The Pacers earned their probability after crushing the Knicks in historic Game 7

NEW YORK – As all the time, Knicks Nation was convincing and significant as its team lost Game 7 to the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden.

“(Bleeping) Scrubs,” said one well-reasoned fan as he left MSG in the ultimate minutes of the 130-108 loss.

The home fans were bitterly upset. No one on this island would have believed that the Pacers and the massive boy, the Knicks, even exhausted, could compete on a winning streak for a spot within the conference finals so long as Jalen Brunson was healthy and New York could proceed to grab a handful offensive rebounds. ESPN seemed clear in its coverage plan. But the Pacers bowed their necks to point out what that they had learned and the way that they had grown in recent months. They cheered on the Knicks and their wealthy fans within the celebrity circle. They noted how few national reporters had been in attendance incessantly this season. Their coach appeared to take enjoyment of stating the disrespect his team had suffered.

And Tyrese Haliburton arrived on the postgame press conference wearing a Reggie Miller hoodie, with Reg in classic “Knicks Choked” mode, a tribute to the franchise's all-time best player and in Gotham.

“I just like to feel comfortable on the plane,” Haliburton said, tongue firmly planted on his cheek.

Tyrese Haliburton in a Reggie Miller sweatshirt after winning Game 7 on the Garden 😈 pic.twitter.com/TKuOc3t1zu

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 19, 2024

Even after they broke the previous record for the best field goal percentage by a team in a Game 7, With a success rate of 67 percent (53 of 79 shots) and an NBA playoff record of 24 three-point throws, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle repeatedly relied on his team's defense when it mattered most.

“They flipped the script,” Carlisle said. “They won the series with courage and physical effort. Press 94 feet. And that's how we beat Milwaukee (in the first round). You have to give these guys a lot of credit, not for a total change, but for a very significant change in the attitude towards defense, in the defiance, in the importance of defense and in what they did today. I don’t want to make anything about shooting.”

In fact, the Pacers' metamorphosis has been profound because the first month of the season, when Indy was cosmically bad defensively. It took the exertions of connecting and getting louder on defense. However, Indiana also had to depart its comfort zone and put all of its efforts into the center of the table by signing Pascal Siakam from Toronto in mid-January as a part of a three-team deal that also included New Orleans, after which there was no guarantee of playoffs, that the two-time All-Star and upcoming unrestricted free agent will remain.

“I focused on calming everyone down at the beginning of the game,” Siakam said. “I acted aggressively and just made sure everyone calmed down. After everyone calmed down, (Haliburton) took over. And he can do that with the best in the game. And of course the back and forth gets you going.”

Siakam made his first five shots from the ground en path to 20 points. Haliburton scored three-pointers in the primary quarter, including a dead sprint to the left wing for a 26-foot player in transition, scoring 11 points in lower than two minutes. Indiana scored 39 points in the primary quarter and led 70-55 at halftime. The Pacers' offensive performance was stunning in its completeness.

“It's just the old-fashioned mindset that you can't play that fast in the playoffs,” Haliburton said. “But I think opportunistically you can do it. If we get stops, obviously we can.”

But Carlisle was right. Indiana could have had higher defensive nights numerically within the series against the Knicks, but considering how much was at stake in Game 7 on the road, this was Indiana's finest defensive hour. Before Brunson left the sport within the second half after breaking his left hand, he was just 6 of 17 from the ground. TJ McConnell again caused trouble when he got here off the bench. And after being significantly beaten on the glass in the primary two games of the series, Indy outscored New York in 4 of the last five games, winning all 4 games.

Indiana's defensive metamorphosis began with a run to the in-season tournament finals in December, when Haliburton's star was rising nationally. But even then, Indy got here crashing back all the way down to earth, getting beaten by the Lakers within the IST finals in Las Vegas. The Pacers got LA's best probability and located that what they were doing wasn't ok. Haliburton was impressed with the Lakers' attention to detail on defense and the way closely they followed the Indiana team scout.

“I think the biggest thing was the experience,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “We had a lot of guys who hadn’t played high-level basketball or important games. The in-season tournament was like a heightened sense of urgency in all of these games. We know how we started the year defensively, but we all came together and said to ourselves: If we can just get from 30 to average, we can be a damn good team.”

The day after Christmas, Carlisle blew up his starting lineup, bringing in Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Jalen Smith alongside Haliburton and Turner. This group had a net rating of minus-4.6 and a defensive rating of 120.8. Not great by any means, but no less than the defensive bleeding wasn't as severe because it had been in the primary two months. When Siakam got here on board, the Pacers' D really took off; in 25 games of Haliburton-Nembhard-Nesmith-Siakam-Turner, Indiana's defensive rating was 107.2, with a net rating of 6.4.

McConnell said there was a variety of soul-searching.

“I think it was masked by the hellish offense we were playing with, but it just wasn’t good enough,” McConnell said. “You don’t get to this point without turning things around defensively. My thanks to the coaching staff and everyone else for… just looking in the mirror to get better at the end.”

Acquiring Siakam not only meant gifting away three first-round picks to Toronto – two this season, one in 2026 – but in addition veteran forward Bruce Brown, whom Indiana signed to much fanfare last offseason after Brown left Denver helped Nuggets win the title. Brown wasn't necessarily a great fit for Indy, but he had the pedigree of a champion. Of course, this also applies to Siakam, who helped the Raptors get a hoop in 2019. But Brown is under contract for next season. It's not Siakam.

Siakam is impressed with the way in which the Pacers are doing things, even beyond Haliburton's emergence (though that's essential, too). With President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard and General Manager Chad Buchanan, Indy has experienced executive stability and a transparent vision for tips on how to construct around Haliburton. In Carlisle, the Pacers have among the finest tacticians in the sport who all the time seems to get absolutely the maximum out of his squad.

“After the in-season tournament, we just decided as a team that we needed to get better,” Carlisle said. “… I just told our guys we’re going to compete and get better. Offensively, we were at a historic pace, but to get to where we are now and where we want to be in this next round and in the future, what we did offensively was not sustainable. That just wasn't feasible. Not if you can’t defend and rebound consistently.”

The task of beating top-seeded and well-rested Boston at TD Garden starting Tuesday is Indiana's biggest challenge yet. The Celtics might be without center Kristaps Porziņģis for the beginning of the series, but are otherwise healthy. They have been the most effective team within the league all season. They had a comparatively easy path to the conference finals.

Yet listed below are the Pacers, twiddling with house money and still removed from dominating the town's sports headlines. The 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place next Sunday, and the WNBA's Indiana Fever has a rookie guard who appears to have attracted some attention.

The Pacers will proceed to fly under the radar and like it.