After Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semi-finals series, the Indiana Pacers find themselves in familiar territory. Just like in Round 1 vs Milwaukee they’re facing a 1-0 deficit following a 121-117 defeat on Monday at MSG. Indiana actually led going into the 4th quarter, but the inexperience showed late in the game and they just couldn’t hold on. That’s understandable, I still feel like this series is far from over. It’s hard to imagine Tyrese Haliburton playing poorly again as he did in Game 1 where he had just 6 points and 8 assists. The Pacers will also have to make an effort to dominate the boards, that should be slightly easier to do following the news of Mitchell Robinson’s injury. Indy had 32 assists in Game 1, if the offense continues to click like that they’ll be in a good position to take Game 2.
The series opener was your typical Knicks game. Josh Hart played the full 48 minutes and stuffed the stat sheet, the bench contributed with just 3 of the 121 points scored and Jalen Brunson carried the offense with 43 points. It was his 4th straight 40+ point game this postseason, he’s in elite company right now in terms of putting up points. The Knicks will need him to continue putting up big numbers, they’re just too dependent on him carrying the offense. The win was New York’s 10th in their last 12 games and their 6th in the last 8 meetings vs Indiana at Madison Square Garden. After opening as 6.5 point favorites to win Game 2, the number has gone down to 4.5 points following the Robinson injury news.
