Aaron Nesmith… are you kidding me?!
Because of the unfortunate reality of our small company, the guys up in Section 400 still need to pay the bills with their full time jobs. That makes us record the podcasts at a set time on a set date twice a week, putting us at risk of missing out on reacting to games that deserve our full, immediate, undivided takes.
One of those games happened Wednesday Night, as the Indiana Pacers turned a bleak, curved, win probability graph into a belt-to-ass bulldozing of the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. My takeaway? Indiana is the team of destiny. I’m sorry Knicks fans.
The aforementioned Aaron Nesmith connected on a Pacers playoff record 8 3-point shots in the win, with five of them coming in the final 3:14 of the fourth quarter. The first of the quintet cut the oppositions lead from 116-105. The second made it 119-111.
The third and fourth kept Indiana within two scores, while the fifth and final fully opened the door for Tyrese Haliburton to pay homage to Reggie Miller with a ‘choke’ celebration as he deafened a once defiantly loud Madison Square Garden.
As you would expect, Knicks super fan, and recipient of Miller’s original choke gesture, Spike Lee, was front and center. If he had a drink in his hand to drop, the impact of plastic to hardwood might have been heard all the way up in section 400.
The Knicks came out flat in overtime, and to be honest with you, I don’t see how they don’t come out flat for the remainder of the series. At least after one game, this thing feels about as over as it could. Tom Thibodeau’s innovative strategy of running his best players into the ground doesn’t exactly work out when said players are staring into the dark void that is the inevitability of an Indiana Pacers comeback.
That inevitable comeback is becoming stuff on legend. Of the 10 most improbable comebacks of the playoffs in the play by play era (since 1997), the 2025 Indiana Pacers have three of them. Tonight’s win ranked fourth.
Star guard, and disputably the most overrated player in the league, Tyrese Haliburton is now 11/12 on shots to tie or take the lead in the last two minutes of a game this year. That comes out to a nice 91.6% clip from the field. I have issues successfully placing a contact lens in my eye 91.6% of the time, this guy is casually averaging that percentage on the biggest shots of his life.
Factor in Obi Toppin quite literally dunking on the entire team and fanbase that drafted him, and I just don’t see these Pacers losing another basketball game until they see the Thunder in an NBA Finals that may average the same amount of viewers per night as an episode of Guy’s Grocery Games.
I’d also like to get ahead of the narrative that Auburn legend Suni Lee caused any kind of bad luck to the Knicks by being at the Garden tonight. No Suni slander will be tolerated. War Eagle.
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