When the NBA league office decided to schedule a rematch of the infamous rivalry between the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks for mid-November, they were no doubt expecting a fascinating affair between two teams perfectly set up to oppose each other for years. Add in the intrigue of the NBA Cup, and they were likely seeing dollar signs.
Well, the game is here, and neither of these teams is perfectly set up to contend for much of anything right now. The Knicks have insulted two of their starters with disrespectful contract offers, expecting everyone to simply fall in line after Jalen Brunson took a pay cut himself (which his agents – and the NBPA – truly never should have allowed).
The Pacers, on the other hand, will be without Tyrese Haliburton once again, as his injury rehab from a hamstring strain has certainly taken the wind out of the sails for what was supposed to be a comeback season after returning from the torn Achilles tendon suffered in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
However, even without the Pacers' biggest star available, this can still be a game with a lot to watch for. Most notably, this will be a game that tests if Indiana is well suited to match up with the Knicks in the playoffs.
Zubac vs. KAT and Nembhard vs. Brunson are titanic
When the Pacers made the trade for Ivica Zubac, they did so after looking around the NBA trade landscape and seeing that centers, once an undervalued commodity, had rapidly become the position with the least amount of depth in the entire league.
Paying the price of (amongst other things) a top-five pick and a future first-rounder (which was then confiscated) made sense if you were getting a player that could give you a positional advantage over 95% of the league and defend the other 5% adequately.
While the deal wasn't made with Karl-Anthony Towns in mind, it certainly has become a part of the calculus now. KAT has proven to be a more than capable second option on a championship-winning team. His combination of shooting, rebounding, and playmaking, specifically out of the post, makes him a far better orchestrator than anyone would think if they saw how he was spoken about on social media.
Zubac will need to prove he can impede KAT while putting him in foul trouble on offense if the Pacers want to start planning for a future playoff series.
Alternatively, there is the defensive matchup between Andrew Nembhard and Jalen Brunson. While Zubac's challenge with KAT is on both sides of the ball, the question for Nembhard will be simple: are you still a good enough defender on the perimeter to slow down the reigning Finals MVP? Better yet, can you do so while maintaining the larger role you have taken on?
Those two face-offs will be more than enough to make this game watchable.
If you're missing Haliburton, that's entirely fair, but don't miss out on another entry into the long rivalry of Knicks - Pacers just because he isn't playing.
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