NBA Premium Play 05/14: New York Knicks @ Indiana Pacers

NBA - 731 New York Knicks @ 732 Indiana Pacers

Projected Line: Indiana by 8 points

The Knicks are coming from a game where they scored just 71 points, while they attempted just three open jump shots, according tomysynergysports.com. Indiana's perimeter defense has been amazing and they have cut off the Knicks' biggest weapon: the 3-point shot! In fact, the New York shot just 3-11 treys on the Game 3 of this series! Two factors are the cause of that: the Knicks are focusing in putting Carmelo Anthony in spot where Roy Hibbert won't go help his team mates. This seems like a good decision, but not only the Knicks lose a lot of time on the shotclock doing that, as it crushes their ball movement, besides the fact that Paul George is also a tough 1*1 defender and he has been all over Melo on this series. Then, the Knicks were really poor on their pick and roll ball handler plays in Game 3 (5-19 FG and 0.52 PPP), after being quite decent in the first two games of this series (0.79 & 0.95 PPP). Indiana put a lot of pressure on Raymond Felton and the remaining guards in the Game 3 and with that, Indiana absolutely shutdown the Knicks' offense.

The Knicks on defense dared the Pacers to shoot from the outside and they did that with 10-33 3pts, for a decent outcome for them. Indiana managed to get a lot of good looks on the outside, but they also missed a lot. The first half was a complete brick fest from their shooters, but that was compensated with Roy Hibbert outplaying Tyson Chandler even if the Knicks packing the paint on defense, while Indiana continued outrebounding the Knicks. 

For the rest of the series, with the adjustments that Indiana's defense did in Game 3, it will be hard for the Knicks to have good offensive games. Their only chance is to have one of those games where they start making all their contested shots. Roy Hibbert and David West have been playing well and even though the Pacers' perimeter shooting is inconsistent, they have been having some nice easy shots, while preventing the Knicks' shooters from having any. Then, Indiana has a huge edge in athleticism, rebounding and physical play, so I expect the Pacers to have another comfortable win tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here.

Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 732 Indiana Pacers (-5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker