Pacers vs Knicks: TV, picks, odds, how to watch NBA playoff game
Instead, the Pacers mounted a legendary comeback, with Tyrese Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith leading the way. Indiana made up a nine-point gap in the final 52 seconds of regulation, eventually claiming a 138-135 victory in overtime.
The stunning outcome has supercharged what was already looking like an exciting series. Here are odds, predictions, and how to watch Game 2 between the Knicks and the Pacers:
MORE: Celebrities flock to Knicks vs. Pacers at Madison Square Garden. See the stars at Game 2
PACERS VS. KNICKS GAME 1: Knicks' plan to keep pace with Pacers leaves them gassed
What time is Pacers vs. Knicks?
Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks is set to start at 8 p.m. ET.
Indiana's 138-135 Game 1 overtime victory against New York on Wednesday averaged 6.6 million viewers, making the game the most-watched Eastern Conference final Game 1 since 2018, according to TNT. Viewership peaked at 8.5 million viewers at 11 p.m. ET - right around the time the Pacers made their stunning comeback. The game also won the night in primetime, per TNT, which is a huge victory for the network and the league. -- Jeff Zillgitt
Who will show up to Madison Square Garden for Game 2 on Friday? We got you covered. USA TODAY Sports is tracking all the stars in attendance of the arena's highly-coveted "celebrity row."
Pacers vs. Knicks predictions: Expert picks for Game 2
USA TODAY: Knicks to win Game 2
The USA TODAY staff picks for Game 2 are nearly unanimous, with the Knicks claiming a 6-1 edge.
Scooby Axson: Knicks
Cydney Henderson: Knicks
Lorenzo Reyes: Knicks
Jordan Mendoza: Knicks
Heather Tucker: Knicks
James WIlliams: Knicks
Jeff Zillgitt: Pacers
Dimers: Knicks 116, Pacers 111
Dimers' simulations have given the Knicks a 70% chance of winning Game 2, with a five-point margin the most likely outcome.
Covers.com: Knicks even the series
Jason Logan writes: "There are several alternate realities in which the Knicks held on to that late lead and won Game 1. It just wasn't ours. Books have New York installed as 5.5-point favorites for Game 2, and while Indiana is always live, a series split seems more probable considering the Knicks played well for 47 minutes before coming undone on Wednesday. New York wins Game 2."
ClutchPoints: Pacers 108, Knicks 103
Using the NBA 2K25 video game to simulate Game 2, Massimo Marchiano has the Pacers claiming a five-point win.
Pacers vs. Knicks odds
The New York Knicks are favored to win Game 2, according to BetMGM.
Odds as of Thursday, May 22.
Spread : Knicks (-5.5)
: Knicks (-5.5) Moneyline : Knicks (-235), Nuggets (+190)
: Knicks (-235), Nuggets (+190) Over/under: 226.5
Pacers vs. Knicks series predictions: Expert picks
Before Game 1, USA TODAY Sports experts made predictions for the Eastern Conference finals winner:
Pacers vs. Knicks series winner
Jeff Zillgitt: Pacers in six
Lorenzo Reyes: Knicks in seven
Heather Tucker: Knicks in seven
James Williams: Knicks in six
Jordan Mendoza: Knicks in seven
Scooby Axson: Knicks in seven
Cydney Henderson: Knicks in six
How to watch Pacers vs. Knicks: TV, stream
Time: 8 p.m. ET
8 p.m. ET Location: Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden TV: TNT, truTV
TNT, truTV Stream: Sling TV, Fubo, YouTube TV
Watch Pacers vs. Knicks Game 2 on Fubo
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Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Humiliating moment Tyrese Haliburton looks poised to get MVP... only to be snubbed in favor of Pacers teammate
That tired old proverb about the dangers of assumptions resurfaced after the Indiana Pacers clinched the Eastern Conference Finals with a 125-108 Game 6 win over the New York Knicks on Saturday night in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, it's unclear who the proverbial 'ass' is: Tyrese Haliburton for mistakenly assuming he'd won the series MVP or NBA fans for erroneously casting judgement on the Pacers star. The situation unfolded with TNT's Ernie Johnson handling MC duties amid the post-game celebration. When it came time for Indiana legend Reggie Miller to present a series MVP named for ex-Pacers coach and executive Larry Bird, Haliburton looked ready to be anointed as the franchise's newest hero: He smiled, pointed towards his own chest and stepped in front of his celebrating teammates. After all, he'd averaged 21 points and 10.5 assists per game over the series, which included a Game 4 triple double and his crucial tying shot in an overtime Game 1 victory. Who else was going to be named MVP? As it turns out, that person proved to be Pacers power forward Pascal Siakam, who looked nearly as surprised as the team's All-Star point guard to be given the Larry Bird trophy. "First of all, shoutout Indy man... I'm just so happy to be here" 🙌 Pascal Siakam with nothing but gratitude after winning ECF MVP 👏 — NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) June 1, 2025 It was one of only a few misses for Haliburton on Saturday, who finished with 21 points, 13 assists and six rebounds while making 9 of 17 shots from the field. In fact, he played well enough to get four of nine MVP votes from the media, not including TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy, who expressed that same opinion late in Saturday's broadcast. Fans were largely split in the series MVP debate between Haliburton and Siakam, who averaged 24.8 points and five rebounds per game, including a 39-point effort in a Game 2 win in New York. While some claimed Haliburton was 'absolutely snubbed,' others argued '100% should have been Siakam.' Fans were less divided about Haliburton, who was ridiculed online for his perceived overconfidence. 