The Strickland’s Knicks/Pacers conference finals roundtable
Analysis! Feelings! Memories! Knicks! Pacers! ECF!
At 8:00 p.m. tonight (more like 8:11, if I’m being honest) the New York Knicks host the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since Christopher Darden was a household name. By now you know all the old, familiar Knicks/Pacers talking points. But what about the newer, unfamiliarer ones? The Strickland has you covered.
Given Indiana’s rotation runs 2-3 guys deeper than Detroit & Boston’s, will any of Cameron Payne (83 minutes through two rounds), Landry Shamet (30) or Precious Achiuwa (24) see more playing time this round?
Shwin: Hopefully not. I appreciate what those guys did in the regular season, but aside from Payne in Game 1 against Detroit their playoff contributions have been worthless. I could potentially see a situational use for Precious, but if I'm Thibs I'm rolling with the starters, Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride, come hell or high water.
Stacy: If I had to pick, it’s Precious. If we want to play more two-big lineups, Mitch is going to be extended quite a bit and we may need a third center to eat some minutes. I thought Precious was fine against Boston. If Deuce struggles to run the offense – especially against T.J. McConnell’s ball pressure – I could see Payne getting more minutes, but I think the Knicks have mostly solved that issue with Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns taking on more of a creation load with the bench.
Prez: A Salt Bae sprinkle of playing time for Payne, maybe.
Miranda: The Pacers are gonna do everything short of hiring Jeff Gillooly to take Jalen Brunson’s legs out by wearing him out over the series, so four minutes a half for Payne/Shamet could pay off when Captain Clutch is navigating late-and-close waters. Tom Thibodeau says I’m a real square for talking minutes, and before I can reply he’s bathed in a sudden, brilliant gold light, shining down from the heavens. Thibs asks if I still doubt him. Holds his wrists out for me to touch. This is getting kinda weird, I say. “Yeah,” Thibs chuckles.
Sam: See if Payne can give you a magnet ball game or just be competent. If not, hot glue him to the bench. I don’t necessarily trust him to not do something dumb, and with where the team is in the playoffs that’d be too costly.
How do your feelings for the Pacers differ from your feelings about the Celtics?
Shwin: Boston hate is more of a geographical rivalry and carries across all sports, even though the actual sports rivalries between the cities lacks major history aside from Yankees/Red Sox. The Pacers are one of the Knicks' true sporting rivals, and their playoff showdowns have been significant. I despise the Celtics for many reasons, but for any Knicks fan who grew up on their playoff battles in the 1990s the Pacers are the more meaningful rival.
Prez: I hate the Celtics as an institution; I actually do not really hate any of the current Celtics. In fact, as a NBA fan I really enjoy most of them. The Pacers, on the other hand, have a bunch of players I actually, actively detest. I hate:
Tyrese Haliburton’s frontrunning shit talk
Bennedict Mathurin’s fake tough-guy act
The obnoxious fullcourt-pressure gimmick defense
How Pascal Siakam, despite being super-skilled and strong, probably falls while shooting even more than Brunson and KAT, even though he’s never moving as fast as Towns, nor nearly as tiny as Brunson
That Aaron Nesmith gets credit as some great defender when he’s mostly just six fouls spent quickly on defense.
They just irritate me! On top of having to hear dumbass Reggie Miller all the time . . .
Sam: I really don’t like the Pacers for a multitude of reasons. Haliburton is very corny, and a frontrunner, and if you would like a more detailed explanation for my disdain search the many nicknames I have for him on my Twitter, as well as my latest tweet in response to finding out he’s being added to the WWE videogame. Also, the last two times I’ve witnessed the Knicks advance in the playoffs and expected them to go further – 2013 and then last year – they were stifled by the Pacers. The rest of the team is corny too, from Nesmith to Turner to Mathurin, and corny does not fly with me.
Stacy: The Celtics and Knicks have rarely been good at the same time during my time as a fan. In the ‘90s the Celtics waded through the Rick Pitino era before drafting Paul Pierce, while the Knicks were a perennial contender. We all know what happened after that. But I grew up on the Pacers and Heat rivalries. Reggie. Mark Jackson. Rik Smits. Dale Davis. Antonio Davis. That was the first NBA rivalry (along with the Heat) where I knew hate. And it’s back.
Miranda: Knicks/Celtics feels like good vs. evil, like David vs. Goliath: a universally recognizable energy, creation and destruction and their eternal dance playing out over a 94-by-50 foot yin yang. Knicks/Pacers always feels like the time I got a prostate exam from a guy with forearms that’d put Popeye’s to shame: whether you get the result you hoped for or not, what you suffer in order to find out will have you questioning if it’s really worth it.
Where do you think the Pacers ranked in home attendance this season?
Shwin: 21st?
Prez: Sixth? Indiana loves them some hoops.
Sam: I’ll be nice and say top-10.
Stacy: 15th.
