The series doesn’t start until the home team loses. In Game 7, it finally happened.
The Indiana Pacers are moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals after taking down the New York Knicks 130-109 in Game 7, silencing the Madison Square Garden crowd in the process.
They got off to a ridiculously hot start, scoring 39 points in the first quarter and 70 in the first half as they simply refused to miss. They went back to the locker room with a 15-point lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Their 101 points after the third quarter were the most in a Game 7 in the last 50 years.
On the night, they shot a ridiculous 53-for-79 (67 per cent) from the field and 13-for-24 (54 per cent) from 3-point range, stifling any chance of a Knicks comeback with their timely shotmaking.
All-star guard Tyrese Haliburton led the way with 26 points while former Toronto Raptor Pascal Siakam tacked on 20 of his own.
Meanwhile for the Knicks, Donte DiVincenzo’s 39 points and Jalen Brunson’s inefficient 17 weren’t enough to catch up to Indiana’s ridiculous scoring pace. They lost defence-first wing OG Anunoby only four minutes into the game after he was a last-minute return to the lineup and Brunson left with a fractured hand with four minutes left in the third quarter.
This is the first time since the 2013-14 season that the Pacers advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. They lost to the LeBron James-led Miami Heat that year.
They’ll now get a chance to build on an incredible breakout season after missing the playoffs the past three years and will take on the juggernaut No. 1 seed Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals. They last met the Celtics in the first round of the 2018-19 post-season and were swept.
Game 1 of their third-round series will tip off on Tuesday, May 21.
