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00:00The Knicks did win, Adam. They ended up covering the spread.
00:03And so for people like us in the media, very selfishly, go Knicks, right?
00:08And then, you know, at this point, I'm good with whatever happens, right?
00:11They gave us an extra game. No one wants to see a five-game East Finals.
00:15No, I mean, it's, I guess there are multiple tiers, right?
00:18I mean, I do care as an Indiana backer, but obviously I don't have any fan-rooting interest in either of these two teams, that's for sure.
00:26But as someone that, as you know, because I've said it multiple times on this show, very pro Pacers at plus money going into the series,
00:33you and I, looking at the odds when everything opened, both acknowledged that that plus money number, it didn't feel right.
00:39It didn't seem right. We like the Pacers going into this thing.
00:42And sure enough, yes, it's 3-2, but it is Indiana that is in front.
00:46But selfishly, of course, I wanted there to be a game six just so that Brady Cannon and I have something to talk about on in-game live Saturday night
00:54and follow in real time versus having to wait until the NBA Finals start on Thursday.
00:58Too long a layoff, man. So I'm completely with you.
01:01And, you know, I would have thought we'd get more of a game, though, out of the Pacers last night.
01:06You mentioned Jalen Brunson in the opening segment as a guy who was a bit of a game changer,
01:11and certainly in clearing his point total and going for 30-plus, he was great, especially early on.
01:16But for me, the difference in this game and one of the major handicaps going into this game was
01:21what were we going to see out of, pardon me, Carl Anthony Towns, who obviously entered the game with that bruised knee.
01:30There were questions as to whether he was going to play, winds up getting out there, and really from the jump was awesome.
01:36Double-double at halftime, continued to thrive in the second half.
01:39The biggest discrepancy in this 17-point win for the Knicks was when you look at points in the paint.
01:45It was, I believe, 60-34 in favor of New York, and most of that is Towns.
01:52You know, New York doubling up Indiana in that category coupled with, as you noted, Tyrese Halliburton never got going.
01:59The role players for Indiana outside of Benedict Matherin generally never got going.
02:04This was a dominant Knicks performance in a game they never trailed.
02:07I think so.
02:09And, you know, the other part of this, Adam, you know, we could talk about Brunson all day,
02:12so Frank's going to get mad at me, but I'm going to skip him.
02:14I want to talk about Halliburton here for a minute.
02:178.6 assists on two of seven shooting.
02:20And, you know, Adam, being in this long enough now, not going to pretend that I know what's going on in full in the NBA.
02:27You're going to be a lot more educated than me on the picks and what's going on.
02:30But I am good with people, and I'm good with watching postgame.
02:34I really liked Halliburton's postgame and watching some of the clips.
02:38It seems to me that Indiana's sort of been through it.
02:41They've played a lot of these close games, and he just didn't seem to be affected at all postgame.
02:47At least body language, to me, tells me, look, I don't know what that's going to mean in the next game,
02:50but I can almost guarantee you this guy's going to have a much bigger effort in the next one.
02:55Well, he also sounded like a guy whose team is up 3-2, not down 3-2, right?
02:59So they know they've got a little bit of breathing room, just have to win one out of the next two.
03:04They're not, you know, obviously you'd like to take care of it if you're the Pacers in Indiana.
03:09Take the Game 7 out of it.
03:10Take the travel, going on the road, going MSG, all that stuff.
03:13But psychologically, there's no fear of if this does go to a Game 7.
03:19This is what I keep hearing from the Talking Heads postgame this morning.
03:22It's, oh man, you know, Knicks are going to whoop the Pacers if this thing comes back to MSG for a Game 7.
03:28If you're Indiana, you had better win Game 6.
03:31Your season is dependent upon Game 6 because you've got no chance.
03:35What you just saw tonight in front of Ben Stiller and Timothy Chalamet and Miles Teller
03:41and all these celebrities that were in attendance, you're going to get that again tenfold in Game 7 in DC.
03:47You had better be ready.
03:48And if I'm Halliburton, if I'm the Pacers, I'm listening to all that going,
03:52I mean, we won Games 1 and 2 here of this series, including a huge comeback and dramatic win
04:00with, of course, that giant Halliburton shot that he thought won it but forced overtime,
04:04choked sign out of the gate, a la Reggie Miller there in Game 1.
04:08And, oh, by the way, just go back to the playoffs last year when these two teams matched up.
04:12And yes, the Knicks were severely hampered by injuries, but Indiana won Game 7 in New York.
04:18They don't care. There's no intimidation there on the part of the Pacers.
04:25And I think Halliburton, to your point, knows he was bad last night, knows he didn't do enough,
04:30taking seven shots wasn't enough, didn't facilitate nearly enough.
04:34You know, it's not like he had this big turnover issue.
04:36He didn't turn the ball over once. He just wasn't good in his 32 minutes.
04:40And this game felt like it was pretty well in hand even at halftime.
04:44New York was just that dominant in this game.
04:46And so, to a certain degree, you just kind of shrug it off and you move on.
04:52And the Pacers, it's not hard to handicap this team with respect to, like,
04:59we spent a lot of time talking about totals and team totals.
05:02This team lost one game.
05:03You know, it's two gentlemen sweeps so far going into the series.
05:06Lost one game to Milwaukee, lost one game to Cleveland.
05:09The common denominator so far throughout, what's it been, 16, 15, 15 games so far this team has played in the playoffs.
05:18If they score more than 105 points, they win.
05:22If they score less than that, they lose.
05:25You know, so it's, if the offense doesn't get going, you know, relatively early,
05:31and I don't mean these 45-point first quarters,
05:33but you can't have 45 points in the first half like what we saw last night.
05:38You know, if they just play a respectable brand of basketball,
05:40their brand of basketball, fast-paced as Halliburton talked about earlier in the clip you played,
05:45and score your 110 points that they so typically score,
05:48they're going to win because New York can't keep up with that.