Pressure on Pacers to Close Series Against Knicks Tonight

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00:00I think there's tremendous pressure on the Pacers tonight to close this series out.

00:04This is going to be, listen, when they were down 2-0, yes, they moved to the favorite.

00:10They were up 1-0, they were favored.

00:12But at some point, everybody thought the Knicks were going to win a couple of games.

00:16This was not going to be a five-game series.

00:18When the Knicks won game five, they were supposed to.

00:21I think this is the first time in the series where there is not just a line,

00:26there is tremendous pressure on Indiana.

00:31How do they respond?

00:33As the first time of them being now expected to win, close it out, send the Knicks home.

00:39Regardless of the fact, I expect a really competitive game.

00:44I wouldn't be surprised if the Knicks try and really grind this game out.

00:49But I do think you'll see some adjustments by Indiana,

00:52particularly to get the ball out of Jalen Brunson Tams early and often.

00:56I would double everything kind of ball screen and make someone else become the secondary distributor.

01:04But also, if I'm the Knicks, I'm going to continue to use that time for Mikel Bridges, Josh Hart,

01:08other players to bring the ball up the floor and then give the Brunson a ball on handoff

01:12and see if he can attack Tom that way where they can't load up the defense.

01:16So you said that the Pacers, this is like a big spot for them to, you know, rebound and respond.

01:22And do you think that is partly due to how they lost?

01:26Yeah, I think because it was a bad game.

01:28It's not like it's not like, oh, like game one, if they were lost, OK, they lost the game on a buzzer beater.

01:32They missed it. But if they didn't lose game five on a buzzer beater, it wasn't close.

01:36Like they played objectively bad.

01:37Well, I think also what was bad about even if they were lost game one, they lost game one.

01:43But also playing their style.

01:46True.

01:46Like that would have been to me if the Knicks would have found a way to win that game one

01:50and win that game by 15 points in game one, I think it would have been a whole different series.

01:54Not just the fact that New York have been closing out.

01:56They would have beat Indiana in their own game in the first game of the series.

02:00I think it's completely different.

02:02They lost this game playing Knicks style.

02:04Because of that, I think tonight, you know, one of my favorite bets is shaping up to be the Pacers first quarter spread.

02:10I think they got to come out strong.

02:11It's just to have a point, it is juiced at minus 132.

02:14But again, how they lost, adding that they're back at home and this is the pressures actually on them.

02:21They got to come out strong.

02:22They got to hit shots.

02:23They got to get offense contributions from everyone up and down the roster, specifically in the starting five.

02:29And then you go from there.

02:30Like it has to start early.

02:31So I think that the Pacers run in this postseason, because of how surprising it is,

02:37paired with the inevitable loss many believe awaits them if they do make the finals,

02:45has led to a real underrating of how dominant they have been at minimum in the win-loss column of this series.

02:53They beat Milwaukee in five.

02:56Now you can say, oh, they should have beat Milwaukee in five.

02:58I thought it would have personally go six, but ultimately they got rid of them in five.

03:05They won loss that they had the follow-up game.

03:08They won by 26.

03:10They beat Cleveland in five.

03:13Many believed, certainly hand up here, certainly the odds makers, the Cavs were going to win game five.

03:19They didn't.

03:21The one game they lost to Cleveland, they won by 20.

03:24They also lost the second half of that game by 20.

03:27Plus, remember they were up 81-39 at the break of game number four.

03:33They then lose to the Knicks in game number three.

03:36The follow-up is putting 130 on the Knicks in regulation, winning that game by nine.

03:45This team has not lost back-to-back games in this postseason,

03:48and the three times that they've lost where we've now seen the follow-up game,

03:56they have scored at least 129 points in the next game.

04:02Not average, not ballooned up due to one outlier game.

04:07They've scored 129, 129, and 130.

04:10So, this postseason tells us if the Knicks don't score 130 points tonight, they're losing.

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