, they they were panicking or uh oh, they they were out of rhythm. In game three, a couple times that was the case. their offense was not particularly strong in that game. But throughout the series mostly I just thought ah that just was a bad pass. That was a little miscommunication which can happen in the playoffs. Like that kind of stuff they got to cut down in this series because yes like the Cavs you you’d like to not have turnovers anyway because their offense in theory should be so efficient on one possession. But against the Knicks they also come in with their own ability to not turn the ball over and they’re very good on the offensive glass which makes it even more important. Right. So, I’ll be very curious about the possession battle in these games, how the Pacers can combat the way the Knicks have such a good offense beyond their per single possession effectiveness. They add to it with the turnovers. They add to it with the rebounding. It’s up to the Pacers. And another way to combat that is do what the Pacers did against the Cavs. Score a lot. Set your defense, right? We heard that from Andrew Dehard after game five. The Pacers are able to score. That makes them able to press. That makes them able to play the way they want and dictate the terms of engagement. that could once again like throw out all the style stuff. If the Pacers just make make their shots and play the way they want, they can set their that they do exactly what I just said, set their defense, be that high pressure team. They’re picking up farther up the floor than anyone else in the playoffs, make the make the Knicks feel the pressure, make it hard for them to score, and then the Pacers can get out and run more. It’s going to be a lot of this is about rebounding. A lot of it is about turnovers. A lot of this is about what the Knicks are good at. But in the end, to combat what the Knicks are good at, the best answer for the Pacers could be what they’re be good at what they’re good at. Score, get to the basket, make open shots, which they’ve been awesome at in this playoffs. And none of these could be issues. A couple other just scattered questions about the Knicks to close out the show. Stuff that I wrote down that I thought ah I don’t want to go too long on this, but I think it will be very interesting to see how this changes throughout the series. back here on Locktown Pacers. Thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day. Make lock on Wolves your second listen. I suggested all the other playoff teams for your second listen earlier. The Wolves are the only other eight and two team in this playoff field in the conference finals. Once again, Ben Beacon Casmore on the Timberwolves. All right, get ready for I’m going to make this a thing probably every game. Hash where’s where is Tyrese Hallebertton in these games? Think about the Knicks starting five. Where are you putting you listener Tyrese Hallebert on defense? Notat that’s out. Not Brunson, that’s out. So it’s one of Bridges, Aninobi, and Hart. Interesting. Anobi’s got kind of too much power now. Maybe that’s it. I guess I don’t know. I just I think the answer’s probably one of Hart and Mikuel Bridges. And I think if you made me pick between those two right now, I’d say it’s Mikuel Bridges only because what what other teams have done that’s had success against the Knicks is what I mentioned earlier. They put their center on Josh Hart and they put a wing or forward on Carl Towns. Town sets a lot of screens. It makes switching easier. It makes that coverage easier. The big can hover off of Hart who’s like an okay shooter. He made some again. He’s made a lot in the splouts actually, but you’re not like so worried about that. It gs up the spacing in a way that has had meaningful effects. I talked about this with the starting five against the Knicks offense. So if you put Tyresce Hallebertton on Josh Hart, I mean, I guess Tyrus Halbert’s a good team defender and he defended very well against the Cavs. It was his best defensive series of his life so far. Maybe that’s what the Pacers decide to do. I just am very curious where they will put him, right? Where he will be put on defense and how the Pacers will kind of spray everything out from there. You know, it’s pretty clear to start the series. Nehard will be on Brunson. I would guess N Smith is on Anobi. Uh that that will be an interesting one too. Maybe it’s N Smith on cat. There’s a lot of ways this could go for the Pacers. But Halurn I’ll be curious about. The other part of where’s Halley though is who’s guarding him, right? The the difference between last year’s Knicks and this year’s that’s interesting to me is last year, if you’ll remember previewing the series, I I asked the Knicks host, who do you think OG’s going to guard, Pascal or Tyrese Albertton? And this year they have Mikuel Bridges to make that a little less important for the Knicks to decide. One of Bridges and Obi will be on