'Tyrese Haliburton DEFINITELY thought he was winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP,' one fan wrote on X. One fan called Haliburton the 'corniest player in the NBA,' while others lobbed similar insults. The problem is: Haliburton may not have been overconfident about winning the MVP award as many have claimed. A closer inspection of the footage shows Haliburton was having his photo taken at the moment he was pointing to his chest. And as far his decision to walk in front of teammates as the MVP award winner was being announced, that could interpreted in any number of ways. And to his credit, Haliburton is seen cheering for Siakam as he receives the award. The good new for Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was that he didn't have to choose between Siakam or Haliburton. 'Pascal and Tyrese put us on their backs and made sure we would not lose,' Carlisle told fans. 'But our work has just begun.' The Pacers have only been to one NBA Finals back in 2000, when Bird coached Miller with the help of his then-assistant coach and former Boston Celtics teammate, Carlisle. The team does have three ABA titles from the 1970s.
Daily Mail
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Ex-NFL star Robert Griffin III embroiled in fresh controversy as disgusting 'Taliban' post leaves fans furious
Robert Griffin III has found himself at the center of another social media controversy after bizarrely comparing Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers to the Taliban. Griffin III has only just stepped out of the limelight after being embroiled in an ugly race debate alongside rival TV star Ryan Clark, but he is now back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. At the end of the Knicks-Pacers Game 6 on Saturday night, in which Indiana booked its place in the NBA Finals, Griffin III took to X to post: 'The Haliban is headed to the NNBA Finals.' The post immediately rubbed fans up the wrong way, with one claiming it is 'so damn insensitive', while another added: 'Terrorism is nickname worthy?' A third wrote: 'Nicknaming someone after a terrorist organization that killed thousands of Americans... interesting choice.' Meanwhile, one former Air Force pilot noted: 'No, @RGIII. Absolutely not. Never use that again. You're from a military family, and that is heinously disrespectful. You're better than that.' The war in Afghanistan saw the United States lose a total of 2,459 military personnel between October 2001 and August 2021, with the conflict beginning in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Griffin III has a strong connection to the military, with both of his parents serving as US Army sargeants. The ex-NFL quarterback was even born in Japan, where his father was stationed in 1990, and he lived at several army bases throughout his childhood. As of 8am EST on Sunday morning, the post was still up on Griffin III's X account, and no further comment had been made by the former first-round pick. Just last week, the 35-year-old was caught at the center of an ugly race scandal, after fellow TV analyst and ex-NFL star Ryan Clark made a shock insult about Griffin and his white wife Grete. Clark initially took issue with Griffin's comments about Angel Reese 'hating' Caitlin Clark in their ongoing rivalry, saying that Griffin doesn't know the struggles of black women because the former Washington Commanders quarterback is married to a white woman. Clark claimed Griffin 'is not having conversations at his home about what black women have to endure in this country' because Griffin's wife, Estonian heptathlete Grete, is Caucasian. Days later, Clark issued an apology to the Griffin family for his words and said that he made a mistake involving Grete. 'Let me say this before getting into reasoning, before getting into thought process: She should not have been brought up in me trying to make a point about how having black women close to you and the things that you learn from them can help you in the way that you approach and speak to and about them,' Clark said on the latest episode of 'The Pivot' podcast that he co-hosts. 'She didn't need to be the illustration of that. I could speak positively about what they are without making the insinuation that it's something that non-Black women don't do well.'
