This time, the Knicks hope things will be different.
It’s been just over a decade since the last time the Knicks and Indiana Pacers met in the playoffs, where New York’s 2013 team led by Carmelo Anthony coughed up home-court advantage in Game 1 then lost in the second round to a Pacers team led by Paul George and David West.
The names on the back of the jerseys are different, but the goals remain the same.
Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam.
It’s orange and blue versus blue and gold — with a chance to face the Boston Celtics’ green and white looming for the victor of this second-round Eastern Conference playoff matchup.
This Pacers team, however, is unlike the ones the Knicks have seen in playoffs past.
The Knicks and Pacers met three times during the regular season, and the Pacers won the season series, 2-1.
In fact, the Pacers scored 140 points in a Dec. 30 victory at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, then another 125 points in a Feb. 10 victory at Madison Square Garden.
Unlike the previous iterations of their team, these Pacers put less of a premium on defense and play fast to beat teams in transition, an area the Knicks had their struggles earlier in the season.
The Pacers scored 120 or more points in all four of their first-round victories against the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It’s hard to define pace. I think we’re fifth in scoring. I think we’re probably second in fast break points, and then when you look at total shot attempts, we’re always at the top,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Saturday. “So however you get there, you can make the stats say whatever you want, but the most important one is net rating, and so that’s what we look at. You want to be strong on offense and defense. I think we’re fourth and fifth, or fifth in offensive rating. And we’ll be challenged again. Our defense has to be great.”
Both the Knicks and Pacers orchestrated trades to elevate their ceilings mid-season.
The Knicks traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa on the day they lost to the Pacers on Dec. 30. They also traded Quentin Grimes, Evan Fournier, Ryan Arcidiacono, Malachi Flynn and a pair of second-round picks to the Detroit Pistons for Bojan Bogdanovic (who is out for the rest of the playoffs with an ankle injury) and Alec Burks.
The Pacers got their superstar point guard Haliburton some help in a deal with the Raptors, acquiring the two-time All-Star Siakam from Toronto.
Both Anunoby and Siakam were members of the Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors team that won an NBA title in 2019.
The Pacers own a 23-18 record in games Siakam has played, while the Knicks are 20-3 in games with Anunoby, who missed a chunk of the season due to an elbow procedure.
“He can do things on the court that’s kind of hard to teach,” Brunson said of Anunoby’s defensive presence after practice on Saturday. “And obviously have the athleticism, the length to cover ground the way that he does is remarkable, but I just think he has the confidence as well just because he’s done it so many times and it’s made him successful. So when you get in situations where you need to help your team win, you do things that make you comfortable and make you successful. And he’s just been doing it his entire career. It’s nothing new. He’s just doing it with New York.”
The upcoming second-round Eastern Conference series marks the eighth time the Knicks and Pacers have met in the playoffs. The two teams have two separate stints of meeting each other three postseasons in a row.
The rivalry began in 1993, when John Starks’ headbutt of Reggie Miller in Game 3 sparked what would become one the more contentious battles in the league.
Starks was ejected, and Miller went on to score 36 points to lead the Pacers to a 23-point victory, but the Knicks would go on to wrap up the series, 3-1, in Game 4 of a best-of-five series.
A similar outcome ensued the following postseason, when the Knicks and Pacers met in the 1994 Eastern Conference finals.
That series is best-known for Miller’s 25-point fourth-quarter comeback in Game 5, and the infamous choking gesture directed at Spike Lee as the Pacers outscored the Knicks, 35-16, in a stunner at The Garden.
The Knicks, however, won the series in seven games to advance to the 1994 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Houston Rockets in Game 7.
As history would have it, the Knicks and Pacers met a third consecutive year in the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers acquired former Knicks point guard Mark Jackson in a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Miller put on another clutch performance, scoring eight points in the final nine seconds of Game 1 at MSG to steal a win off the Knicks’ home floor.
Miller’s Pacers secured their first playoff series victory over the Knicks in Game 7 on Patrick Ewing’s blown layup, and Pat Riley resigned from his post as head coach at the conclusion of the NBA Finals.
The Knicks and Pacers met another three straight playoff series, beginning in the second round in 1998. Ewing played on with a broken wrist, and the Pacers won the series in five games.
They would meet again the following year after the lockout-shortened 1999 season, clashing once more in the Eastern Conference Finals with a trip to the Finals on the line for the victor. The Knicks stole Game 1 in Indiana and won the series in six games before falling to the San Antonio Spurs in five in the Finals.
And in 2000, the Knicks made it back to the Eastern Conference Finals, but there was no answer for Miller, who was on a quest to make an NBA Finals appearance. He succeeded in eliminating the Knicks to lead Indiana to its only ever Finals appearance.
It would take 13 more years for the rivalry to be reborn, this time with new faces but similar agendas.
Anthony’s Knicks didn’t have enough firepower for the stingy Pacer defense that moved past New York in the 2013 Eastern Conference semis to lose to LeBron James’ Miami Heat in the conference finals.
It’s now Haliburton and Siakam. Brunson, but with no Julius Randle, the three-time All-Star whose season ended on a dislocated right shoulder in late January.
Brunson is coming off of his first-ever All-Star nod and exploded onto the scene as a bona fide star averaging 28.7 points per game in the regular season, then another 35.5 points and nine assists in the first round to power his Knicks through the Philadelphia 76ers in six games.
Haliburton and Brunson have different play styles: Haliburton is more of a facilitator, whereas Brunson is the head of the Knicks’ scoring punch.
Haliburton averaged 16 points and nine assists in the first round, as his Pacers advanced past a Bucks team without Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose season ended on a non-contact calf injury. Without Antetokounmpo, Siakam averaged 36.5 points through the first two games of Indiana’s first-round series against the Bucks.
The Knicks lead the all-time regular-season head-to-head matchup, 100-95, against the Pacers, but they are losing the playoff head-to-head, 22-19.
