How Indiana Pacers can earn Game 7 win over New York Knicks and advance to Eastern Conference Finals

How Indiana Pacers can earn Game 7 win over New York Knicks and advance to Eastern Conference Finals

the two greatest words in sports game seven as big as it gets for the Pacers tonight tomorrow whenever you’re listening against the Knicks today and we’ll talk about it all the mentality that will be required why the game could be ugly what it will take for the Pacer to win the history of game sevens and much more on today’s weekend locked on Pacers podcast you are locked on Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what up y’all happy weekend Sunday Saturday whatever time of day it is and welcome into another edition of the lockon Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always my name is Tony East I cover the team for Forbes NSI and today we’re talking game seven it’s the only thing to talk about it’s as big as it gets for the Pacers it requires another preview despite the game being at 3:30 and this podcast having less shelf life than time than most and I’ve been so frenetic all weekend my graphic from yesterday’s YouTube show said that the Pacers won a game seven they won game six and now they’re playing a game seven as big as it gets and speaking of frenetic that is what you can expect tonight game sevens are wild and unique and sometimes ugly and sometimes Stars will lead the day and sometimes a role player cements their legacy either way you remember these games forever people still talk about to me all the time the little things that changed game seven of the last Pacers game seven LeBron ripping their hearts out in 2018 can they have played Victor Oladipo the whole fourth quarter instead of that brief stretch early in the fourth four-point loss as painful as it gets that’s what these kind of games can be that’s the kind of emotions these games can produce and today once again or tomorrow whenever you’re listening we get another one game seven Pacers Nicks in the garden so much to get to today and a lot of it’s going to be about not basketball things kind of basketball things but not basketball things and I say that to say when I asked Tyrese halberton about what he’s expecting or what he thinks this could feel like it’s a game seven it’s his first game seven biggest game of his life he’s had a ton of those this season the inseason tournament samies were the biggest game of his life until he won and played the inseon tournament finals then his first playoff game was the biggest game of his well then the I guess the regular season games to clinch a playoff game were the biggest games of his life then the playoff game then the home playoff games the second round playoff games then a big home second round playoff game and now a game seven after an elimination game like that is his reality but that’s a lot of Pacers players realities who are in their first postseason and that’s the reality for guys who have been on good teams but are now playing in bigger roles like Aaron n Smith like Obi toppen like TJ McConnell right it’s just different it’s gonna be a whole new environment siakam’s got experience in these miles Turner’s played in two game sevens nth been a part of them conell was on the Sixers for a game seven although he didn’t actually play in the game there’s a lot of Quasi experience on the Pacers but a few guys will really need to lead the way because they all said it’s different right it just is and I bring up halberton first as my segue to say halton’s watched them and he’s talked to other people who have experienced them and is in the NBA and knows that they’re ugly games they are grinded out gritty tough different going back to Pacers Cavs from 2018 their last one I mean that was a 101 to 105 game and of course that was a Nate McMillan team in lower scoring but I mean Oladipo was crazy Darren cson got hot the Pacers third leading score had 14 points right it took that kind of effort from LeBron for the Cavs to get to 105 who is ridiculous the Cavs second leading score was Tristan Thompson George Hill hitting a few shots was vital in that game right all these little tiny things that can cause whatever you want to call it ugliness or chippiness or just a difference in mentality make it a different kind of game and I remember that game all too well everybody remembers everything from that game it’s still talked about because it’s a game seven and if you win it it cements you Oladipo played 41 minutes in that game and had 312 and six and was phenomenal and people still bring up to this day that early fourth quarter stretch where he wasn’t in the game I can’t remember exactly when he checked in but I remember people still talk about that to this day right what if he had played more in the second half of that game it might have been late in the third quarter where yeah he came in with 1015 to go in the fourth quarter when the fourth quarter started the Pacers were down two they were down uh five when he came in the game and immediately the Cavs hit a three to go up eight who knows what happens if he starts the fourth quarter in the game that kind of stuff lingers forever those kind of decisions become cemented that’s what a game seven is all about ugly chippy different every play matters and a lot of players said the same thing right T.J McConnell was there when Kawhi Leonard hit the bounce bounce bounce bounce shot he’s seen crazy game sevens Pascal seaks won a championship