New York Knicks fans’ worst fears came true last night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where their team’s season was ended by the Indiana Pacers.
The Pacers, 106-99 winners over New York in Game 6, move on to play the defending NBA champion Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals (Game 1 is on Wednesday), while the Knicks organization will likely mull whether it should enter a rebuilding phase this summer.
Carmelo Anthony (39 points) and his teammates—most notably Iman Shumpert (19 points) and Chris Copeland (three 3-pointers)—fought valiantly to erase a double-digit deficit in the second half of Game 6, but the Pacers’ Roy Hibbert (21 points), Paul George (23 points), Lance Stephenson (25 points), George Hill (12 points) and David West (17 points) were the much better starting unit.
Not since 1973 have the Knicks won an NBA title. Add another year to that drought.
