Pacers vs Knicks Game 1 Was A Hardwood Classic

Pacers vs Knicks Game 1 Was A Hardwood Classic

I don’t know what else I can really say. This This is why we love this sport. This is why we love this game. This has game of the year potential. This might be the game of the whole season, y’all. Game one, Eastern Conference Finals 2025. We going to be going back in history to rewatch this game. That’s how electric it was. In my notes, the Knicks have a se the last note I have in my notes. 17-point lead. 6 minutes 20 seconds to go. 17-point lead. I stopped taking notes. Boom. That was it. New York Knicks look amazing. Anthony Towns finally shooting three-pointer. Something we’ve been asking him to do this entire playoff run. Jaylen Brunson is unguardable. So, so much so that we ended up seeing like Ben Shepard who didn’t play the whole damn game come in and try to just mess something up because N Smith is in in foul trouble. Nimh hard is in foul trouble. Come on, Ben Shepard do something. I stopped taking notes. That was it. New York goes into game number one. Eastern conference finals at home and win convincingly. And then the stuff started to change. This is this Pacer team makes zero sense for them to be able to do this. basically three different times in one postseason run. Even if they don’t win the series, makes them a legendary. Oh, you remember this team team regardless of what happens in the series. If they lose in this one, they go to the finals, they win, they go to the finals and lose. I will remember the 2025 Indiana Pacers as a team that you could never put away up by 17. And then N Smith turned into Steph Curry, turned into Trace McGrady, turned into a 13-year-old me. That one time I did a three-point competition and hit five threes in a row in the corner off the rack. Y’all y’all was sleeping on me back then. I don’t know if I hit a corner three since then. He does that thing and then you get the moment where I sometimes it always boils down to to like make your free throw kids. Game one, OKC versus Denver. We talked about how Chad Homer got fouled. He went to that line. He did this big ass exhale and me and the guys are watching this together was like he at least missing one of these. He missed both. Ojobi get to the line. He does this big old exhale. He missed the first one. And not only did he miss it, that was one of the hardest misses I’ve seen from Ojanobi all night long. But it ain’t just him cuz Towns also missed some free throws. Making free throws, kid, this game is over in regulation. But for me, the enjoy your ball, the guy that has no stakes in this, I’m so happy they missed because man did it lead to a legendary moment. I’m in Discord. I’m watching this with Pierre because Pierre is a big Knicks fan and we all mute up cuz you know streaming is weird. I’m on Max, they on TV, we all know if our games are synced up so we all muted. I kind of spoiled. Tyres Hallebert took that shot. I said no [ __ ] way. The ball bounced and like like reminiscent of Kawhi Leonard one and not in the amount of bounces but how long the shot was in the air before it finally cashed out. Hey, do you know Tyrese Hallebert, he’s good at playing the heel, especially in New York, especially off after last year series. He was so quick. Reggie Miller’s on the call. He is so quick to give him the good old but his f on the line. Oh, you definitely don’t want to lose his game now, Hallebertton, because that is going to be worn on shirts in game number two and game number five and game number seven if we get that because you gave the choke symbol to game. They ain’t they choked it at that point, but I choked it away. overtime comes around and and the Knicks I feel like in this whole stretch they got so flustered where they lost all of their defensive principles. There were many times again watching this game together and I have it in my notes where it felt like they didn’t know if they were going to play that drop coverage if they played in like early in the game where Tyres Hallebertton had what 12 14 points in the second quarter against that drop coverage. Were they switching and in overtime it felt like they were just flipping between the two and so much so that they didn’t know what the hell they were doing. The OB and dunk that should have been an and one was them. Are we switching? Are we just blitzing here? Are we doing what? It was it was nasty. And the Pacers are the last team you can do that against. This is the t this had been one of the toughest series for me to predict. Um originally I picked Pacers in seventh. Then eventually I flipped it to Knicks in seven. That’s how wishy-washy it was. And when I was going for the Knicks or predicting that the Knicks were going to win, I was thinking about the size of like Mitchell Robinson, Carne Towns, and how that offensive rebound and those extra opportunities could play a part. And today it it kind it kind of did until it didn’t. Um I was thinking about those big the big wings and how they can deter some of the stuff that the Indiana Pacers wanted to do. I thought OGobi until the last six minutes of regulation was really good tonight. I thought Muel Bridges really good tonight. But all of that goes away when you blow a 17-point lead. Tyres Hallebertton was was elite. Some of the finishes he had, one of the finishes had I don’t remember if it was in the the midst of the run to end the first like fourth quarter. Like I said, I stopped taking notes. Or that was early in the overtime where he gets so much