In the winter of 1992, the early stages of the dynastic race of the Chicago Bulls, the then general manager of Indiana Pacers, Donnie Walsh, reflected on how exactly he wanted to check his list. He remembers the exact moment that hit inspiration.
Or, with greater precision, at the time he leveled the star guard Reggie Miller.
The Pacers were hosts of the New York's Knicks of Pat Riley on December 30, and Indiana was executing a SET play on the offensive. The Rik Smits center controlled at the top of the key, while Miller showed the elbow before cutting to the edge with the hope of receiving a rear door pass from the big man of the Pacers. The ball came there. Miller did not.
Before the future member of the Hall of Fame could set foot in the painting, the executor of the Knicks Charles Oakley took a step forward and had a shoulder waiting for Miller. The guard crashed into the ground when the ball left the limits.
“Whoa!” The game announcer per game, Marv Albert, said in the transmission, damping by the collective groan of the multitude of Indiana. The officials, perhaps thrown by the pure strength of Oakley's action, surprisingly chose not to call a fault. All this stayed with Walsh.
“The referees had no idea what to do,” Walsh said about Miller's collision with Oakley, which later led the New York striker to be fined $ 10,000 by the League office even though the foul was not called. “At that time, I said: 'This summer, I have two guys like oak.' Because players would immediately change the composition of our team.”
Add the Derrick McKey defense oriented guard and physical power forward Antonio Davis did exactly that. And as Walsh transformed tempo pacemakers so that they like the Grindstone Knicks, the creations of what would later become a burning rivalry began to form.
Indiana and New York, who will play for the crown of the East Conference that begins on Wednesday, have a ton of shared and very dramatic history of playoffs. They met in three consecutive series from 1993 to 1995 and six times in eight posts from 1993 to 2000.
The rivalry was renewed last year, when the clubs realized in the semifinals of the conference, with Indiana won the series taking out the Knicks in the garden with a historical shooting performance in game 7.
As this is the ninth playoff meeting among the rivals, we classify the first eight clashes, full of touches, celebrities of celebrities, classic returns, injuries that change the series, played of four ghost points and iconic blocks, before preparing the stage for what could make the next chapter this year be worthy of the series A.
1. 1995 semifinals del Este
In one of Miller's most emblematic moments, he scored eight points in nine seconds when the Knicks melted, paying a six -point advantage in the last 19 seconds to lose the game 1 at home.
The Pacers built an advantage of the 3-1 series, but New York returned to force a game 7, only for Patrick Ewing to lose a possible finger roll that pushes the edge of the back when the final bell rang. (I had made a dramatic float of change with 1.8 seconds to win the game 5)
With the victory of the series, Miller and the Pacers not only closed the Knicks on the garden floor, but also closed the Riley era. The coach resigned from his concert with New York 10 days later and agreed to take care of the Miami Heat as coach and president of the team. (New York accused Miami of manipulation while Riley was still under contract in New York. An agreement, $ 1 million and a first round of the Heat, cleared the way for Riley to take the job officially).
2. 1994 EAST EAST finals
With Michael Jordan retired from the NBA to play professional baseball, there was a golden opportunity for both clubs, which were tied in game 5 of the conference finals.
The Knicks were in two digits during most of the game, one in which Miller was shooting badly, giving ammunition to the Knicks fans and the legendary filmmaker Spike Lee to repeatedly take the guard. But Miller caught fire in the last quarter, looking at Lee Courteside every time he hit a shot. After a particularly long Miller triple, which gave Indiana the advantage, looked at Lee and put both hands around her own neck, a suggestion that the Knicks were drowning the game and did not have what was needed to close it.
Miller would finish game 5 with 39 points, 25 in just 10 shots in the room, to take Indiana to the impressive return and an advantage of the 3-2 series. But New York Cavó deep and won game 6 in the enemy territory behind the 26 points of Guard John Starks. A performance for the Ewing ages: 24 points, 22 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 blocks and the winning dump of game 7 and jumped to the Knicks to the finals.
3. 1999 East East Finals
The new Knicks, year of blocking, with Latrell Sprewell instead of Starks and Marcus Camby instead of Oakley, lost Ewing for a partially torn aquiles tendon that suffered (but played) in game 2 of the series.
But this series is more remembered for what happened in game 3. With the Pacers for three points in the garden with just under 12 seconds, Indiana coach Larry Brown implored his players to implement adjusted perimeter coverage to avoid giving up a triple. The Knicks striker, Larry Johnson, caught the incoming pass, Davis captivated to take it out to be balanced, then let a 24 -foot attempt fly.
He found the lower part of the network while officer Jess Kersey was flying his whistle for a foul, a very doubtful, since Davis did not seem to do much, if he has any, with Johnson. (Even Kersey himself acknowledged a year after the call was a mistake.
