Whoever plays at home wins! The Pacers and Knicks met opponents, and the only way to qualify for the Eastern Conference finals was through a tie-break

Beiqing Sports

2024-05-18 13:10Published on the official account of Beijing Beiqing Sports News

On the morning of May 18, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals will be played again. The Pacers relied on home-court advantage and the performance of six players to score double-doubles to defeat the Knicks 116-103, bringing the series to 3-3, and the two sides entered a tiebreaker. This is another series in which the Timberwolves and Nuggets will determine the qualifier through a tie-break after the Western Conference semifinals. This group of series features who wins at home, and at least the first six games have been like this. In this way, it seems that the Knicks have a better chance of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.

The first five games between the Pacers and the Knicks were won on their respective turf. The Knicks' Jalen Brunson was undoubtedly the best player in the semifinals series, scoring 40+ points in both games, and Brunson scored more than 40 points in five of the two playoff games, making it to the Eastern Conference semifinals with minimal player rotation.

In this G6, the Pacers have obviously increased their defense against the Knicks' core player, and although it can't be said that he can completely limit his scoring, at least let his attack and threat decrease. In this sense, the purpose of the walker has worked. Brunson scored 31 points on 11-of-26 shooting, which was a significant reduction from his series average.

Knicks coach Thibodeau was scolded the most by fans for "disregarding the health of the players" in the regular season and the previously concluded playoffs, and this game Thibodeau seemed to accept the fans' doubts about his "dead seven-man rotation" and made some changes, and the number of players on the field reached 11. But in fact, there are four substitute players who only have 3-4 minutes of appearance time each, and three of them have almost zero data, which is not much different from the number.

To the hearts of Knicks fans, after Anunoby has missed four games due to a hamstring injury, another big man, Josh Hart, was also injured in this G6 game, the indefatigable guard player was knocked to the abdomen in the first quarter of the game, and insisted on playing in the third quarter but couldn't bear the pain and had to leave again. Even Hart, who claims to be able to play a full 48 minutes all season, can't play, so there is no suspense in this game.

The Pacers rotated 12 players, six of whom scored in double figures, and after taking a double-digit lead at halftime, they kept their opponents at bay, steadily turning the advantage into a victory, and dragged the series into a tiebreaker. Siakam was the Pacers' top scorer with 25 points, and four other players, including Haliburton, scored more than 15 points, and the team relied on collective strength to get through the difficulties.

The result of the tie-break between the two teams is not easy to predict. If you follow the law of "whoever wins at home", it should be the Knicks who advance. But now that the Knicks' two "Iron Men" are injured and can't determine whether they can appear in Game 7, the Pacers, who are almost fully healthy, are not hopeless. In short, the Celtics, who have already won the Eastern Conference finals, are impatient, whether it is the Knicks or the Pacers, even if they enter the Eastern Conference Finals, it will be difficult to pass the Green Army.

Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin

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