Watching the Pacers Win is Frustrating for Knicks Fans

I just knew the Pacers were going to make the NBA Finals as painful as possible. I just knew it and I couldn’t bring myself to accept it. Everyone basketball mind I talked to said that the Pacers would not be dominated by Oklahoma City like the sportsbooks expected. Indiana was going to continue to defy the odds, and that is what has happened. I thought this series would be different because of how well the Thunder bounced back from their Game 1 loss, but Indiana took back control in Game 3 with a 116-107 victory despite trailing by four early in the fourth quarter.

Tyrese Haliburton came one rebound short of a triple-double with 22 points and 11 assists, but the real heroes for Indiana were Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell. While Oklahoma City only got 18 points from its entire bench, Mathurin scored 27 himself on 9-for-12 shooting while McConnell was a pest who looked like he wanted this game more than anyone else in the arena. He scored 10 points in just 15 minutes with five assists and five steals. Three times McConnell caught the Thunder napping and turned a typical inbounds play after an Indiana bucket into additional points for the Pacers. Those types of steals should not happen once in a game that means everything, let alone three times.

Listen to Haliburton talk about how scrappy and gritty McConnell is. This is a guy who should be happy to have a couple of minutes in garbage time, and yet he is having a major impact off the bench.

It’s frustrating enough to watch Indiana continuing to have success after the Knicks came so close to beating them, but what’s also frustrating is how this team is winning. The Pacers didn’t make a big move in the offseason to try and move up in the Eastern Conference pecking order. For the most part, they stuck with their guys from last year’s run to the Conference Finals and hung out in the middle of the standings all season. The front office didn’t panic after a slow start and when the Playoffs rolled around, the Pacers were a cohesive unit on which everyone knew their roles and was willing to sacrifice for the team. That makes me think that the Knicks would have been better off sticking with Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo instead of trading them for the flashy Karl-Anthony Towns. There are not many things more frustrating than thinking you were better off just doing nothing.

Then, after the season the Knicks doubled down on change and fired Tom Thibodeau without having a plan for a new head coach. While the Pacers embraced continuity and toughness following their win over the Knicks in the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Knicks have twice swung for the fences with big moves. The first one just resulted in another heartbreaking loss to Indiana, and it’s hard to imagine the second one landing the Knicks a coach who was better suited to the franchise than Thibodeau.

The only thing to do now if hope that the Knicks come to their senses and hire Mike Malone while rooting for the Thunder to win the Finals in six games. Neither of those things will get the Knicks closer to a championship, but it’s what we have. We also have a Stanley Cup Final game tonight with the Panthers trying to take a 3-1 lead over Edmonton. I have been going pretty hard for Florida in this series, so hopefully it works out better than the basketball has so far.

In other good news, the College World Series starts on Friday and that means one thing: Jell-O Shots!

Imagine Penn State getting its name written on this board one day? If Murray State can do it, anyone can!

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