GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Jalen Brunson held a metal chair. Tyrese Haliburton had brass knuckles.
Because the star level guards glared at one another in a WWE wrestling ring final summer time in Madison Sq. Backyard, it appeared a becoming subsequent step within the rivalry between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. It’s already featured headbutts and chokes, so why not weapons?
The groups go at it once more beginning Wednesday night time in Sport 1 of the Knicks’ first journey to the Japanese Convention finals in 25 years, with the winner of their ninth playoff matchup headed to the NBA Finals.
“It’s clearly a storied rivalry between the 2 franchises, so so as to add one other chapter to it’s going to be plenty of enjoyable,” Haliburton stated.
It positive was for Haliburton and the Pacers final 12 months when the groups met within the second spherical. Indiana received Sport 7 at Madison Sq. Backyard in opposition to a Knicks staff that was decimated by accidents, capturing an NBA playoff-record 67.1% from the sector in a 130-109 romp. Haliburton scored 26 factors and afterward wore a sweatshirt to his information convention with an image of Reggie Miller making a choke sign towards Knicks fan Spike Lee on the sidelines throughout a playoff recreation three many years earlier.
Haliburton returned to the Backyard to troll New York followers once more a couple of month later, making an attempt to intrude in a match on behalf of Logan Paul. Brunson, with a seat within the crowd close to the ring, intervened and LA Knight pinned Paul.
After the match, Brunson grabbed the chair and entered the ring to guard the winner when it appeared Paul and Haliburton had him surrounded.
“I’ll be again! I’ll be again!” Haliburton yelled towards followers after exiting the ring.
Nicely, right here he comes.
“It was clearly one thing that he wished to do and the way in which he performed final 12 months within the playoffs, I imply, it was becoming,” Brunson stated. “And so, he performed properly within the Backyard. Clearly Knicks followers and Pacers followers, they trip. However I believe he did a fantastic job with it final 12 months however now we’re shifting on.“
A Knicks-Pacers sequence could possibly be penciled into the spring schedule within the Nineties. The groups met six occasions in an eight-year span, beginning with a 1993 sequence that included John Starks getting ejected for head-butting Miller. Indiana received the final one in that stretch, a victory within the 2000 East finals the newest time the Knicks superior this far.
This time, it’s a shock. Cleveland and Boston ran away to the highest two data within the East, however the Knicks ousted the defending champions and the Pacers blew away the top-seeded Cavaliers in 5 video games to arrange this matchup between the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
Issues are completely different now. Brunson and Haliburton are pleasant, having been teammates in 2023 on the U.S. staff that performed within the Basketball World Cup. However Miller will probably be within the area, working the video games as an analyst for TNT, so there will probably be a reminder of the way in which Knicks-Pacers was once.
“There was undoubtedly a way of hatred for one another. So I believe that makes rivalry,” Knicks middle Karl-Anthony Cities stated. “They’ve a historical past of discovering a solution to finish one another’s season, so it’s as much as us now so as to add our names into historical past and see what we do.”
The postseason historical past
The Pacers lead the sequence 5-3. When the groups have met within the East finals, the Knicks received in 1994 and 1999 — after they reached the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed — and the Pacers received in 2000.
The 2024-25 historical past
The Knicks went 2-1 in opposition to the Pacers, with all of the conferences earlier than the All-Star break. Cities had 30.3 factors and 12 rebounds per recreation for the Knicks, who averaged 124 factors on 53.9% capturing.
A torrid Tempo
The Pacers had been simply 10-15 after a loss to Charlotte on Dec. 8. Counting the playoffs, they’re 48-19 since.
A June reunion?
An NBA Finals matchup between the Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves is a chance after they made a blockbuster commerce on the eve of the preseason. The Knicks acquired Cities by sending Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota. Cities, the Wolves’ No. 1 choose in 2015, isn’t fascinated by that but.
“We’ve obtained to get there first,” he stated. “I ain’t going to fret about one thing that we’re not there but. Step-by-step.“
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AP Sports activities Author Michael Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
