Credit Where It's Due: The Pacers Took Advantage Of Every Knicks Injury, Rick Carlisle Bitched And Moaned His Way To End Our Season

Credit where it's due. The Pacers did what they had to. They made sure every single Knicks player was injured, they made sure Rick Carlisle got fined by the league calling out a conspiracy theory and combined the two to steal wins and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals. Let me be very clear, I'm not an excuse guy. The Knicks shouldn't have lost game 3 or a game at home. The Knicks should have closed this out in 5, 6 if we're being kind. But the Pacers did what they had to. They had to injure OG, Josh Hart, Mitch, Bogey, Brunson and then steal a game on the road. It's impressive when you lay it out that way. 

Before anyone complains who else can call out a conspiracy theory against a team who hasn't won since 1970?

Who else has a player so 'injured' that he can barely 'walk' down the steps yet play all the time?

Who else had a break so they wouldn't play against a top-2 player in the league in round 1 and then an injured team in round 2?

Hmm, big market conspiracy theory for sure.

But really, this is about the Knicks. I fucking loved this team. You loved this team. New York loved this team. They played basketball the way we all remembered from the 90s. They flew around, shot the shit out of it when they had to, rebounded, played hard. We can play the what-if game, because we didn't have 4 starters, but we'll be fine. This sucked. This was the year for the Knicks before 4 guys got injured. Credit to Rick Carlisle who legit cried his way to a ECF. Sometimes you gotta do the little things. 

I'm going to miss watching this Knicks team. They didn't tank, they didn't take games off, they had a superstar in Brunson playing with his two best friends. This is the team we always wanted. Fucking injuries man, that's how it works out sometimes. That's all this series was (no excuses). But give me a healthy OG, Hart and Julius next season and let's see what we can do.