Hoops Tonight - Pacers-Knicks Reaction: Pacers CAN'T MISS, knock out NY, will face Celtics in ECF

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in Kansas twenty one plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang dot co slash bball for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome hoops tonight here at the volume Havy Sunday. Everybody hope all you guys are having an incredible weekend. Well. The Indiana Pacers, in a game seven in Madison Square Garden, shoot an NBA record sixty seven percent from the field

as they control the game throughout. Send the Knicks home. The Knicks continue to fall apart. Ognnob can't go for more than a few minutes. Jalen Brunson ends up breaking his hand. They finally cross that like whatever that mandatory minimum amount of talent is for them to compete, they fall apart, and the Pacers are advancing to the conference finals to play the Boston Celtics. We're gonna break the game down, talk a little bit about the future for

both teams. Then we'll get out of here until later tonight after Denver Minnesota. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter underscore JCNLT so you guys don't misshow announcements.

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team shoots an extremely high percentage. Luck is something that should be discussed further down than the actual basketball reasons that allowed the Pacers to get those kinds of shots. And really it comes down to this for me, there is a team speed with Indiana, specifically led by Tyre's Halliburton and TJ. McConnell, and their consistent ability to get the defense in rotation in combination with excellent play finishers. Those being the guys who are the beneficiaries of those

advantage situations created by Tyres Alliburton and TJ. McConnell, and those guys doing a great job finishing off those plays while they get incessant excellent opportunities because of their primary ball handlers, they got the defense into rotation more often than the Knicks did. Now, to be clear, going into this series, the next biggest advantage was their physicality and toughness, and so as their one forward that they have on the roster got hurt, it became something where it was

it was a problem. They were running out four guard lineups a ton. They were just overmatched physically. After Mitchell Robinson went down after Game one, and og Anobi went down after game in game two, and then Josh Hart, their most physical guard, ends up getting an abdominal injury in game six. So like at a certain point, New York didn't have the physical capability of disrupting Indiana's rhythm

and flow. But make no mistake, the reason why they shot as well as they did is because they reached a rhythm and flow, which is a real thing in basketball, and when a team gets going like that, you have to do something to disrupt that flow. That's the big reason why I think luck falls lower down on that list of factors that determine shot result. It's because if it was luck, then eventually they might just start missing shots, right,

But no, that's not how it works. You have to make a team start missing shots by disrupting flow through ball pressure, better closeouts, maybe waking the defensive scheme to try to disrupt rhythm in some way, shape or form, right like when push comes to shove, you got to make a team miss at the end of the day.

That's the biggest part of why I think luck gets over discussed is like there is a process element to trying to disrupt shooting, and it involves defensive pressure, both on the ball and in closeout situations, Indiana just kept getting good shots. It's like, you're hoping Tyree's finally misses one, but he's wide open again on the right wing after he just knifed through the defense and dribbled back out

to the three point line. You're hoping Miles Turner finally misses one, but there he is again, butt naked at

the top of the key, no one guarding it. So like at a certain point, you're betting on guys missing when they're not when these are good looks for good play finishers, right, and so at a certain point, like I would like to put the focus on Indiana and the fact that they played and reached a level of offense by virtue of one their cornerstone, Tyrese Halliburton, who I think is one of the next great offensive engines

in the league. I think he's like Steve Nash two point zero that in combination with an awesome backup guard who's in TJ McConnell, who's excellent at one of the most important elements to shot creation in the NBA playoffs, which is dribble penetration. TJ McConnell just beats people off the dribble all night long, and it just causes havoc

for any sort of defense. They got two guys that continually get the defense in rotation and a bunch of dudes who are excellent at finishing those plays in advantage situations. So give the give credit to the Pacers, tip of the cap to them. They put on an offensive masterclass today, was bolstered by a little bit of shooting luck that pushed them into the Eastern Conference Finals. They continue to get excellent second darry scoring support from Siakum goes for

twenty plus again. Aaron NEI Smith, you know it's funny. I think he's he's been like the Bruce Brown of this playoff run. If you remember Bruce Brown from Denver last year, where it's like shorter, stockier, like wing guard hybrid who can knock down a three, but has like this real slashing downhill force right that he brings to the equation. Like how many big, close out, attacking, driving layups did Aaron Nesmith have in that third quarter run when the Knicks came out with their hair on fire,

