Pacers And Knicks Have Both Improved. Who Grew Enough For Finals Trip?

INDIANAPOLIS – Last year, the second-round playoff series between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks was close until it wasn’t. Through the first six games of that best-of-seven set, the total score for the two teams was Pacers 677, Knicks 670.

Game 7, the deciding battle of the series, was all Pacers. They went into Madison Square Garden and smashed the Knicks 130-109, setting multiple playoff records for field goal percentage along the way. It was a major moment for Indiana, who reached the Eastern Conference Finals and proved to be among the best teams in the East.

Now, a year has passed and the Pacers are back on the same stage. They have grown a lot – this time winning their second round series without needing a long, grueling fight to do it. Their opponent in the conference finals is New York, the same franchise they beat just one year ago. Fittingly, the Knicks are like the Pacers in that they, too, have grown a lot in the one year since their second-round meeting.

Both teams are better than they were 12 months ago, and it’s been planned. The Pacers bet on continuity, bringing back almost the exact same team as last season. The hope was that another year of chemistry growth combined with internal development from young players would be enough to improve. It worked – Indiana won 50 games and is back in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Knicks took a different approach. They flipped some rotation pieces from last year along with draft picks to bring in two coveted players in Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. New York made some smart additions on the edge of the rotation, too, and their talent upgrades fit the team’s play style. They were more consistent and finally won some big games when the postseason rolled around. And for the first time in a quarter century, they’re in the conference finals

“They play really hard. They’ve got a lot of different guys. Obviously, they added [Towns] this year. I’m excited to compete against those guys,” Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said of the Knicks. “We played against them last year. It’s obviously a storied rivalry between two franchises. So to add another chapter to it is going to be a lot of fun.”

Most predicted that both the Knicks and Pacers would lose before this point. Cleveland and Boston had excellent seasons, but they fell to the improved groups in the conference semifinals. New York and Indiana are still playing because they are stronger, more experienced teams than they were just last year.

How are the Pacers and Knicks more effective than they were last year?

The Pacers are far better on defense, climbing from near the bottom of the league to above average – their defensive rating jumped from 24th to 14th, and it’s currently above average among playoff squads. That has served them well in the postseason. Indiana’s offense is elite and routinely carries the team to victory, but they can afford lesser scoring nights now. It isn’t a death sentence when they aren’t humming with the ball. The Pacers have fewer games where they aren’t competitive in the slightest because of their defense.

Meanwhile, Indiana’s high-powered offense has seen every coverage. They don’t need much time to adjust and put points on the board, and their offensive rating is two points per 100 possessions better than any team still in the playoff field.

The Knicks offense has improved. It’s more versatile with Towns in the mix, and their floor is higher with OG Anunoby making improvements as a play finisher. They’re a spaced out bunch that is efficient both thanks to their halfcourt strengths and their volume – New York is among the best teams on the offensive glass and wins the turnover battle often. They get extra possessions to flex their offensive skill.

New York is relentless and plays bigger than their size. The Pacers will have to work hard to keep up on the glass – though that isn’t new. This version of the Knicks has always been effective on the boards and should be again in this series.

“That’s where a good amount of their offense has come,” Pacers center Myles Turner said of the Knicks rebounding. “Guys like Mitchell Robinson, Josh Hart, [Karl-Anthony] Towns, guys are going to the boards heavy, giving them extra possessions.”

Between Indiana’s defensive growth, the Knicks offensive improvements, and both team’s smaller steps forward across the board, both teams are simply better than they were during their 2024 series. Whichever team improved more is going to reach the 2025 NBA Finals.

For the Pacers, that would be because of their young players taking steps forward. That’s the hope with most teams that opt to run it back. Andrew Nembhard has improved from this time last year – as have Aaorn Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin. Pacers veterans have stayed effective, if not been better. The team has a pace that is never ending and tough to play against. That style is hard to execute, yet the young talent on Indiana’s roster has learned to fit in while growing. Altogether, it created a superior team.

The Knicks would believe they are the team that improved more because their roster is a cut above what it was at this time last year. Towns might make an All-NBA team. Bridges gives the team scoring, defense, and health – the latter being an important factor in last year’s Pacers-Knicks series. Bridges and Anunoby together are one of the best defensive wing duos in the NBA.

That roster is not only greater on paper, it is more effective around the team’s star player in Jalen Brunson. Brunson, a monster scorer who finished top-five in MVP voting last season, is one of the best players in the association when it comes to one-on-one scoring and breaking down a defense. Having better shooters around a player like that changes everything, and Towns can snag misses to give the Knicks more chances. Bridges helps get stops, and both of those players work well on a slower-paced team.

“I think their starting lineup is really good. They’ve got a physical team. They’ve got size. They’re a problem on the offensive boards,” Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard said of the Knicks. “They’re just a tough, tough team. You have to have a full team effort to kind of grind those guys out of there.”

Both Indiana and New York are masterful in the clutch. In the playoffs, the Knicks are 6-2 in clutch games while the Pacers are 5-0. They’re the only two teams with five-plus crunch time wins in the postseason so far, and they each won 60+% of their clutch games in the regular season. A tight game will be tense, yet both groups will be confident.

Elsewhere, the two squads will clash. The Pacers will try to make the games fast, the Knicks want to slow it down. Indiana uses several players off the bench every game, New York uses very few. One team hits the glass, the other looks for transition success. Those differences will stand out every game, and the team more effective at enforcing their style might win every battle.

In the end, it’s a 51-win team vs a 50-win team. Not much separates the Knicks and Pacers. That was true last year, too, when they fought six times and the series differential at the time was just seven points.

Game 7 changed that. But both teams have ascended since that game, and that series. The last year has been about growth. Whichever one of the Pacers and Knicks progressed more in the last 12 months will progress to the next, and final, round of the postseason.