Hallebertton, the other one will be on Seakum. Right. The key thing on that will be can can they get out of it, right? How much are the Knicks willing to switch to get out of those groups if they’re not willing to switch very much. Can someone else be really important? Uh, and an an initiating perspective that’s whether that’s Nemhar, whether that’s Yakum, whether that’s Turner against Cat being an awesome screener and like forcing Cat to defend in space for a few seconds before the Knicks figure out how to get out of it. So where’s Halley is a two-way street here. It could be a huge edge for the Pacers on offense and something on defense that they have to really figure out. So that will be to me something that I think defines a lot of possessions in this game is do these teams end up mismatch hunting too much? Who’s on who? How does this actually shake out? Where’s OG going to be? Will Male be on vice versa? It’s just all fascinating. Congratulations to Jaylen Brunson’s man who I am guessing just from thinking about it will be Aaron E. Smith. You are going to set a lot of screens in this series and should, right? He should n Smith compared to last year is probably the biggest offensive growth point the Pacers starting five. If he makes shots again, he did it in game seven of the Garden last year. He’s done it all playoffs this year. If he keeps making shots, the Knicks are going to have to figure out how to stop him and they’d have to move Brunson to Nemhard or someone else. So Aaron Nie Smith like another key part of this. Where’s Hi, I just made that a whole matchup discussion for a couple minutes, but specifically Tyrese Halburn on both ends of the floor. Where is he planted? Who’s he guarding? Who’s guarding him? How does it morph throughout the series if things are going a certain way or not a certain way for both teams? I’ll be endlessly fascinated by that. Can this be a Benedict Matherin series? Last year, a lot of chatter, including for me, about like, well, it stinks that he was out because the first two teams they played, the Knicks and Bucks, are two teams that he has historically been good against. They played the Bucks this year. He was he was better against the Cavs and the Bucks, I thought, in the playoffs. There. Here they go. They get the Knicks again. His again his season high was against them this year. They beat them in a huge win early in the season when the Pacers were struggling in that game that he was awesome. Hallebertton was very good. Seaks was very good. One of the best trio games for the rest of the season, but Mather had 38 in that game. He was exceptional. Can this be a Ben Matherin series? How much time is he on the floor against uh lineups that don’t have both of Bridges and Obby on the floor? ask that because the Pacers are going to or should, you know, they they got away from this a little bit in the last round and it ended up working because they could play their starting five with more energy in the fourth quarter, but in third quarter sometimes they played lineups without Seiakum or Hallebertton. In the first quarter, they did against the Cavs in game five, but that’s because of Hallebertton foul trouble. Regardless, they have gone to it a few times. I think in this series, it will be very important that one of them is always on the floor. If Madron’s on the floor with one of them, how many chances does he have where he is just being guarded by somebody that he can score against? He just can’t, right? He’s very good at these things. And I think I said this with Washurn on Friday’s podcast that his playoff play has not been talked about. I don’t know if not necessarily because he’s like exploded off the page or done all these things everybody’s always hoped he could do, but because he’s done a really good job of the fitin stuff. Is they’ve put him on certain matchups for defensive purposes. He’s cut well. He’s taken the threes in rhythm, right? It hasn’t led to like an explosive game yet. He had that really great half against the Cavs. He had a very good game the following game against the Cavs, but hasn’t been like a wow, that was clearly a Ben Mather defined game, even though he’s been very good at times. I think he could have that in this series. And I’ll be very curious if this can be the first Ben Matherin series ever. He was hooping against the Knicks this season. If the Knicks pace takes hold, and this is a slower series, Pacers were, you know, the top of the league in pace this year. Knicks were 26th. his style will be critical, right? So, the tone setting with the pace will matter. And the only guy on the pace, not the only guy, one of the go best guys in the Pacers at getting them out of that pace or making that pace actually tenable for the Pacers is Ben Matherin, right? So, if the Knicks take hold of a game, how can Ben Matherin help? Can this be a Ben Matherin series in an extremely meaningful way? I think will be a big question for me. OG Anobi think he’s going to worry the Pacers a little bit. He’s just really freaking good and he’s better now than he was last year when these two teams played and he was banged up in the series last year at times as everybody well knows. I I’m glad both teams are healthy. Can really be a decider after last year. OG Anobi this year careerhigh in scoring at 18 points a game. He was at 17 with the Raptors in 21-22, but he did it this year on on less shot attempts than he did in the year he took he aed 17 a game, right? 