The Knicks have played some great players so far in the playoffs. They have dealt with the offense of players like Cade Cunningham, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown. On the Defensive end, they have had to battle Ausar Thompson, Jrue Holiday, and Derrick White. The Pacers will now give them a new test, one that is centered around pace and ball movement.
The Pacers are a unique team in the sense that they are incredibly aggressive on both sides of the ball. On offense, they thrive in transition, pass the ball more than any team, and love to push the pace. On defense, they are just as active. They pick up full court, are good at getting over screens, and never stop running.
The Knicks are battle-tested and have proven they belong. But the Pacers are going to bring plenty of new problems to solve, and the Knicks will be put to the test once again.
The Pacers on offense
On average, Indiana travels 19.3 miles per game as a team, the most in the playoffs. They average 10.4 miles of distance covered on offense, also the most among playoff teams, as well as a significant leap above the Celtics team that the Knicks just finished playing, who averaged 8.95 miles on offense.
On top of just covering lots of ground, there is also the speed element. The Pacers have three of the top five players who spend the highest percentage of time moving "fast", per tracking data. Moving fast is defined as covering more than 14 feet per second.
Not only do they love to run on offense, they are extremely effective doing so. Per league tracking data, the Pacers are generating 1.44 points per possession on offense in transition, the second-best mark in the playoffs, trailing only the Miami Heat, which had a total of only 50 playoff transition possessions.
When they aren't running, the ball is flying around. The Pacers have averaged 337 passes per game in the playoffs, by far the most of any team. Once again, it is a stark contrast to what they just dealt with against Boston. The Celtics only averaged 238 passes per game, which ranked last among playoff teams.
The conductor of this offense, Tyrese Haliburton, is among the best passers in the game. He is leading the playoffs with 75.4 passes per game, while creating 15.3 potential assists per game. Much like the Knicks and Jalen Brunson, the Pacers and Haliburton do a great job at limiting turnovers, particularly live-ball turnovers.
The Pacers on defense
The Pacers also run on defense. They average 8.95 miles traveled on defense, the second-most in the playoffs. Lots of those miles are spent as the Pacers try to overwhelm the opposing team's ball handlers with pressure from the time the ball is inbounded in the backcourt, up until they get into their halfcourt offense.
Indiana has logged 236 possessions on defense where they had at least two defenders in the backcourt. For context, the team with the next most was the Golden State Warriors, with 100 possessions. Taking things a step further, the Pacers have logged 109 possessions on defense where they have three or more defenders in the backcourt these playoffs, no other team has more than 34 such possessions.
The Knicks will have to deal with this full-court pressure all series. Indiana's defenders pick up the opposing ball handler 47.9 feet from the basket, on average. Meaning the Knicks will likely have to get into their offensive actions earlier than they have been.
New York lacks depth; their starters have played more minutes than any team in the league. Now, they will have to find another gear, likely running more than they have in either of the last two series.