Styles make fights. And this Eastern Conference semifinal between the Knicks and Pacers is going to come down to the Knicks looking for a slugfest and the Pacers wanting a track meet.
“Obviously, we want to play Knicks basketball. They’re going to try to play Pacers basketball. It’s going to be a grind. It’s going to be a battle,” Jalen Brunson said. “After the first game, we’re going to have to adjust, whether we win or lose. Adjusting is how you win these types of things.”
Brunson, an MVP candidate in the regular season, has leveled up in the postseason. His scoring average of 35.5 points per game coming into this series is the highest in the playoffs, shouldering the offensive burden after All-Star teammate Julius Randle went down for the season with surgery on his shoulder.
Now, Brunson will face off against his Team USA teammate in Tyrese Haliburton in a battle of star point guards. Haliburton averaged 19.7 points and 13.3 assists in three games against the Knicks, with Indiana taking the season series. But that series has little bearing on this one.
All of those meetings took place before the All-Star break, and OG Anunoby didn’t face Indiana in any of them. The Knicks are 24-5 with their defensive ace in the lineup, and expect his work on Pacers star Pascal Siakam — his former Toronto teammate — to be pivotal.
His key to pulling out the series against the league’s highest-scoring team?
“Togetherness. Resilience. Competitiveness,” Anunoby said. “Just not letting go.”
The Post takes a look at how the teams match up:
Knicks’ 3-point shooting vs. Pacers’ 3-point defense
The strongest link in a weak chain called Indiana’s defense.
While the Pacers allowed the fourth-most points per 100 possessions, their 3-point defense, based on shooting percentage, was 16th in the league, though they were the best in the league in attempts (29.3) and makes (10.7) allowed per game.
And those numbers got even more impressive when one adjusts for their breakneck pace. The Pacers conceded just 28.7 attempts per 100 possessions; nobody else was less than 32.4. They don’t do a ton of things well on defense, but running shooters off the line is one of them.
Meanwhile, despite Donte DiVincenzo shattering the team record for 3-pointers (283), the Knicks were still just 10th in makes and 14th in percentage.
Edge: Pacers
Pacers’ 3-points shooting vs. Knicks’ 3-point defense
Indiana was a decent 3-point shooting team in the regular season, top 10 in percentage. But in the postseason, they’ve leaned into that.
The Pacers took more attempts from deep in the first round (40.7) than any other team, and their 14.0 makes per game were second. No, Haliburton didn’t shoot well, just .296 against Milwaukee, but he sure got his looks up, as did Myles Turner, Aaron Nesmith and Co.
The Knicks are going to have to stay home on the arc or pay the price. If there’s a way to attack their withering defense, this is it.
Only two teams allowed more 3s in the first round than their 13.5 per game, and the Bucks and Heat both got sent packing. Rest assured, Haliburton will test this.
Edge: Pacers
Rebounding
Look up the definition of lopsided, and it’s this matchup on the boards.
Randle is out for the season. Mitchell Robinson missed 51 games, and the Knicks still mauled teams on the boards like Jaws going after bloody meat. They led the league in rebounding percentage (52.7), while Indiana ranked just 24th. New York was first in offensive rebound percentage as well.
Even against the Joel Embiid-led Sixers, their 37.0 offensive rebound percentage was the second-best of any team in the first round. The platoon of Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein are already a handful, but adding 6-foot-4 wing Josh Hart’s preternatural ability to rebound (8.3) almost seems unfair.
The addition of Pascal Siakam gives Indiana a capable rebounder (team-high 7.8) to go with Turner, but they’re outclassed on the glass. Badly.
Edge: Knicks overwhelmingly
Drawing fouls and shooting free throws
Possibly due to the loss of Randle, the Knicks were just 14th at earning free throws at 21.8. That’s just one extra foul shot more than the Pacers (22nd at 20.5). That’s a barely noticeable razor-thin margin.
But the playoffs have told a different story. The Knicks attacked the paint against Philadelphia and averaged two dozen attempts, while Indiana earned just 17.8 in its first-round series. It bears watching how these games are called.
Indiana doesn’t have an Embiid-like presence, the Sixers’ star having drawn a league-best 11.6 attempts this season. Siakam has drawn just five per game — 4.2 since joining the Pacers midseason. Turner is at 4.1, the rest even worse.
