thelesterlee
After back-to-back heartbreaking 2nd-round exits, the New York Knicks finally reached the Eastern Conference Finals—4 wins away from an NBA Finals berth with only the Indiana Pacers in their way.
The New York Knicks could return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999—but first, they have to survive one more round against a Pacers team that beat them in 7 games last year.
Here are 5 things the Knicks need to do to beat the Indiana Pacers:
1. Win in as few games as possible
This feels obvious. Stay healthy. Duh.
But yea, the NBA playoffs have become a Hunger Games-esque contest where the winners of the tournament seem to just be the teams that makes it to the end with the fewest hospital visits.
An 82-game season—with bonus games for an In-Season tournament (sponsored by a shady Dubai airline)—is archaic in a modern era where players are running faster and jumping higher than Bob Cousy and them were.
Aaron Gordon would’ve loved an extra day off.
But that doesn’t matter right now.
We’re here.
Every time Jalen Brunson jumps, he lands on an ankle that I know is SCREAMING.
The Knicks cannot afford another 7-game war—allowing more and more opportunities for Brunson to come up limping or OG Anunoby to reach for his hamstring or Josh Hart to bleed on everything.
The Knicks are better than the Pacers. This has to be a 4-game sweep.
Maybe 5 games if the Knicks want to celebrate that victory in Manhattan as opposed to the land where they call Angel Reese slurs.
2. Karl-Anthony Towns keeps his hands to himself
This year, Karl-Anthony Towns had a 30-point game on 57% shooting against the Pacers and a 40-point game on 60% shooting.
Karl-Anthony Towns tonight
40 points
12 rebounds
5 assists
3 steals
14-23 FG
3-8 3P pic.twitter.com/Q2sYiJaSIT— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) February 12, 2025
Light work.
In last year’s postseason, the Pacers were able to harass Jalen Brunson—picking him up full court and forcing him to work and bang bodies and sweat every single dribble.
But the Knicks didn’t have Karl-Anthony Towns last year.
No one on the Pacers can stop KAT.
Myles Turner is over the hill—ready to disappoint Lakers fans next season. Pascal Siakam isn’t big enough to get in Towns’s way.
The only person who can stop Karl-Anthony is Karl-Anthony—who has committed 4 or more fouls in every playoff game this year outside of Game 1 against the Pistons.
Boston was able to get under Towns’s skin with defenders handcuffing themselves to him on the perimeter so he couldn’t leak out for those easy 3’s he loves to then set up the pump fake, getting defenders off-balance to drive right past them to the cup.
So Towns was forcing a lot of the action—leading to him making himself off-balance and chucking balls off the backboard, begging for the referees to save him.
I don’t think the Pacers are as disciplined defensively to lock up Towns without fouling him.
I dare the Pacers to put Benedict Mathurin on Towns.
I enjoy Mathurin’s game but sometimes he gets on the court letting the devil on his shoulder take the wheel—collecting as many technical and flagrant fouls as he can.
I can see that man taking one of those KAT elbows to the face and turning into the Terminator, hell-bent on fucking the game up.
If Karl-Anthony Towns is on the court—not crying to the refs or awkwardly smiling on the bench of back-to-back blatant fouls—he’ll be unstoppable.
3. Win the inevitable Haliburton stinker
Tyrese Haliburton is an interesting cat. He’ll score 26—hitting the biggest shots to win an overtime elimination game to send the Milwaukee Bucks on vacation with his dad on the court trying to fight Giannis—and then 3 games later, he’ll score only 4 points—looking visibly afraid of making a mistake like Ben Simmons.
Haliburton’s confidence is so fluid, changing game-to-game—where one night, he’ll look like the best point guard in the Association and the next, he’ll look like a fan who snuck onto the court, trying to blend in and avoid being caught by security.
The Knicks need to win the game(s) where Tyrese looks like a civilian.
Since joining the Knicks in 2022, Brunson’s lowest playoff scoring total was 16 points.
Tyrese Haliburton scored 4 points against the Cavs in Game 3, like, 10 days ago.
He’s scored 10 or fewer in 10 playoff games with the Pacers. Again, Brunson’s never scored fewer than 16.
But yea, we’ll hear about his assist to turnover ratio and blah blah but Tyrese is guaranteed to have a stinker and the Knicks better blow the Pacers out that night.
4. Mitchell Robinson legacy series
Two years ago, you could make the argument Mitchell Robinson single-handedly destroyed the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round—grabbing every rebound within arm’s length, dominating Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in the paint.
Last year, the Knicks were without Robinson in their loss to the Pacers thanks to Joel Embiid being a sore loser and putting Mitch in an ankle lock—keeping him out of action until like, 6 weeks ago.
Joel Embiid is an asshole, yo. We don’t talk about that enough.
Anyway, Mitchell Robinson is the perfect player to stop the Pacers.
See, Indiana is all about running in transition.
When a shot goes up, half their team sprints to the other side of the court to catch a lob. Your team misses a shot and all of a sudden, Obi Toppin is windmill dunking.
Which leaves a massive weakness in Indiana’s defense.
If Mitchell Robinson starts snatching offensive rebounds—which shouldn’t be hard since the Pacers care more about running in transition than securing defensive rebounds—then he’ll have his pick of wide-open 3-point shooters ready to launch.
Mitchell Robinson is the longest-reigning Knick on the roster and he’s about to be the secret weapon to propel them to their first NBA Finals since the World Trade Centers existed.
#TrustTheProcess
5. Thibs needs to keep doing what he’s doing
Last series, something happened that I had never seen before: Tom Thibodeau outcoached someone.
Not just anyone either. Thibs outcoached Joe Mazzulla—the guy who just won the NBA title and was crowned a basketball savant because he gives weird interview answers and blinks a lot.
Thibs, for the first time in his Knicks coaching career, made legitimate game-to-game adjustments—completely abandoning his base regular season defense to turn into a switch-heavy defense that stopped the Celtics from dribbling into the paint without the ball ending up in the hands of Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby or Josh Hart.
But we also saw the bad side of Thibs.
In the Knicks Game 5 loss to Boston, Jalen Brunson picked up 5 fouls in the 3rd quarter. Thibs never called a timeout. He never sat Brunson when he was quickly collecting fouls.
Tommy just watched the game from courtside seats like he wasn’t the head coach of the team.
If Thibs stays locked in and lets Rick Carlisle turn into a hot head, baby boss screaming and spitting into his little spit cup while that one lady coach on the Pacers that the broadcast always cuts to for no reason rubs his back to calm him down—then the Knicks will moonwalk into the NBA Finals.
KNICKS IN 4 BAYBEEEEEE
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