and was of course on the other side of that shot but has also been a part of crazy game sevens in the bubble n Smith with the Celtics the year they made the finals two crazy game sevens I believe that year it they said the team that plays hardest will win and maybe that isn’t totally accurate but I mean you get what I’m saying like hard play and everything matters and when you think about playing hard you’re thinking and you play worse and different and so it just they just become these ugly gie kind of games shout out to Derek Kramer who did a great job with the history of game sevens um in his article I’m going to read through a bunch of them now tyres hurns exact quote for a lot of this is our first playoff experience let alone game seven we’ve got to be ready to go for 48 minutes the garden is an unbelievable environment we haven’t won there yet we have to prove we’re able to do that Rick Carlile who’s won his fair share of game seven said it’s the ultimate game the ultimate game yakum called the gritty uh chronologically first Pacers game seven very fitting against the Knicks 1994 Eastern Conference Finals 94-90 Knicks win that one in the garden I mean that was of course part of the ESPN 30 for 30s I mean all these Nicks Pacers I wish we could get a sequel from this series um Reggie Miller led the scoring but of course Patrick gwi uh was the hero in that one 95 Pacers Knicks again in the Conference Finals for a game seven that one the Pacers did win 97 95 that’s the one where famously IG missed the I don’t even know what you call it finger rolling layup where his arm kind of extended as he finger rolled it uh to miss that one that was uh the Pacers win 1995 Eastern Conference Finals after beating the Knicks in the conference semis that year the magic crushed the Pacers into game seven uh brutal for the Pacers there and then the next year in the Conference Finals Michael Jordan gets them in game seven one and three in game sevens at that point 88 83 low scoring and three of the four so far have been close uh I mean that’s just what game sevens kind of are 2005 Eastern Conference first round series uh Pacers crushed the Celtics uh that was Reggie Miller’s final season that team was not a a necessarily Championship caliber group but they did win that game seven in the first round to move on that year 2013 Conference Finals uh against the Heat everybody unfortunately remember Zach game seven one of the worst Pacers game sevens I can remember an ugly one not a close one again he destroyed them by 23 the next year though game seven against the hwks the David West series PG was good in the game seven this is still the Pacers last game seven win to the stay how about exactly a decade ago a lot of decade Synergy for the Pacers although it was a one 18 series and the Pacers were down two3 maybe not a series the Pacers should be excited about potentially repeating but uh they did get that one done over the Hawks back then 92 to 80 I don’t know if I already said that um but that was their last game seven wins to this day and they needed heroes in that series that was May 3rd 2014 David West was good like I said that whole series but that game kind of sums up right what this takes the the Hawks were 11 for 44 from ven shot 30% in that game right the Pacers were three for 18 from deep and had 17 turnovers but they won ugly games game sevens are gross a lot of the time if a team looks comfortable they’re going to win right that game was decided because Paul George was amazing with 30 points and the rest of the facer starters followed suit and nobody could even get close to matching that for the Hawks that year right like that’s what game sevens can be uh Pacers played a game seven in Miles Turner rookie year they lost to the Raptors by five that was the Solomon Hill the the series in which he could have tied the three late in I believe game five it was after the buzzer Pacers win game six lose game seven in Toronto and then their most recent game seven of course the one I mentioned off the top the only one that has been covered by this podcast is existence uh Pacers Cavs 2018 the incredible Vick season and LeBron was a hero that year a lot of these were close right nine game seventh for the Pacers and I just named one within four and one within five and a couple more within a few points I’d have to scroll back up to get to all of them but you get the gist that that’s what these can be and that’s what these are and I don’t need to keep running through them you get the idea halberton said it everybody’s seen it everybody’s done it who’s a fan of basketball game seven is different it’s a different game it requires something different of players so I can go through and I will a couple things that I think are key in this game but what might be the most key is Pacers fighting through their their their instincts right your instinct is going to be to think about playing hard all the time and making sure you’re the hardest playing team and that’s all great you have to be that to win I’m not saying to suppress those feelings I’m saying fight them in a way that lets you play free and not think and not worry about the moment that’s how the Pacers can win this game let’s talk about the basketball stuff they need to do win what it will take how it will even be possible against the Knicks team that’s been tough for the Pacers all series long before we do that though let’s talk about prize picks America’s number one fantasy sports at