Game 1, Sunday, May 5, 3:30pm ABC

Both teams are coming off big series clinching road wins and have a quick turnaround to get ready for round 2. This should be an interesting series. At first thought I think most people are going to count out the Pacers but their size and defensive ability should keep them in the series. With David West not playing at 100% the Knicks should have an advantage but they won’t have a size or rebounding advantage in this one.

If you watched even one second of the Pacers/Hawks series, god bless you. That was as unwatchable a series as there has ever been. That being said the Pacers are a strong defensive and rebounding team. They are two thirds of the way to being the best team in the league, they just can’t score. They love when games are considered “ugly”. They are at their best when they can slow the pace and turn games into 82-78 wins.

The Knicks I still do not believe in. Call me a homer if you want but the Knicks are a great streetball team. Remember playing at the park/gym or as a kid in some league when you were teamed up with the guy that was fucking terrible but would keep throwing up shots and acting like he usually hits them? That’s the Knicks only they have hit what feels like every one of them this year. The isolation basketball often results in a bad shot

Take their best player for example. Carmelo Anthony is probably the worst teammate in the NBA. He only averaged 2.6 apg despite being the focal part of their offense on over a third of their offensive possessions. He is at his best when he is making his decision under four seconds. When he starts to take seven or eight seconds to make something happen he hurts the team. Point being he takes bad shots plain and simple. But he makes a lot of those bad shots and if he takes said bad shots inside of four seconds he is not costing the team as much as he is when he takes seven or eight seconds. Don’t get me wrong Carmelo is a scoring machine, but teams know that, that is all he is. He does not look to pass he looks to play street ball and just beat whoever is guarding him.

The Knicks can win this series by doing what they have done all year, make shots. It is as simple as that. They have made shots all year long no matter how low a percentage chance at scoring they are. They seem to make everything they take. If they keep that up the defense of the Pacers will not matter. But if I know anything about playoff basketball...

The Bet:

Pacers +165 to win the series

Simply put, I can not trust the Knicks offense at all. I have not trusted it all year and it has backfired on me but that has not made me any wiser. Their offense is based nearly on pure luck and if the best defense in the NBA can not stop the bullshit then we might as well write them in as NBA Champions because there is a greater power at hand.

mlz

Saturday, May 4, 2013