4. 2024 SEMIFINALS OF THE ESTE
There was a handful of great moments during the first games of this series: namely the strange rape of the kick kick at the end of game 1 that should not have been whistled (and clearly disadvantaged the Pacers) and the deep Andrew Nembhard 3 that helped Indiana seal game 3 to keep the club afloat in the series. But, above all, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and the Pacers gathered a dominant performance of game 7 on the road, hanging 39 points in the Knicks only in the first quarter.
That initial burst was a sign of things to come. Indy triggered a 67.1% playoff record from the field in a contest where the already beaten knicks became even more thin. Og Anunoby did everything possible to return to the alignment after striving for the hamstrings before the series, but he could barely move and was quickly transferred. The star guard Jalen Brunson broke his hand during the game. Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic, all key members of the Knicks rotation, had already been discarded for the season. Because of that, you can bet that the players of this Knicks team, who led the 3-2 series before losing two in a row, will savor the revenge shot, even if they do not say it publicly.
5. 2013 EAST semifinals
The defense of the best classified paers, directed by Paul George and Roy Hibbert, gave Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks fit throughout the series of six games. In particular, the number 2, New York, could not get the Big Hibbert papers out of the basket and could not comfortably score around the edge.
The clearest example of this: with five minutes in the decisive factor, and the Knicks uploaded 92-90, Anthony had a step in George and turned the baseline before attacking the basket. He climbed a single hand, but the 7-2 Hibbert met him there for an outstanding block.
Hibbert has said he has two posters of the block, possibly the defining game in his career, in his home.
6. 2000 East Finals
Miller kept the best for the last one in a way, hitting a crowd placement dagger after another and scoring 34 points, including 5 by 7 of 3, in the garden to knock out the Knicks at home in six games. This confrontation was the last playoff meeting between the clubs that involved Miller and Ewing, which were 34 and 37, respectively. (Ewing lost games 3 and 4 with an injured foot).
Indiana's victory earned the franchise its first, and alone, a trip to the NBA finals, where the Pacers would fall against Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Phil Jackson and Los Angeles Lakers.
7. 1993 EAST FIRST ROUND
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Stephen A. and John Starks are excited about the victory of the Knicks
Stephen A. Smith and John Starks cannot contain their emotion in “SportsCenter” after the Knicks eliminate the Celtics.
The 60 -win Knicks had the opportunity to sweep Indiana in three games (the League did not move towards the best of seven in the first round until 2003), but Starks Miller in the third quarter with his team ahead.
The decision expelled him, angry at Oakley and Ewing, and also completely changed the impulse of the game. The Pacers had a 59-34 race for the rest of the game to avoid elimination. Fortunately for Starks, the Knicks closed the Pacers in game 4.
8. 1998 semifinals del Este
The 58 victories' paers, who added Chris Mullin and Jalen rose the previous low season, had a clear advantage in this series: the Knicks had been playing for months without Ewing, who had destroyed their shooting doll in a devastating fall against the Milwaukee Bucks just before Christmas. New York managed to obtain by Riley and the Heat in the first round, but dropped his first game with Indiana.
The 1-0 deficit caused a vigorous rehabilitation of Ewing, who returned to game 2 but with too much oxide to have an immediate impact.
The series ended in five games, with Indiana using its elite balance of the fourth best offensive of the League and the fifth best defense to establish a confrontation of the conference final with Jordan and the Bulls of “Last Dance”.
Where could East 2025 land land?
Are you looking for more drama? You have found the correct series. After the Pacers won in seven games in 2024, Haliburton wore a sweater with an image of Miller making his famous strangulator signal towards Spike Lee, solidifying the Pacers shipowner as a Villain of Madison Square Garden in the same way that Young brings it became one.
Even WWE took advantage of the stage, organizing a confrontation between Brunson and Haliburton when Pro Wrestling Tour arrived at the garden. “WWE, they were cooking when they did that,” Brunson said about the coincidence that the Knicks and the Pacers face the playoffs again after the trick.
Brunson said he has a lot of respect for Haliburton, who was chosen by the Knicks star for the United States Olympic list that won the gold medal last year. The two met as teammates during the FIBA 2023 World Cup.
If this series continues the wild scripts at the end of the game that both teams have been following, this confrontation could climb this list as one of the best playoffs of the Knicks-Pacers playoffs.
Both teams have had a pair of unlikely returns of 20 points in this postseason, once against the Bucks and the Cavaliers for Indiana, and twice against the Celtics for the Knicks. And Haliburton and Brunson have been two of the best artists when it matters. The Knicks floor general leads the playoffs in clutch baskets with 14, while the Indiana star has a better league, four of this type, which this postseason does when it looks only the last minute of games.