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Almost immediately after the Knicks' playoff run ended on Saturday night in Indianapolis, the fan discourse in New York began to closely resemble American politics: hyperbolic, binary and allergic to nuance. But the truth about this team – and Tom Thibodeau's coaching – lies somewhere in the messy middle. The Knicks are out. They were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers for the second straight, bowing out from the Eastern Conference finals in six games instead of last year's seven-game loss in the East semis. As the franchise's best season in a generation comes to a close, New York are trying to figure out how to feel. Knicks fandom is a hell of a place. Like the US political scene, it allows only two positions: praise or condemnation. Rational analysis rarely gains traction. Hyperbole prevails. It's two sides of the same rotten coin. This season wasn't a referendum on Thibodeau's genius or ineptitude. 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Once James Dolan hired former agent Leon Rose and gave him room to operate, the team pivoted from star-chasing to smart-drafting, financially-disciplined and culture-building. Rose hired Thibodeau, his former client, to instill a ready-to-work mentality, then brought in Jalen Brunson, who emerged as a legitimate MVP candidate. Last summer Rose doubled down, cashing in draft capital and depth to reunite Brunson with Villanova teammate Mikal Bridges and adding Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. That core delivered 51 wins and propelled New York to fifth in offensive rating (117.3) and eighth in net rating (4.0). They gutted out a first-round win over Detroit, then stunned top-seeded Boston in six behind a lethal Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll and a defense that played the gaps and switched more aggressively than at any point in the regular season. But against Indiana, their momentum stalled. The Pacers' fast-paced 10-man rotation overwhelmed New York. They sent waves of defenders at Brunson, while Andrew Nembhard turned in the best defensive series of his career. After that epic collapse in the series opener, Thibodeau had already shortened the rotation to seven for Game 2. He brought in Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride to shore up the pick-and-roll defense, where Brunson and Towns are most vulnerable. In Game 3, Thibodeau improvised, going nine-deep. Towns scored 20 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to erase a 20-point deficit. Delon Wright and Landry Shamet were crucial on the defensive end. But in Game 4, neither Wright nor Shamet played in the third quarter, when Indiana seized control. They returned in the fourth, but Thibodeau closed with his usual starters, a group that was minus-20 in the series and minus-41 across the playoffs. Despite being plus-8 in Game 3, McBride, Wright and Shamet never shared the floor together in Game 4. Thibodeau's most damaging choice may have been closing with Hart over McBride, who had barely guarded Tyrese Haliburton. Ironically, Thibodeau made the same decisions in Game 5, but the Knicks won and critics went quiet. Wright and Shamet again sat the third quarter. Robinson again didn't close. The hypocrisy of Thibs detractors borders on performative. The Knicks played from behind in nearly every playoff game except Game 5. Critics use this as justification to call for Thibodeau's dismissal. But 17 turnovers in Games 4 and 6 – not a product of coaching – were decisive. The team's 19.5 assists per game in the series weren't on Thibodeau either. He ran a wide array of actions – horn sets, pin-downs, DHO, high pick-and-roll – but Indiana smothered secondary options, forcing Brunson and Towns into iso-heavy, low-efficiency looks. Brunson recorded just five assists to Towns across the entire series. That lack of connection played right into Rick Carlisle's hands. His game plan –blitzing on switches, walling off Hart and Bridges in the lane – was clinical. Carlisle outcoached Thibodeau. But there's no shame in that. Carlisle is a champion and one of the sharpest minds in the game. Every player in the Knicks' main seven-man rotation had a fatal flaw: Bridges' handle, Anunoby's rebounding, Hart's shooting, Robinson's durability, McBride's playmaking. Thibodeau isn't a fraud or a genius. He gave fans what they asked for: deeper rotations, experimental lineups, extended minutes for the Towns-Robinson twin tower pairing. It still wasn't enough. The Pacers were simply better. Now it's on Rose to retool the roster. That likely starts with keeping Robinson as the starting center and reconsidering Hart's role. His lack of shooting limits five-out spacing and his defense, once a calling card, has regressed. He struggled consistenly on switches and blew key rotations. Brunson and Towns remain elite offensively, but both are liabilities in transition and in ball-screen coverage. The Knicks' regular-season defense was 2.8 points per 100 possessions better with Towns off the floor. In the playoffs, that gap narrowed –but problems remained. Thibodeau tried everything: starting Robinson, pre-switching with Anunoby, plugging in Hart. When Towns dropped, Indiana hit jumpers. When he switched, they beat him off the dribble. By Game 6, the starting unit had a minus-33 defensive rating. Poor communication plagued them all season. This wasn't a collapse. It was a ceiling. The Knicks are no longer a punchline. They're a real team with real stakes and real expectations. Every game in this series was winnable. They weren't embarrassed, but they were outplayed. Visibility brings volume, however. The higher the stakes, the louder the takes. Knicks fandom now operates like a two-party system. Its future may depend on whether fan – and the franchise – can embrace complexity instead of shouting past each other.
