As I wake up on this Monday morning, I've heard arguements from both sides of the table, about who's going to win this Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.
Game one went to the Pacers 102-95, stealing one in Madison Square Garden.
I took two things from game one: the Pacers are a really good defensive ball club, and if the
Knicks are going to win this series Carmelo Anthony and JR Smith must play well.
Notice I said play well not just shoot well, playing well means being active on defense, taking good shots and winning the 50/50 battles.
The Pacers imposed their style of play, they let the Knicks take the bad shots, and they controlled the boards, winning the rebounding battle and points in the paint.
The Knicks are going to need for Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin to do their job, and that's rebound. The two combined for six rebounds, that's not going to cut it.
When you are taking jumpers and hitting them rebounding isn't an issue, but when you settle for long jumpers and aren't hitting you lose the battle for second chance opportunites. The Knicks are going to have to shoot well and rebound if they want to win this series, because the Pacers are long.
The knock on the Knicks is that they struggle with good defense ball clubs along the likes of Chicago, Miami and from the looks of game one the Pacers.
The victories against the Heat, don't fall in love with them, Miami is the better team.
This is a perfect opportunity for the Knicks to silence the critics, for Carmelo Anthony to answer the bell, and for JR Smith to show he is a consitent scoring threat.
Game two will be an interesting one to say the least, if the Pacers take it and head to Indiana with a 2-0 series lead, the Knicks will be in serious trouble.
I'm a fan of the game first, being an analyst second.
With that being said I'm pushing for seven games, the Knicks will win game two, and head to Indiana with the series being tied 1-1.
I'm Justin Tyree a junior attending the University of North Carolina at Pembroke majoring in Journalism, come into my world when it comes the topic of sports.
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