more than three million members you just pick more than or less than on two or more player stat projections 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a first deposit match up to $100 at prize picks pick more pick less it’s that easy back here on lock on Pacers thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day here on the weekend locked on NBA draft bigboard is back uh you’re going to need that with the draft coming up uh if even from a non- Pacers perspective the draft will be valuable and they don’t cover the top guys they cover every guy and the Pacers have picks we’ll talk about that when they are actually out of the postseason which they’re not right now because they play a game seven this weekend against the New York Knicks it’s going to be awesome um basketball-wise what’s this going to take I think it’s valuable the Pacers have game seven experience every team has some game seven experience you know the Knicks certainly have their own fair share precious auua uh off the top of my head I could dig through more of their team I’m sure D Venza with the Warriors I think has game seven experience last year right so like it’s not new to every or it’s not excuse me like new to everyone on either team um the homecourt advantage is going to matter it’s tough in that environment for a game seven already but let’s talk about the basketball part of this the thing I want to focus on is the same thing that I focused on ahead of game six not to be boring but I think it’s even more important now because of something that happened in game six and I talked on it yesterday and I’ll touch on it again it’s currently 4 o’clock a little before that for me and I bring that up to say the injury report for game seven is not released yet I don’t know what the status of joshh Hart is going to be which is relevant to me because if he doesn’t play or if he is limited in any way Pascal sakam is once again the most important Pacers player to me right I led with Halburn and Brunson ahead of game six because those guys have the ball all the time and they dictate how the game is played and they are so massive and critical and the Pacers slowing Brunton in the first half while halberton played pretty well was a key part of them winning that game Beyond many things and Brunson was way better in the second half Pacers need to be better on him we’ll talk about that but the thing that stood out to me in game five was the the small lineup the Nick started with the fact that Pacers didn’t exploit that enough sakam is so much taller than whoever’s guarding him and if he’s not Miles Turner is but often it was SE yakum they have to rely on that to be a weapon and even if it’s not a small guy because auua is in there with hardenstein or chose the only five but the Pacers go small which they’ve been doing against that group with top and seak and front courts again he has to to punish those matchups he has an advantage either in speed and skill or in just raw pullup size right and he’s had some games this series many of them where he’s been able to exploit that and sometimes that shot hasn’t fallen for various reasons and sometimes he hasn’t been able to create as much wiggle or space that you’d expect but he can and has and just did show in an elimination game that he can do that and if the Knicks start the same group again or Josh Hart can’t start and they have to start Alec Burks or aoua he will have an advantage somewhere right it won’t maybe it won’t be every possession maybe the Knicks will do what they did at the end of game three and then more often as the series has progressed but not as much as I thought at all and put hartenstein on him and then Turner has an advantage and then Miles Turner has to be the one taking advantage of these matchups he did so when he needed in game six right six for 10 for 17 points that’s great he led the team in free throws took advantage down low that’s what Miles Turner has to do when he gets those match up and he made some great passes quietly um but even if they do switch up the cross matches one hardenstein is not going to play the whole game and two it’s not going to be every time after stops when they’re matching up in transition in various switching situations sometimes yakum just Dives his way into the post early in a possession when he sees an advantage on a switch all that kind of stuff’s going to be there they’re out a game if Pascal sakam can’t take advantage of those it’s going to be harder for the Pacers to manufacture buckets because the Knicks have done well better than any I mean they only play two teams in the postseason but better than most teams at least making halbert’s life hard to get into the paint and medus McBride done a good job denying him off the ball and they did better to get it back to him and halber had a better game six and if he plays that way again that’s good enough to win as evidenced by the fact that they won game six but siakam’s vital to me again for all the same reasons as game six and the added factor of if Josh Hart is out Josh Hart is the best of the small guys at containing him right and Turner I think you know if if a different small is on Turner if it’s Alec Burks or someone else Dante dant chenzo on mil Turner yakum they’re going to eat that up they should eat that up right it’s going to be what happen so I’ll be fascinated to see how much the Pacers can exploit that or if they don’t have heart I don’t know again I don’t know if they do have