The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Pacers-Knicks Reaction: Jalen Brunson needs help, Indiana "Best Team in NBA"

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Colin reacts to the Indiana Pacers beating the New York Knicks in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He gives his takes on Jalen Brunon, Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton and Karl Anthony-Towns. Is it over for New York? Colin explains why he thinks the Pacers are the best team in the NBA. (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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All right, little instant reaction on the Pacers beating the Knicks to go up 2-0 in the series 114-109. You know, it's so interesting. I had Indiana is a better offensive team. Like they shoot the three ball better consistently. Points come easier for them. Some of it's Halliburton, and some of it's just their bigs. You know, whereas Mitchell Robinson had a great first half, he's not a, he's not really an offensive player.

I mean, he's a disaster with the free throw line. It looks awful. The results are awful. Miles Turner is hitting threes in the corner for the Pacers, a much better offensive player than Mitchell Robinson. Carl Anthony Towns and Sayakam are both gifted offensive players. I love Sayakam's game. but Carl Anthony Towns is a complete liability defensively.

So if you just take the bigs for the Pacers and the Biggs for the Knicks, to me, that's the difference in the ballgame. You've got Mitchell Robinson that's all defense and then Kat that's all offense, whereas with Turner and Seyakum, they're more balanced players. To have me, just think about how good the Pacers are compared to the Reggie Miller Pacers. Okay, the Reggie Miller Pacers, they made documentaries about those teams. Reggie Miller could shoot, and that was a bunch of guys you didn't want near an 18-footer.

Everybody can shoot on the Pacers. Miles Turner's cranking up threes. Syacom's got incredible feet and hands for a big. Runs the floor like he's a guard. Halliburton, Neesmith. They just got dudes. And just offense is easy for them. Halliburton in the first half wasn't scoring,

but when you get into the second half, there's a reason that the Pacers are such a clutch team. They're great. The Knicks slowed the pace down tonight. So that really played to the next style. But let's be honest, you need Brunson to hit a lot of tough shots. That's the New York next offense. You need him to hit a lot of tough shots.

And Carl Anthony Towns is a gifted offensive player. But again, you get into situations where really well-coached teams. I mean, you have Carlisle is a great coach. You have Halliburton is one of the smartest players in the league. Then you have Say, I'll come on the pick and rolls. They're just working cat. Cat's a total liability. and the Celtics picked on him, the calves picked on him, and Indiana picked on him when they faced during the regular season.

And you can shore up some things. You know, again, everybody plays better defense in the postseason, but there are just, your game is your game. And Kat's a bit of a defensive liability. Not a bit. He is. And so if you just look at the bigs for these two teams, it's a mismatch for the Pacers. Two really capable offensive guys, especially Siakum. The other thing is, Channing Fry was on my show a couple days ago on FS1, and he said, he goes,

I don't really consider New York when I played against the Knicks. New York wasn't a road game. Like New Yorkers just, they pump you up. They love great talent, and, like, they're appreciative of it. It's not a small town. It's Rucker Park. It's Broadway. You're performing for New Yorkers.

and the truth is Indiana is such an effortless, smart, well-run offense. They've won six straight road games. You get the same game out of Indiana regardless of where they play. New York, they're only two and five

in their last seven home games. So it's like, I mean, we've got to be honest about this. Where Indiana plays doesn't matter. And it reminds me a little bit. You know, I go back to the Showtime Lakers, and I don't know what their road record was, but I can remember watching the Lakers with magic.

Home and away just didn't, I mean, they were better at home, but when you're great offensively and points come easy, and you noticed the pace was very much in the Knicks favor, but then all of a sudden you get into the fourth quarter, there's six minutes left, there's five minutes left, and the pacer's just keep moving the ball up the floor, and their bigs can run the floor, and they just get some easier baskets that the Knicks don't get.

The Knicks, once again, are very reliant on Jalen Brunson hitting a great, difficult shot, which he often does. I mean, just to give you a sense of how dependent the Knicks are in Brunston, he's got 79 points in two games, and they're down 0.2 at home. So I really like New York, but they're lob-sided cat-no defense. Mitchell Robinson, you don't want to mirror the free throw line. I feel like, you know, Hardinstein's the guy they, you know, that's the guy they let go to OKC. They couldn't afford him.

Totally understandable. Boy, they miss his sort of relentless offensive rebounding. And he was just so dangerous and so urgent and so active. And I feel like they miss him. And I think you just need another offensive piece. I don't think you need Yonis if you're the next. Maybe it's KD. I just feel you need another consistent offensive piece because you want Robinson on the floor late because you don't want to get burned on the pick and roll.

Indiana just has the ability. And again, so smartly coached, Halliburton's so bright. Seyakum, these are really high functioning players. They just know how to get better shots more consistently, work the ball, great pacing. This is a really good team. The Knicks are losing to a really, really good team. The East is so much weaker than the West. It's hard to kind of evaluate.

