The NBA is down to its final four teams.
The conference finals matchups are set, with the No. 4 Indiana Pacers taking on the No. 3 New York Knicks in the East and the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves facing the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the West.
And in the East, the marquee matchup is at point guard, where Jalen Brunson of the Knicks and Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers will be counted on to carry their respective teams. Yet, each squad will need so much more to advance, from role players stepping up to coaches making the necessary adjustments.
Here are five storylines to watch in the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks:
Will New York retain balance and multiple contributors?
When the Knicks have struggled in these playoffs, it’s because they became too reliant on one or two players — typically point guard Jalen Brunson and center Karl-Anthony Towns — for offensive production. When New York has been at its best, the ball swings around and finds open players, exploiting gaps in defensive coverage. Players like forward OG Anunoby, for example, are averaging 19.0 points per game in New York playoff victories, compared to 9.3 points in losses.
Will Tyrese Haliburton stay aggressive with his scoring?
The Pacers have an adjacent concern, but it’s in many ways the opposite of New York’s. Indiana, simply put, performs far better when All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is aggressive and seeks his offense. Known as a distributor, and one who led the NBA this season in assist-to-turnover ratio (5.61), Haliburton can often become far too deferential. In Pacers playoff losses, he’s averaging just 9.0 points per game on 9.5 field goal attempts. In victories, those figures jump to 19.6 on 14.3 attempts. A more aggressive approach from Haliburton usually opens up the rest of Indiana’s offense. Halliburton is also averaging 2.3 more assists per game in wins vs. losses.
The battle of the coaches
Rick Carlisle of the Pacers and Tom Thibodeaux of the Knicks have coached 3,108 games in their careers combined, including the postseason. They’re each savvy coaches who preach fundamentals and team play. They also have very clear philosophies they want their teams to embody. Yet, series can often swing when a coach crafts a schematic change that breaks from a team’s conventional approach or when they deploy specific one-on-one matchups to neutralize the other team’s strength. The coaching battle in this series should be fascinating to watch.
Which X-factors will step up?
Against the Celtics, the Knicks saw backup center Mitchell Robinson — who posted a combined +46 plus-minus across the six games of the series — play valuable minutes off the bench. Robinson supplied energy and defensive versatility, at times guarding all five positions. Against the Cavaliers, the Pacers saw guard Aaron Nesmith provide valuable scoring, averaging 14.4 points per game. Deep in the playoffs, usually, teams advance because of the contributions of role players and reserves. That won’t be any different in this matchup.
Fast vs. slow
In many ways, this is a matchup of contrasting offensive styles. The Pacers like to play quickly, collecting boards and racing out into transition to destabilize opposing defenses. They ranked seventh in the NBA in pace, generating 100.76 possessions per 48 minutes. The Knicks — forward Josh Hart, primarily — do occasionally like to sprint out in transition to capitalize on a mismatch, but they are otherwise fairly deliberate in half-court sets. They ranked 26th in pace (97.64). This series may very well go to the team that’s able to dictate pace and rhythm.