GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Jalen Brunson held a steel chair. Tyrese Haliburton had brass knuckles.
As the star point guards glared at each other in a WWE wrestling ring last summer in Madison Square Garden, it seemed a fitting next step in the rivalry between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks. It’s already featured headbutts and chokes, so why not weapons?
The teams go at it again starting Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Knicks’ first trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 25 years, with the winner of their ninth playoff matchup headed to the NBA Finals.
“It’s obviously a storied rivalry between the two franchises, so to add another chapter to it is going to be a lot of fun,” Haliburton said.
It sure was for Haliburton and the Pacers last year when the teams met in the second round. Indiana won Game 7 at Madison Square Garden against a Knicks team that was decimated by injuries, shooting an NBA playoff-record 67.1% from the field in a 130-109 romp. Haliburton scored 26 points and afterward wore a sweatshirt to his news conference with a picture of Reggie Miller making a choke signal toward Knicks fan Spike Lee on the sidelines during a playoff game three decades earlier.
Haliburton returned to the Garden to troll New York fans again about a month later, attempting to interfere in a match on behalf of Logan Paul. Brunson, with a seat in the crowd near the ring, intervened and LA Knight pinned Paul.
After the match, Brunson grabbed the chair and entered the ring to protect the winner when it appeared Paul and Haliburton had him surrounded.
“I’ll be back! I’ll be back!” Haliburton yelled toward fans after exiting the ring.
Well, here he comes.
“It was obviously something that he wanted to do and the way he played last year in the playoffs, I mean, it was fitting,” Brunson said. “And so, he played well in the Garden. Obviously Knicks fans and Pacers fans, they go back and forth. But I think he did a great job with it last year but now we’re moving on.”
A Knicks-Pacers series could be penciled into the spring schedule in the 1990s. The teams met six times in an eight-year span, starting with a 1993 series that included John Starks getting ejected for head-butting Miller. Indiana won the last one in that stretch, a victory in the 2000 East finals the most recent time the Knicks advanced this far.
This time, it’s a surprise. Cleveland and Boston ran away to the top two records in the East, but the Knicks ousted the defending champions and the Pacers blew away the top-seeded Cavaliers in five games to set up this matchup between the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
Things are different now. Brunson and Haliburton are friendly, having been teammates in 2023 on the U.S. team that played in the Basketball World Cup. But Miller will be in the arena, working the games as an analyst for TNT, so there will be a reminder of the way Knicks-Pacers used to be.
“There was definitely a sense of hatred for each other. So I think that makes a good rivalry,” Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. “They have a history of finding a way to end each other’s season, so it’s up to us now to add our names into history and see what we do.”
The postseason history
The Pacers lead the series 5-3. When the teams have met in the East finals, the Knicks won in 1994 and 1999 — when they reached the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed — and the Pacers won in 2000.
The 2024-25 history
The Knicks went 2-1 against the Pacers, with all the meetings before the All-Star break. Towns had 30.3 points and 12 rebounds per game for the Knicks, who averaged 124 points on 53.9% shooting.
A torrid Pace
The Pacers were just 10-15 after a loss to Charlotte on Dec. 8. Counting the playoffs, they are 48-19 since.
A June reunion?
An NBA Finals matchup between the Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves is a possibility after they made a blockbuster trade on the eve of the preseason. The Knicks acquired Towns by sending Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota. Towns, the Wolves’ No. 1 pick in 2015, isn’t thinking about that yet.
“We’ve got to get there first,” he said. “I ain’t going to worry about something that we’re not there yet. Step by step.”
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AP Sports Writer Michael Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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