Edge: Knicks overwhelmingly
Knicks’ ability to get paint points vs. the Pacers’ interior defense
The only thing the Pacers do better than run is allow points in the paint.
Indiana surrendered the most paint points in the entire league this season at 58.4 points.
The Knicks finished 19th in paint scoring at 48.9, and that’s hamstrung by the loss of Randle and his post game. Brunson averaged 11.6 points in the paint, second among guards. But the Pacers don’t appear to be set to provide much resistance.
The Knicks’ board work has been well-established. They were second in the league in second-chance points at 16.3 per game, while Indiana allowed the fifth-most second chance points (15.8).
The Pacers are a top-10 team in blocks, but weakside rejections are not the same as positional defense in the paint. Indiana allowed the second-highest shooting percentage between five and nine feet from the rim. The Pacers full-court press helped beat the Bucks; but break that, and they’re vulnerable in the paint.
Edge: Knicks overwhelmingly
Pacers’ ability to get paint points vs. Knicks’ interior defense
This should be fun to watch.
Indiana scores the most paint points in the league at 57.9, more than two points better than the runner-up Lakers. They won’t post up the way Embiid did, but have Haliburton and Siakam in the pick-and-pop.
And the Knicks are stout. Robinson and Hartenstein provide rim protection. They allowed the sixth-fewest points in the paint over the course of the season. And coming out of a first-round win over Philadelphia and Embiid having averaged the fewest paint points allowed of any team in the playoffs so far (36.3) is nothing short of miraculous.
Edge: Even
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Knicks in the NBA playoffs
- Knicks’ Game 7 pressure even greater with no guarantee of return
- Knicks get surprise OG Anunoby injury update ahead of Game 7
- Josh Hart’s Knicks status for Game 7 murky as he battles abdominal strain
- Knicks have Game 7 Garden history on their side going into win-or-go-home Pacers matchup
In transition
The Knicks ranked just 15th in transition points, though they bumped that up to second (15.7) in the opening round of the playoffs thanks to the active ball-hawking perimeter defense of Anunoby, Hart and Miles McBride.
But if the Knicks were middle of the pack, the Pacers have led that pack all season. Indiana’s pressure kept the Bucks on the back foot, and they allowed the fewest transition points in the postseason at just 6.3. And their own running game is well-documented. Indiana was second in the league in pace and averaged 16.6 fast-break points. Slowing them down will be a huge key.
“Yeah, they play very fast. They get the ball out quick, throw it ahead, get up a lot of 3s. They just play really fast, probably the highest pace in the league. … So, it’ll be challenging for us to get back on defense,” said Anunoby. “It’s an emphasis in film. Coach does a good job preparing us for that and we know coming into it to be ready for that.”
Edge: Pacers
Depth/bench
The Pacers averaged 46.8 bench points per game in the regular season, the most in the league. The Knicks averaged 28.4, the least. Then the playoffs hit, and Tom Thibodeau — known for short rotations and extended minutes — doubled down.
In the clinching Game 6 in Philadelphia, his usual seven-man rotation essentially became six. The bench had just five points on 2-of-7 shooting. Every starter logged at least 44 minutes except Hartenstein, who continued his platoon with Robinson. Robinson played 17:46, McBride just 9:02 and everybody else got a DNP.
Meanwhile, ex-Knick Obi Toppin was the Pacers’ leading scorer when they closed out Milwaukee with 21 points, while TJ McConnell added 20 on 7-of-9 shooting and a stellar plus-22. It was the first time since 2014 the Pacers won a series, and the bench will have to dominate for them to make it two in a row.
Edge: Pacers overwhelmingly
Coaching
Thibodeau has two Coach of the Year trophies, but this might be his finest job yet. He’s gotten blood out of a stone with this team, earning the second seed in the East and the Knicks’ first 50-win season since 2013 despite a long-term injury to Robinson and the absence of Randle.
Rick Carlisle has his own NBA Coach of the Year in 2002, and a title from nine years later that Thibodeau would love to emulate.
Edge: Even
Intangibles
Indiana is flying high after winning its first series in a decade, and adding Siakam’s experience to Haliburton’s leadership and playmaking is dangerous.
But scouts that The Post talked to just gushed over the Knicks’ toughness, grit and selfless play. They went a staggering 25-4 with defensive ace Anunoby in the lineup, and were 27-14 at home.
With a potential Game 7 at the Garden, that matters.
Edge: Knicks
