NBA

Pacers 125, Knicks 108

What a run for the Pacers. I wasn’t high on Indiana entering this year — or these playoffs — so I checked my season predictions from back in October. Lo and behold, I pegged the Pacers for a 42-40 record, good for eighth in the East. In this case, I’m happy to be wrong. Indiana is a great basketball state, and the team’s fans deserve this ride.

Tyrese Haliburton isn’t quite the player many now believe he is, but he’s unquestionably the engine that fuels these Pacers. The Knicks tried to get the point guard off kilter all series, but nothing fazed Haliburton. A culmination of the 25-year-old’s impact was submitted last night, as Haliburton posted 21 points, six rebounds, and 13 assists.

As great as Haliburton was yesterday, Andrew Nembhard was better. Thanks to some phenomenal on-ball defense, Nembhard rattled Jalen Brunson and the Knicks all evening, limiting the All-NBA point guard to 19 points on 18 shots. Nembhard will obviously be tasked with defending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Finals.

Let’s talk about the Finals. The journey of these Pacers has been fun, but we’re looking at the worst team to advance to the Finals since at least 2007. I don’t care about how good Indiana has looked in these playoffs. I don’t care that the Pacers are a good story. I’m not falling for recency bias. This team lacks top-end talent, and will be exposed by a juggernaut in the Thunder — the best team to advance to the Finals since 2017. A generational mismatch awaits us, and nobody seems to agree aside from Vegas.

I’ll finish with the Knicks. If you told New York that it’s season would end in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, I think the franchise — at least privately — would accept that outcome. Not like this, though. The Knicks went down fairly easily last night, outside of several strong showings from role players. Josh Hart, however, did not play well, as the swingman recorded just four points on 1-for-6 shooting.

There’ll be plenty of discourse on the Knicks in the coming days — that’s the nature of being a big-market team. Some of it will be insightful and some of it won’t, but it should include pundits nudging New York to run it back. Tom Thibodeau should stick around, too, and so should the core of this team. The East is there for the taking in 2026, and a battle-tested Knicks club will be a viable contender.