But the more I watch the Pacers, I think they're the best team in the NBA. I mean, they were a buzzsaw through Milwaukee, a buzz saw through Cleveland. And now they've gone to New York. They're up to, oh, they're on fire. And this is, you know, they've had the fastest pace in the NBA the last three years. Even when the Knicks slow them down tonight, they're still shooting. including incredible field goal percentages, over 41% on threes, didn't hit, you know, missed some free throws, but they're not reliant on that. They're not reliant on the three. Sometimes you lose to a better

team. And as much as defense is appreciated, both teams, you know, it's much easier to defend the Knicks. So the Knicks can be a better defensive team than the Pacers, but the Pacers have really good length. They've got excellent length, and they're good enough defensively to, in the big moments late, stop a fairly limited offensive team in the Knicks. But I think this to me is more about the Pacers than criticizing the Knicks. Knicks for a good team. The Pacers are special. I love, I said this probably a month ago. It was during the Milwaukee series. I had said this. I love watching Indiana play. Indiana plays basketball.

It's my kind of basketball. I get so tired of Boston in this parade of threes. It's just so repetitive. I love what the Pacers do. I just love the way they play. I love when your bigs have touch. And Syakum is so good.

It is so good. It's great in Toronto. You also know that, It's really something to watch like Halliburton kind of toy. Like he can shoot. He got that big three laid against Brunson. Halliburton is, it's just, he's just at times sort of toying. The end, the out, the herky jerky, he's just got kind of an awkward pace.

And he's a lot to guard. Whereas Brunson, smaller leverage, he doesn't love to be trapped. Halliburton just kind of welcomes everything. He can go full speed. He can go half court. If you double him, he can squeeze through it. He gets rid of the ball quickly. There's just so many layers to Halliburton's game, I think.

And this is a well-constructed. You know, we've been talking a lot about this. OKC, really well-constructed. Indiana is really well-constructed. There's some... Boston, there's some really good general managers in this league. But, you know, the people that complain about the NBA, go back to those Knicks, Pacers, Spike Lee,

documentary series, go look at Indiana skill level then and now. There are so many good players. What Biggs can do now running the floor and the touch around the basket, the hands, the feet, it's incredible to watch. And I don't think anybody in this league, like Oklahoma City is really good, but it's SGA and a really deep roster and defense. I mean, I think we're watching it here. Like Minnesota's just got some, they just got some limitations offensively as due to the Knicks. I mean, you could argue Indiana against OKC would be a much better series, and so would the Knicks against the T-Wolves. Those two teams would match up really, really well. Like Minnesota, Mitchell Robinson, limited offensively for the Knicks.

Carl Anthony Towns limited offensively for the T-Wolves. Like the T-Wolves and the Knicks feel more similar, where you have one guy that you really trust to get points in a Brunson or an aunt. and then you cross your fingers on a Julius Randall and how much you get out of Carl Anthony Towns who can get into foul trouble, who's atrocious defensively. OKC Indiana are, it's going to be Indiana's offense and OKC's defense. It's going to be a classic final.

And I do think New York will go to Indiana and the games will be close. I think just the way these teams are built. But it feels like, man, you are just, You just need Brunson to hit big shot after big shot late. And Halliburton doesn't face that pressure. He can hit the shots, get it to knee-Smith, Turner, say, Occam, he's just got more offensive options. Sometimes the better team, especially offensively, the more gifted team prevails.

And that's what I feel like I'm watching. Fast pace, pacers. Slow the pace, eventually, pacers, hitting big shots late. And just a side note, these are the two oldest coaches in the NBA, Rick Carlisle and Tibbs. And this, the intensity and the urgency these teams play with. Every possession, three minutes into the game, every possession matters, every possession. What I love about the NBA, you have, because these teams aren't young. There's, I mean, it's, it's, there's some younger players, but you've got guys who have been around the league for,

a while. You've got really committed players on these rosters, but these players really care. And these coaches are squeezing every last ounce of talent, skill, and every last possession out of these teams. I mean, it's just great American sports. These rosters and these teams, man, they're just, they're not taking possessions off. I mean, I'm sitting there in the first quarter, And the first quarter was low scoring. Remember, in game one, it was like both teams shooting 70%. It was like AAU basketball. Nobody was guarding anybody.

But the offense was just so highly skilled. It was just a track meet. And, you know, this game, it was low scoring. But the intensity, both teams playing just really intentional basketball, like every possession matters. I've said this about college basketball, even the good teams, like Florida or Houston playing for the national championship. You can go eight possessions.

and you just get bad shots. And there's just limitations on, you know, who you want the ball getting into the hands of. I mean, you watch the Pacers. Like every offensive possession, if you're not ready to roll, if you're not locked in, they're getting a great shot. They're getting a wide open jumper from the corner. It could be Miles Turner. It could be knee-smith.

You have to be so on it defensively when you play Indiana. Because they are ready to run at any opportunity. And if not, they're just going to move it. Everybody touches it, and if you're not zoned in, they get easy looks. They are a pain in the butt to face. Indiana's won six straight road games for a reason. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers.

I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

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Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel. Help an Acapella band with their between-songs. banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Conky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines

ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Joey Dardano. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with thoughtful solutions. Sike, I'm a comedian.

I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian. and friends as we riff rant and recommend some of the most legally dubious advice known to me. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.