contact. He’s hanging in the air and he flips it over his head. That is a tough tough finish. And it was such good defense by the by the Knicks that it was like, what could you really do? Josh Hart went up straight, just completely straight. Nothing you can do but but finish or or tip your cap that he did finish that. Pascalakum, one again, one of my last notes was talking about Pascal Yakum, who didn’t impact this game positively at all. I thought early in this game he was doing a really good job of getting out early in the break and whether it was him finishing or somebody else finishing, he got out there and it reminded me of back during his championship one with the Raptors. There was that one meme that was like anytime the opposing team takes a shot and it’s the the dude running down the street because that’s who Pascalakum was at that point of his career where he was just really a transition player. Obviously, he’s done so much kids. He’s done so much to evolve his game, but early in the game I thought that’s what he was providing for the team. And then eventually Carthon Towns just kind of shut off his water. There was the one possession where he shut off his water two possessions in a row. I’m like, “Oh, there’s a different Car Towns out here.” And then eventually, I mean, he didn’t have a good game, but it doesn’t it doesn’t really matter anymore. You know, there were some questionable things down the stretch for Rick Carlile. At least that’s what I thought. But none of it matters because they won, right? Um you get the foul trouble from uh from Nimhard and it’s like, “Okay, who’s going to be that guy?” And end up being Ben Shepard. And Ben Shepard’s stat line is is what what what do we have is seven minutes played, one assist, zero from one from the field, a plus 14. But I promise you a lot of the times at least it felt like this was the perfect matchup for Jaylen Brunson. Jaylen Brunson absolutely was feasting when he saw Ben Shepard on the court with him. And I’m like, okay, I know that Nim right now has five fouls, but eventually you got to get your best defenders out there. Um, you got to see Miles Turner basically not close his game. And I’m like, okay, what what’s that about? But again, none of it none of it actually matters. Legitimately, none of it actually matters anymore because they went on this run and whether you call a fool’s goal or what, this team is up 10. They just took homec court advantage in New York. And New York was so loud. I got people there or I know people there that were saying that like they walking around the concourse. They don’t see a single Pacers jersey. Like this is 100% New York City vibes, New York City hoops. And not nobody there was really going for the Pacers. And that’s what it felt like. And it didn’t it didn’t matter. This team has been so ready for the moment this entire playoff run that like I don’t know how anybody can look at it and think that any of the runs that they’ve been going on is like fictional. Like sure they’ve had some injury luck, but look what they’ve been able to do. Whether it be the game against the Bucks and when they get into overtime, whether it be um the game against the Cavs where Max Strus throws that dumbass pass and turn it over or this game, this team is never going to give up. And you do see a lot of the time in sports in general, it is easy to be like, “Okay, we’re up by so and so. We could just we could just walk our sleepwalk our way through the rest of this game.” You can’t do that against this Pacers team. You just can’t. I just, man, I I don’t know what else I could really say. I thought that the for what it was worth, I thought that the Knicks depth and their their bench played a huge role in them getting to the point where they were up by so much. Mitch Robinson played a really good game other than him getting lost in that one play. Um or I guess two plays cuz he got lost on the Obie Topphen dunk and then on the putback. That was also Obie Topper. Was it Obby topping from the left corner putback dunk Mitchell Robs is just in no man’s land. And then on the dunk that Obi Toppin got too. So maybe I’m going to take some of that have a good game thing away from me. Two of the most important plays you got lost on. But before that he was having such a good impact where he comes into this game and the Pacers at this point didn’t miss a shot. That’s at least what it felt like in that first quarter. He comes in, get a couple offensive rebounds immediately and it leads to open opportunities. Mouse Bridges did a really good job throughout the course of this game. Cameron Payne, two of his fouls are like an him like faking like he wanted to take a charge, but he didn’t actually take the charge and I’m like, “What the hell are you doing on the court?” But like their debt pieces were good, while on the other side of things, the Pacers debt pieces in the same time wasn’t very good. Like you you got a run by TJ McConnell that was pretty electric, but like TB Thomas Bryant was not grabbing boards. He wasn’t doing anything offensively. He was flopping when he got grazed in the chin and it was like, “Oh, this is not looking good.” But the Knicks had it all. And this is just one of them tough ass games to win or to lose because your best player, Jaylen Brunson, 43 points, 60% from the field. He was amazing today. I I sometimes still believe that he’s overt taxed and and this Pacers team kind of showcased some of that. Some of the turnovers they ended up having and some of