And they meet again. The Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks will go at it this Saturday for their first meeting since the 2024 NBA Playoffs. The Pacers are looking to stay undefeated while the Knicks want to remove the bitter taste of their loss to the Boston Celtics the other day off their mouth. Will the Pacers take down New York? Or, will the Knicks avoid a 0-2 start?
Catch this game live on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 7:30 AM, Manila time
Away: Indiana Pacers (1-0 / 1-0 Away)
Projected Starting Five:
- Tyrese Haliburton
- Andrew Nembhard
- Aaron Nesmith
- Pascal Siakam
- Myles Turner
Despite a bad-shooting performance from star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers survived their season opener against, well, the Detroit Pistons. Indiana beat the Pistons on the road on Thursday, 115-109, with the Pacers feeding off the powerful performance of their frontcourt. Myles Turner had 20 points with nine rebounds, four assists, and four blocks while Pascal Siakam scored 19 points on top of his eight boards, nine dimes, and two steals.
With a full offseason with the Pacers, Siakam seems like he’s about to have a huge campaign for Indiana, which also relied on its defense to snuff out Detroit. Indiana held the Pistons to just 43.2 percent shooting from the floor and 27.3 percent from deep. As for Haliburton, who scored eight points and shot just 6/18 against the Pistons, he could be due for a much more offensive performance in the Knicks game. For what it’s worth, he averaged 21.3 points and hit 53.8 percent of his shots against the Knicks in the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
Home: New York Knicks (0-1/ 0-0 Home)
Projected Starting Five:
- Jalen Brunson
- Mikal Bridges
- Josh Hart
- OG Anunoby
- Karl-Anthony Towns
The Knicks need to erase the bad memories of their season debut where they got absolutely outclassed by the defending NBA champs Boston Celtics. New York was blown out by the Celtics in a 132-109 loss at TD Garden last Wednesday, with the Knicks struggling to contain Boston’s attack. But with how the Celtics shot the ball in that contest, even a team from another planet might not have stopped Jayson Tatum and company. The Knicks actually did well on offense too, as they hit 55.1 percent of their shots; their defense simply just was not there.
And despite the memes, Mikal Bridges shot efficiently overall with 16 points on 7/13 shooting. Karl-Anthony Towns left much to be desired in his Knicks debut, though, as he produced just 12 points on 5/9 shooting. It should be better going forward for the Knicks, who have also covered the spread in six of their last nine regular-season games at Madison Square Garden.
Picks
Spread: New York Knicks (-1.5)
Over/Under: Over (226.5)