NBA Basketball
2025-05-29 - Indiana Pacers at New York Knicks
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : NBA Basketball Playoff Eastern Conference Finals Game 5
Thursday 29th May 2025 - Scheduled 8pm
1am (British Time)
Preview
Halfway through the Third Quarter of Game 4, it felt like the Indiana Pacers had a dominant lead having controlled much of the night. However, the scoreboard told a different story and the New York Knicks were doing what they have been throughout the post-season and that is hanging around and then looking to strike late.
However, this time the Pacers made sure they largely kept the Knicks at arm's length thanks to pushing New York into early foul trouble in the Fourth Quarter and having some of the star players make some big plays.
Tyrese Haliburton will be receiving most of the praise having avoided giving up a single turnover, but adding 32 Points, 15 Assists, 12 Rebounds and 4 Steals to that performance. He said he would be much better than Game 3 and Haliburton was all that and more as the Indiana Pacers take a grip of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The tempo has been tough to deal with and the Pacers have closed out the last two Series in five games and have an opportunity to do that again as they look for a third win at Madison Square Garden.
New York will need the home fans to be loud and get firmly behind them and they are in a 'good' 3-1 situation having avoided going 3-0 down. That has been a situation from which no team has ever recovered in the NBA Playoffs, but there have been a small amount of teams that have managed to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a Series.
Only thirteen teams have managed to recover, but eight of those have been in a position where they are hosting two of the last three games and that is the same for the Knicks. Keeping out of foul trouble is key, while it sounds like Karl-Anthony Towns has avoided a serious knee injury that may have ruled him out until next season.
Adjustments to the starting lineup could be made again, but the Knicks are in a pressurised situation and simply have not played as well at Madison Square Garden as they would have wanted under Playoff conditions. It makes it tough to believe in them having lost Game 4, but New York have shown they can hurt this Indiana Pacers team if they can control the turnovers.
Recent trends in the Conference Finals points to the hosts, the favourites and the team that lost Game 4 as being the one that will produce the best record against the spread in Game 5. Those numbers are 13-5, 14-4 and 12-6 respectively against the spread in recent years, but the Indiana Pacers have to be respected with the momentum built up and the way they have managed previous Series in this Playoff run.
Instead it may be better to look for this game to finish 'over' the total points line set and that is largely down to the tempo both teams are playing with- the Knicks are being forced to play at Indiana's speed and that has led to fouls as teams look to break out, while also seeing quick movement of the ball opening up shooting lanes.
It is impossible to expect this Game 5 to have a First Quarter like the one we saw on Tuesday, but the teams are still scoring heavily.
And it should be noted that the last eight Game 5s that featured a close out spot, seven have finished surpassing the total and this could follow that trend with what we have seen from the Eastern Conference Finals so far.
Prediction
Look for the high tempo approach seen in this Series help Game 5 surpass the total points line set.
The Pick :
New York Knicks 115-113 Indiana Pacers
