The Pacers make their first of two trips to MSG this season. They will attempt to take care of a struggling Knicks squad that just ousted their head coach.
The Match-Up
The Indiana Pacers are lucky enough to have drawn the New York Knicks in their first game following the firing of both their head coach and top assistant. Not only are the Knicks the worst team in the league currently, they are expected to finish worse than the original projections. This all being said the Pacers don’t want the embarrassment of overlooking this game.
They will need to rebound from a loss against Detroit Pistons…..again. The Pacers have had the second easiest schedule so far this season and as a result, five of the team’s eight losses have been to teams with losing records.
On the other side, the Knicks have lost eight straight games and score the fewest points per game in the NBA by a wide margin. Their mishmash of summer signings have not gelled and they possibly never will. New York has the feel of a team extremely eager for December 15.
The one area that New York does excel in is offensive rebounding. This could be one area the Knicks try to exploit, but the Pacers are a top-10 defensive rebounding team themselves. With the Knicks abundance of big bodies from the free-agency splurge, this may turn into a night where Goga Bitadze or T.J. Leaf could see pre-garbage time minutes (and actual garbage time minutes if we’re being honest).