Game Preview: Knicks at Pacers- 12/14/18

Something inside my soul is telling me this is the bad haircut of games. You get to the shop nice and early so you’re not in a rush. You trust your barber so you don’t think about it too much. You know you’ll walk out with a decent cut. And then ZIP! Uh-oh.

How do you recover? Sadly the only option is to cut it all off or wait about a week (with your bad haircut) and get back to it. These Pacers (19-10) are just that rough team, lacking style and grace. They might just whomp your head with their stupid hairy knuckle as they cut that fatal hard part into your dumb head. Don’t let them go on autopilot!

New York (9-21) is coming off a miraculous overtime win in Charlotte. Certainly this road trip is hanging in the balance of a long hard road and a pleasant descent into a blissfully sleepy Sunday win-valley. Can the Knicks pull it together for this tawdry matinee?

Projected Starters

Key Matchup

Remember when Domantas Sabonis and Tyreke Evans just came through and obliterated the Knicks interior defense? That wasn’t some kind of accident. Get ready for that again. The Knicks as a team tend to trust and rely on Noah Vonleh more and more, but can he set the tone early and play extended minutes to help contain Indy’s bench depth?

My hope here is that Vonleh gets an early sub out with Thaddeus Young barely being a threat on offense so that he can be let loose with Frank Ntilikina to stomp on the Sabonis/Evans battering ram. Cus if it doesn’t happen...

Prediction

Ex-Knicks Doug McDermott and Kyle O’Quinn get in and unexpectedly run roughshod over the Knicks for several minutes in each half and helps the Pacers stay a length ahead in the race the whole day. New York always playing catch up.

Knicks by -7.

Warm Up Music

Daytona... Indy... same shit, b. Step off.

Slap box with Oladipo, licks shots at Corey Joseph.