heart still if he’s limited or hobbled in any way can they attack that in a way that’s meaningful for them that actually generates a big advantage that to me is The X Factor of game seven is they have a mismatch that exists before the game even starts and if a Chua starts again which I I don’t expect that I think theck will stick with their smaller group it’s been more effective but if a Chua starts again then the second unit should be feasting for the Pacers um they did in games three and four and the reason there’s a reason Nicks went away from starting atua it wasn’t working very well it didn’t get enough spacing for Brunson but if Brun if atua starts and brunson’s Cooks the Pacers might be in trouble but if a Chua starts then siakam’s skill and speed Advantage have to be used put a Chua in pick and rolls let hurn attack that see if he makes mistakes and go from there so there’s not a good answer for the Knicks if Hart is available if he isn’t available or if he’s limited and the Pacers have to take advantage of that their depth and speed was talked about as an advantage before the series even started and that has that was before Mitchell Robinson got hurt that was before oan and noi got hurt that was before Josh Hart got hurt now they have that even more and the Knicks are Scrappy and they never give up and they’re so tough and they fought through all these injuries all series long and it’s been very impressive and Noble at what point can they not do it anymore well Pascal seak is going to be the answer to that question to me and he was in game six he was the best player on the floor he got it done when it mattered he was very tough to guard his size was overwhelming and it led the Pacers to a win that is to me the basketball key to game seven and the Stars typically can be important that’s why Vic had 30 points that’s why I just mentioned Paul George having an amazing game the last time the Pacers won a game seven you know that’s why uh Brunson containing him will be valuable that’s why halton’s GNA be important the stars are the guys Patrick EIG missing a shot Reggie Miller making shots I mean I I I can go back through all Pacers history in these game sevens Jermain O’Neal was very good in that random Celtics game like you get the gist read Derrick’s article he’s got it all covered they have to get good star play and sakam has their best chance of that I think given the matchups that will be in front of him and there’s going to be more though role players matter big shots from Roll guys who’s going to step up there let’s close out Today’s Show talking about that before we do that though let’s talk about FanDuel because it’s winner take all time in the NBA and the NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 that’s a lot in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet 150 bucks to bet on spreads or money lines or player props or whatever else visit fanduel.com lockon make every playoff shot count for FanDuel again 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines private pops including the Pacers including gab sevens including the NBA including the NHL that’s fanduel.com lockdown for that offer FanDuel America’s number one sports book we’re back here on lockdown Pacers thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day lockdown NBA we’ll have all the latest stor around the NBA including an episode after Sunday which has game sevens for not only the Pacers but also wolves nuggets talking about that other news and notes from around the NBA the lottery happen the draft combine’s over there’s going to be lots of scuttlebutt about everything lockdown NBA will have all the coverage of that let’s keep going on the Pacers role players matter so much in these games too Darren Collison 23 points that was big he hit some threes in game seven of Pacers Cavs a few years ago George Hill Off the Bench Tristan Thompson on the glass that was just looking at the box score I remember some of that series too you know how the Pacers got to that game seven boam bonovich evolved from role player to very good player in game three of that series never forget it 30 points and a 90 point 9290 win I believe was that crazy game um I think Aaron n Smith is my guy that I’m looking at for if I’m the Pacers he’s got to be good again he was really good in game six made all of his twos got to the rim a little bit on cuts and even when he got ran off the line didn’t make his threes that’s gonna have to happen eventually I think for him but he got he hit the glass six boards through in the offensive end four assists the whole Pacer team kept the ball moving defense on Brunson very good uh match upd is probably in I could just look at this now uh among the best Brunson defense games we’ve seen from the Pacers in this postseason if he can do that again easier said than done as always uh that’s huge one because that he was good in the game obviously but two because slowing Brunson is the thing for the Pacers for so much of the series Brunson uh six for 12 guarded by n Smith actually better than I thought in that game but the Knicks offense 33 points on 27 possessions that’s not spectacular that’s good stuff uh in a general concept and I think n Smith was a big part of that so excuse me that’s 20 8.1 possessions I’m very bad at math um so credit to n Smith for that he did better in that matchup than he has or anyone has throughout the series very notably and McConnell did very well as well one for four