trying to make it a game again. I think they got it back to six, and Nie Smith just kept beating people off the dribble, driving a close out and getting into the lane and finishing over Precious to two or finishing over Isaiah Hartenstein. Not to mention his individual defense on Jalen Brunson turned the series around. In my series preview, I talked about how I thought he was the guy that should have gotten the job. He did

it in the first two games. He had the job from Game three on, and he just did an amazing job. I haven't seen the the final tallly of the numbers, but I bet you the shooting percentages for Jalen Brunson when guarded by aaron NEI. Smith were abominably bad compared to what he had in other matchups in this series. He's been the Bruce Brown of this playoff run, this big, stocky athletic guard that just rex havoc on the ball. Defensively, can knock down threes, but most importantly brings real rim

pressure off the ball driving closeouts. I thought he was incredible tonight. Shout out to aaron Ne Smith. Looking forward for both teams. For the Pacers, the Celtics are another tier of basketball team. Then the Bucks without Giannis or that injury ravaged Knicks team.

got a lot of play finishers. So if everyone plays to the best of their ability, there's actually a version of this where Indiana can out play Boston based on maximizing the talent they have in minimizing Boston's ability to do the same. On the other end of the floor, I will be picking Boston. I would imagine just about everybody else will. They have a huge talent advantage, but the Hacer's advantage is going to be fast up and

down the floor, track meet basketball. No one can keep Tyris Haliburton and TJ McConnell in front, constant dribble penetration, and then just getting the type of effort from Aaron Nesmith that you need to play Jason Tatum into a rough series. You need andrin emhar to do the same thing. You need Pascal Siakam to have a great defensive series. So there's gonna be a pathway there, but it's gonna be a tiny little crack in the door, and for them to push through that crack, they're gonna need to

play borderline perfect basketball. So it's gonna be a heck of a challenge for them in the next round. For the Knicks, obviously, a frustrating way to lose the series, right, Like your biggest advantage. The reason why I picked the Knicks to win that series was because I literally said, I think they're the.

up getting hurt. Twenty twenty. That was the year that the Warriors had their gap year when everyone was hurt, right like Kevin Durant obviously was out that entire season. Twenty twenty one, the Lakers in their repeat, their attempt to repeat. They're up to one on the Suns in the first round, and Anthony Davis pulls his growing muscle, And honestly, the attempt for og And Andobi to play tonight reminded me of Anthony Davis trying to go in

game was it six? I think it was Game six against the Lakers where he went out there, but it was just clear he couldn't move right. But like going to twenty twenty two, it's or twenty twenty one. That also was the year that for the Nets, Kyrie Irving sprains his ankle, James Harden has a hamstring injury in

out in the Western Conference. The Warriors were still out because Klay Thompson was out that entire season, and the Warriors would have made the playoffs, but Steph landed on a stair and hurt his tailbone and missed like eight games and they lost all of them, and so they ended up missing the playoffs. Right like twenty twenty, like there's always injuries. Lebron James in twenty twenty three gets that foot injury right like, there's all injuries are an

important part of every NBA playoff run, right Like. It is a war of attrition, and this time the Knicks were on the wrong side of it.

of scoring forward. I'd be looking for an upgrade of the Julius Randall position, or you could look at an upgrade at the three, because I think Og can play the four, but you need to find some sort of legitimate secondary scoring option next to Jalen Brunson, just so that you can kind of disperse the load a little bit. Like I think Jalen Brunson looked obviously a little bit fatigued over the tail end of that series, right, Like Brunston just wasn't the same guy game three through seven

of that series, right he was. Obviously there's the foot injury. He's worn down. You got to find a way to shrink everyone's roles, and the easiest way to do that is to bring another star in, because, as I always say on the show, when you have legitimate stars that play both ends of the floor, they create small, achievable roles for role players. Right now, you kind of need everybody to bring a ton the table, But like you can minimize that and make easy roles for everyone. Like

Dante DiVincenzo was basically your secondary shot creator. He had some hot shooting nights, he had some poor shooting nights. But like, if you put Dante de Vincenzo in a situation where he has to do less offensively, you get a little bit more out of him defensively, a little bit more consistency from him offensively.

to give up a guard. I think you can afford to give up one of your centers, right. But like that, I would be looking to package those guys in draft compensation to look for some sort of scoring forward to alleviate some of the workload on Jalen Brunson. Like I said, we'll have a series preview on Celtics Pacers tomorrow.