The New York Knicks have not won the title since 1973<\/a>. And just eight wins are needed to lift the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy.<\/p>\n The road back to the East Finals has been challenging for the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n They had to commence the 2025 Playoffs with a tough and highly physical matchup against rising superstar Cade Cunningham<\/a> and the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. They eventually prevailed in six games thanks to Jalen Brunson\u2019s clutch heroics<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the second round the Knicks were underdogs when going up against the Boston Celtics<\/a>. But in a stunning fashion, they defeated the Celtics on their home floor for the first two games of the series<\/a> and proceeded to eliminate their back-to-back title hopes in a dominant Game 6 finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Knicks will now face the Indiana Pacers<\/a>, renewing their old rivalry from the 1990s.<\/p>\n And for Stephen A. Smith<\/a>, he has significant concern about how New York will fare against Indiana in their looming matchup.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you stop the Pacers from scoring? They\u2019re a very well-rounded offensive team. No. 1 in field goal percentage, No. 1 in three-point field goal percentage.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, these brothers can put the ball in the hole and they don\u2019t have a superstar,\u201d Smith, a lifelong Knicks fan, stated in pregame of ESPN\u2019s Western Conference Finals Game 1 coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, here\u2019s the problem with that: when you don\u2019t have a superstar, there\u2019s a multitude of options that you have in terms of generating some offensive prowess. It\u2019s [Andrew] Nembhard, it\u2019s [Aaron] Nesmith, it\u2019s [Tyrese] Haliburton, it\u2019s [Myles] Turner.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, you turn around and everybody\u2019s doing something for you. This is what the Indiana Pacers are capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Knicks are set to deal with the Pacers\u2019 firepower<\/p>\n The red-hot Pacers are the best offensive team in the NBA this postseason, topping the team stats averages in field goal shooting (50.1%), three-point rate (40.6%), and assists (29.7) while being ranked second in points (117.7).<\/p>\n They hold the No. 2 offensive rating at 117.3, just behind the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> which they eliminated in the previous round.<\/p>\n From the fast-paced, high-octane offense that the Pacers will present, another challenge that the Knicks have to deal with is how they keep up amid Thibodeau\u2019s polarizing minute distribution among his starters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Paul George<\/a> picked the Pacers to win this series simply because of how they can exhaust the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day, Smith\u2019s unwavering faith in the Knicks remains unshaken, as he believes they can reach the NBA Finals and outlast the Pacers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an epic matchup. It\u2019s something I can\u2019t wait to see,\u201d the ESPN expert added.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe there will be a Game Seven at Madison Square Garden, and the New York Knicks will be within 48 minutes of getting back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999. That\u2019s what I\u2019m anticipating.\u201d<\/p>\n Game 1 between the Knicks and the Pacers is set for May 21 at Madison Square Garden.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,126,304,6,11,1136,191,3810,3806,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-47450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana-pacers","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkknicks","17":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114545771477194461","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-2215499889-1-940x627.jpg\")
Photo by Al Bello\/Getty ImagesStephen A. Smith offers biggest concern for NY Knicks vs. Indiana Pacers<\/p>\n