Knicks at Pacers Game 6 picks, odds: New York tries to extend unpredictable and frenzied series
What might be the best series of an all-time wild postseason gets another installment Saturday night. The New York Knicks forced a Game 6 after winning in The Garden on Thursday. The Indiana Pacers now have a chance to close out the Eastern Conference in their own (Field)house.
If Game 6 is anything like Games 3 and 4, Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet will migrate to the Midwest for a weekend trip, sticking out like orange sore thumbs amid a maze of harvest gold playoff shirts. With an upset win here, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks would earn a Game 7 in Manhattan … and get a shot at the fabled 3-1 comeback. But if Tyrese Haliburton and his frenetic Pacers get the W, they'll be a massive step closer to their franchise's first NBA championship.
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Pacers lead series 3-2
Series odds: Pacers -375, Knicks +275
To buoy its NBA Finals hopes, New York must keep turnovers to a minimum in a hyper-pressurized do-or-die road game. In their last look on this floor, the Knicks surrendered 17 giveaways. They had 15 in Game 3.
Through five games, Brunson is averaging 33 points on 51.4 percent shooting. Karl-Anthony Towns is above 25 points per game with a 51.8 percent clip. Mitchell Robinson has the team's best offensive rating through stellar rebounding and screening. It's the 'Wing Stop' trio that needs to be better, though. OG Anunoby is at modest 43/29/71 shooting splits. Mikal Bridges ranks seventh in the rotation for defensive rating and eighth for offense. Josh Hart's assists are down, his turnovers are up and he's averaging four fouls a night.
Tom Thibodeau seems to like what he's getting from Robinson as a starter, and nine Knicks played at least 10 minutes in Thursday's win. The series comeback starts and ends with All-NBA talents Brunson and Towns, but New York will need a full game from a full rotation come Saturday.
Indiana will continue pushing at a breakneck pace, with Haliburton anchoring the sprint circuit. In the Pacers' Game 4 victory, their point guard produced a 32-point triple-double with zero (0!) turnovers. Game 5 was Indy's worst offensive showing of the playoffs thus far, and it failed to crack triple-digit scoring for the first time since February 4.
Rick Carlisle's crew has gone nine players deep in all five contests. Expect more from Bennedict Mathurin once again. The bench bucket has scored at least 20 points in back-to-back tries, after totaling just 11 points in the first three games. Aaron Nesmith, the hero behind Game 1's historic flip, has looked stiff since injuring his ankle in Game 3. To wrap up the Conference finals, the host side will likely look to Pascal Siakam. He's been the most efficient main option in the series, with a better effective shooting mark than Brunson, Towns and Haliburton.
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1999 — Blazers 85, Spurs 86: Sean Elliott's Memorial Day Miracle! From Mike Wise in the New York Times:
'When Sean Elliott tiptoed along the baseline in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals in May and let fly the most memorable 3-pointer of his career, the winning shot was immediately dubbed the Memorial Day Miracle. Looking back, how the 31-year-old forward even played that game against Portland and eventually helped the San Antonio Spurs win their first National Basketball Association title may go down as a much more remarkable feat.
'Less than a month after he and his team frolicked on the Madison Square Garden floor after beating the Knicks in the N.B.A. finals, Elliott and his physicians disclosed yesterday in San Antonio that he is suffering from worsening renal function and will undergo a kidney transplant as soon as a matching donor is found, perhaps as early as August, leaving his basketball future in doubt.'
Fortunately, Elliot made a full recovery. 'I'm lucky to be around, that's for sure,' he told The Athletic in 2020.
Betting/odds and ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Photo of Jalen Brunson and T.J. McConnell: Charly Triballeau / Getty Images)
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