A red-hot Pacers unit finished atop the Knicks 130-109 in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference Semi Finals series at Madison Square Garden.
They will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade to face the No.1 seed Celtics.
Led by Tyrese Haliburton (26 pts, 6 ast, 10/17 FG), the Pacers put together the best shooting display in NBA playoff history hitting on 53 of their 79 field goal attempts (67.1%) and 13 of their 24 (54.2%) threes.
Their 39 first quarter points was the most ever in a Game 7 with their lead growing to as high as 23 in the second quarter.
Andrew Nembhard (20 pts, 6 ast, 8/10 FG), Pascal Siakam (20 pts, 4 ast, 8/15 FG), Aaron Nesmith (19 pts, 8/8 FG) and Myles Turner (17 pts, 4 blk, 7/11 FG) were all terrific for the Pacers.
The injury woes which have plagued the Knicks throughout the backend of the season proved too much to overcome for Tom Thibodeau’s squad.
With the likes of Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and Bojan Bogdanović already ruled out long-term, Josh Hart playing through an abdominal strain, and OG Anunoby succumbing to a hamstring issue which had kept him out the past four games less than five minutes into the game, matters were worse when Jalen Brunson fractured his hand in the second half.
Donte DiVincenzo (39 pts, 9/15 3P) went down firing whilst Alec Burks (26 pts, 8/13 FG) also stepped up with Brunson (17 pts, 6/17 FG) enduring a tough night.
Josh Hart (10 pts, 8 reb) fouled out late whilst Isaiah Hartenstein (0 pts, 8 reb) was largely ineffective for the Knicks.
The Pacers will be in Boston for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday.