37% from deep on his second highest volume ever, but he really upped his finishing. Really upped his finishing. His free throws were there. The rebounding was there. An awesome OG Anobi season. He is an excellent defender. He should make all defense whenever those teams come out. I can’t believe we don’t have all defense. It’s mid May. um he should make all defense when that time comes, but he’s also a a potent scoring threat, a good offensive player. And he has like some power and some punch going toward the rim that I’ll be very curious how the Pacers handle. Like this is nearly a 60% true shooting guy who can really guard. How do the Pacers handle this? Who’s on him? Like I’d be tempted to put Nissan there. I don’t The matchups of the starters are going to be fascinating to me. I I think you can make a case for lots of guys guarding several different players in that Knicks starting five, but Anobi just in general is a truck on the wing that the Pacers really haven’t faced anyone like that in the playoffs, right? The Bucks wings were either bad or ineffective. The Cavs don’t have big wings really besides DeAndre Hunter and he was not that awesome in that series and cred the Pacers, they’ve made that style of player not awesome in this playoffs, but Anobi is their toughest test yet. I’ll be curious how that goes. I’ve already seen the uh it was really like just Keshan Johnson but uh can the Pacers handle the garden thing like okay the garden is a thing. It’s crazy. It’s it’s very cool. I’ll talk about my own garden experience at some other time in the future but the Pacers have that experience and it won’t be the thing in the series. Come on. Like game seven happened last year. They’re they’re they’ll it’s challenging but they’ll be ready for Mads Square Garden. I I can’t believe that’s a thing that has already popped up on social media. How much will Andrew Nard’s defensive improvements help versus Jaylen Brunson? Right. Last year, Brunson played like he wasn’t even there. Shot over him, shot through him, whatever. They switched N. Smith on to him throughout the series. That was fine. It helped just a smidge. Just a smidge just to have that extra size on him. But Nard’s a better defender this year. He’s done well in this playoffs. Mitchell struggled against him specifically. Lillard struggled against him, albeit banged up specifically. Do they have to send other guys? Can Nard handle this alone? That would be a very telling thing. Look, no, no one can handle Jaylen Brunson, right? What I just said is not a good way of looking at it. But you get what I’m saying. How deterring is he? How much can he wear him down and make his life harder. And hello T.J. McConnell. You’re probably going to be important in this series because of pace factors, because of defending Brunson factors. He’s got to play well. He was very up and down in the second round. He was either very good or very bad. It felt like every time he was on the floor, very rarely just like pedestrian minutes for him. He’s actually more important in the series than I think any other series they’ve played so far because of how the Knicks structure their rotation. He’s got to be able to keep the tempo up. He’s got to be able to keep a defense in rotation. He can’t be throwing the ball over the gym and his defense is going to matter. Those are my questions about the Knicks. Tomorrow, Gavin Shaw, a person who actually knows things about the Knicks, will join me to preview Pacers Knicks. Can’t wait. Recording in about 45 minutes. Uh, and then Tuesday, again, I figure out who at the time, a Pacers guest to look at advantages the Pacers could have in the series. Could they define the series? Then it’s time on Wednesday for the game. I’ll officially be going to New York for them. Can’t wait to see how the Pacers go. They lost the first two in the Garden last year. Any one win out there would be an improvement. Thank you all so much for listening. You can find me on Twitter and Blue Sky, Tony Ares. Podcast is locked on Pacers on Twitter and Instagram. Back tomorrow talking more Pacers and Knicks with Gavin Shaw. Till then everybody have a wonderful day.

The Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks kick off their Eastern Conference Finals series this week. What big questions stand out about the series? Host Tony East dives into a few of them.

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