was Brunson guarded by him and then and the Knicks 17 on 16 possessions in those moments so perhaps those two both fit the billing of what I’m trying to say here because if the stars are valuable and the role and a role player needs to step up the role player guarding Brunson whoever it is is the most valuable one for the Pacers that’s going to be the biggest thing duh I feel like I’m repeating a lot of topics game six and the reason I’m doing that is a lot of the stuff that mattered in that game the Pacers did well in and that helped them win in this win that game and force this game um but in a game seven you just remember those kind of performances from guys who either established themselves or Elevate themselves to a new status and N Smith McConnell whoever’s guarding brunton’s gonna be big to me but the glass work the Pacers did in game six is going to be relevant again too they were way better with their box outs they had a spirited film session which is my nice way describing it none of them said it was fun it can’t have been fun they probably got lit up and they should have they were awful and had no effort in game five much better on the glass in game six hartenstein had seven miles Turner had eight sakam had seven Josh Hart had eight that’s a wash good job by the Pacers there who’ve been getting killed there the guards were where the difference was six for n Smith six for nard six for halber keeping the rest of the Knicks off the glass you know those guys have been everybody’s been really feasting for New York but to get those guys going on the glass A lot of off boards for those guys but hurns were all defensive Obi toppen did better on the glass Ben Shepard had four boards everybody contributed in that way and if everybody’s contributing that usually means box outs have been good but that also could mean a lot of stuff they were better at tipping it safely instead of just losing those fights they did a lot of stuff way better and they took care of the ball as I said yesterday only one turnover for every or less for everybody that played eight total for the Pacers dominated The Possession battle after shooting 29 less shots they took nine more in this game and the free throw battle kind of skus that in this one but that was all very important although they didn’t do a good job forcing turnovers only seven for the Knicks and three of them from Duce McBride so that little stuff will matter just as much in this game um but the x- factor to me it’s halberton it’s Tyrese halberton not because of him being a star not because of the role player Factor because he’s gonna have the ball out and this is the biggest game of his life what’s he gonna do how can he respond what kind of answers will the Knicks have for him they’ve been good at throughout the series sprinkling in different stuff on him right they defended him early in the series one way he figured it out then they had to defend him a different way he was already all over it then they changed your starting lineup that actually slowed him a bit maybe not necessarily because of the lineup change but just in general his approach to that game was not as effective if he’s ready to go if he’s getting two feet in the paint right away if his passes are crisp if guys are making shots from his passes which isn’t necessarily on him but he can help with that right that’s huge and of course him himself finishing plays is massive I think you’ll be able to tell very quickly in this game what kind of halberton game you’re getting right he was aggressive early in game six and I meant aggressive early in game six from a scoring perspective in a way that you know he took three shots in the first quarter but they were all good he got his feet in the pain a bunch he had four assists very early I think he had the first three of the game for the Pacers right and that kind of continued throughout the game but almost half his assist half of his assists in the first quarter he spread his shots out right getting playing like that again is going to matter so much if he’s passive at all early the Knicks will know and they will attack him and they will make his life hard and they will look good in this game and all this stuff that I’ve talked about is going to matter and I think it’s going to be some intangible thing that isn’t being the difference 5050 balls turnovers rebounding uh fouls stupid mistakes you know 8C stuff uh throwing the ball all over the gym it’s a game seven I could talk about the basketball part all I want the mental part the all that from the beginning I think will be the difference and I cannot wait to see it I’ll be in the garden again I’ll podcast from there right after as we’ve been doing throughout the series uh and we’ll talk about what happens and perhaps talk some Celtics if we need to perhaps look ahead to what’s coming for the Pacers if they don’t win but we don’t need to look ahead right now we can’t what H matters for the Pacers is what happens on Sunday we’ll be there to cover it all here on lockon Pacers I’m on Twitter at Tony R East this show is there at lockon Pacers hope you guys enjoyed this one enjoy game seven we’ll see you when it’s over

The Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks will face off for Game 7 of their second-round series tomorrow. What will it take for the Pacers to win? Host Tony East breaks it all down ahead of the biggest Pacers game in about 10 years.

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