Miranda: The answer is 26th. I thought it’d be higher; I’m sure it’s the big market teams’ fault.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges are newcomers to Knick/Pacer postseasons, while OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson missed most of last year’s series. Which of those four stands to make the biggest impact this round?
Shwin: This series is potentially the matchup Leon Rose had in mind last summer when he pulled the trigger giving up virtually all the Knicks’ draft capital to land Bridges. Last year the Knicks really struggled to contain the Pacers’ dribble penetration, and their lack of size and length on the perimeter was a major issue as injuries mounted. Mikal’s durability and defensive versatility were central to the Knicks' acquisition of him; both need to max out this series for the Knicks to win.
Miranda: Before he was lost for Games 3-6 and all but five minutes of Game 7 vs. Indiana last year, Anunoby was pouring in 28 points in 28 minutes in a Game 2 two-way tour de force that put the Knicks up 2-0. The Knicks lost four of the following five games without him but for those five minutes. A fully operational OG feels like a bridge too far for the Pacers to cross.
Sam: The wings the Knicks deployed last year in Anunoby (when he was available) and Donte DiVincenzo did a good job capitalizing off of the Pacers’ heavy blitzing of Jalen Brunson. They have to continue to do that to lighten the usage for/load on Brunson. Both bigs have a chance – especially when playing together – to really challenge the Pacers in ways the Buck and Cavalier frontcourts didn’t. Towns stretches the floor better than any big Indiana has faced and dominated them in the regular season. Robinson can clean up any mistakes on the other end.
Prez: The bigs. The Pacers employ oodles of skill and zero centers who are plus-rebounders. Go play some mathketball!
Stacy: Towns is the biggest inflection point in this series, and poses matchup problems. If the Pacers put Myles Turner on him, it opens up driving and cutting lanes for the Knicks, while KAT’s more than capable of taking Turner off the bounce – though Indiana doesn’t have anyone else who can consistently defend him in the post. Can Towns establish early position down low against mismatches and make the right reads? Will he be willing to pull up from 3-point – even 4-point! – range when he has space? A big KAT series would go a long way toward the Knicks winning the East.
Ignoring any Knick-related motives, do you have a vibes preference between Minnesota and Oklahoma City winning the West?
Shwin: OKC is corny and them losing would be funny, so I'd enjoy that.
Prez: The Wolves, a.k.a. the Great Lakes Knicks. I am still rooting for Julius Randle to find success, and I love Ant-Man and Naz Reid dearly as Prezbait flagbearers.
Stacy: Come on. The Timberwolves employ a former Knick guard of Italian descent who brought many exciting moments to MSG with pesky defense, timely shooting and savvy passing. How could I not root for Pablo Prigioni against the Thunder?
Miranda: The Zombie Sonics must never, under any circumstances, get their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy. It’d be so blatantly, unholy, a desecration not of one religion but of the very notion of the sacred, like the Tower of Babel or raccoons out in the daytime. I’d feel that way even if my favorite non-Knick wasn’t their opponent, but it doesn’t hurt the ol’ rooting interest to have Randle and the Wolves as the West’s last stand against Team Blasphemy.
Sam: I’ve already stated how I feel about corny teams. OKC is the epitome of corny – especially Chet Holmgren.
If you’re any years old and you’re a Knicks fan, you’ve seen them play the Pacers in the playoffs. What’s a random memory you have from one of their prior postseasons?
Shwin: Chris Childs telling Larry Johnson to settle down because he still had to hit the free throw after nailing the three to tie Game 3 in the 1999 ECF.
Prez: Tyson Chandler getting completely owned by Roy Hibbert repeatedly and escaping being the scapegoat thanks to Melo being in the spotlight.
Stacy: The main one is the memory that turned me from a fan to a die-hard, LJ’s 4-point play. For a more random memory, I’ll go with Chris Copeland being hot from deep and inexplicably not getting minutes at the 5 in 2013. The East is big, man.
Miranda: Nothing I have ever seen on film had me screaming at a director the way I was at Spike Lee when he kept jawing with Reggie Miller in the fourth quarter of 1994’s ECF Game 5. If the Knicks had lost that series, Spike would’ve had to move to New Jersey. New York would have buried him alive.
Sam: The 33-13 run by the Knicks in the fourth quarter of Game 2 in 2013, behind a lineup consisting of J.R. Smith, decrepit Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni as well as Melo. Also, bring back home whites with orange accessories, please.
One day you’re on an elevator. It stops, and Rick Carlisle enters. The doors shut, and for a while it’s just you and Carlisle, riding in comfortable silence. After a while the elevator slows, then stops. The doors open and Carlisle steps out. It’s your last chance to say something. Do you?
Shwin: I’d tell him to go home and get his fuckin’ shine box!
Prez: I’d tell him I always wanted a selfie with Jim Carrey.
Stacy: What Prez said.
Sam: I’d fart before he even steps out. Trap him in there with me for the ride.
Miranda: No.