the close call turnovers they end up not having like when they trap him in the corner, which I want to say, matter of fact, I’m all over the place, but I do want to say this in that moment in time. I’ve never seen so many NBA players afraid of the ball. Josh Harden went inbound. They’ve been putting fullcourt 94 feet pressure on Jaylen Brunson all game long trying to wear him down. I understand what they’re doing. They’re trying to wear them down and make them get into their actions late. It’s a smart move by Rick Carile. Please excuse the kids screaming. You’re going to probably hear that a lot over the next couple years. We got another kid on the way in a couple months. Um, so Josh Hart’s inbound. Jaylen Brunson is the only one up there. They got two They got one on the on the inbound and one on Jaylen Brunson. Nobody else is coming to play. Mitchell Robson’s on the court. Mitchell Robinson vines to the rim because the last thing he want to do is get fouled and go to the free throw line in the game as they close. That’s understandable. But the rest of the guys on the court are afraid to come to the ball. So, you inbound to Jaylen Brunson and the dude that was on ball comes over and now you’re trapping him on his side of the court and he’s got to try to make a ridiculous play, try to dump it off of um I don’t remember who it was who was guarding him trying to dump it off of him and luckily luckily it missed and it ended up in Ojob’s hands and that’s how we get to the point Willie misses that one free throw. So many people like I’ve just seen it so much in this playoffs seem like they’re afraid of the ball when the free throw game comes around and you got to go into that line with that confidence. you got to go into that line and hit them shots and they didn’t have it. Carney Towns did the one thing that I’ve been asking for, right? Um he has killed the Pacers all regular season in this matchup and again tonight with his 35 points, take the three-pointers because they will be there against this team. And in some of the previous series, he had games where he’s 0 for one, one for two, one for three. And it’s like, damn, Carne Towns, you know, you’re the self-proclaimed best three-point shooting big of all time, best three-point shooting center of all time. We want to see that happen. And some of it’s because their offense is starting so high up that they’re pushing him away from the three-point line. So if you look at his three-point shots throughout the playoffs before this game, a lot of them are like logo threes, 30-footers, 31-footers sometimes. Um, and in this game, he shot it. And I love that form because it opens up the game so much more because now we have to treat you as if you are Carney Towns again, right? He had a couple really big shots in this game. And the one bad part is, you know, the last of the game, Jaylen Brunson airballs the three or maybe it’s skip the rim. Regardless, they get the offensive rebound. Cat gets it and I’m just thinking to myself, I hope he doesn’t rush it. And he did. And they miss. They tried to crash the glass off him. yada yada yada. Um, this is a tough game to lose. It is a demoralizing loss. very far from end of the series, but a very demoralizing loss because I thought for let’s see for 42 minutes you were the best team. For 42 minutes you were the best team and you lost. And sometimes that’s all it takes for the other team to be good for the next best that’s 42 minutes. Let’s do some a handful of minutes. All it takes is for a handful of minutes at the right time at the right level and boom, you can win. This Aaron Nmith stuff is crazy. When I was previewing the series, the one thing I was thinking about that made me like again I started Pacers and flipped to Knicks was like, damn, this three-point shooting is the shooting in general is just ridiculous. What Turner shooting, Nim Hard is shooting, and N Smith specifically shooting. Do I trust him to be able to do that again? This [ __ ] just hit eight threes out of nine. Eight. Eight. You think about regression, no regression to the means. Not with N Smith. He was shooting 50% from three for majority of this regular season. His true shooting percentage is a 101.6 tonight. Um, one of the threes he hit, the biggest one of when they come off the screen, which I want to say shout out to Rick Carlo because it is so easy to kind of go away from the guy that’s hot and go to your start player, but the guy that was hot was really hot and he drew up a play for him out of the timeout. Um Josh Hart slips and falls and he takes one step to the side and pulls up and the very next play Josh Hart is in the action on the offensive side of the ball. Josh Hart slips and falls too. Hey, get rid of them Kobe Sixes, man. Go get a different sneaker. Go get a because he he failed so much. He slipped so much in this game. It was kind of mind-blowing to me. But game of the year, man. I don’t care what nobody’s saying. I I don’t care. people saying it was gonna be a bad matchup for the NBA just because it’s not, you know, some some elite superstardom on like it ain’t Braun, it ain’t Curry, it ain’t KD, it ain’t the guys we’re normally seeing. Bro, this hoops is elite, man. You can’t convince me otherwise. Shout out to Reese, shout out to Cat, shout out to Bront, shout out to N Smith. I need six more of these, please. I would be so sad if this is a quick series because that game was just everything I could have ever wanted and

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