Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Haliburton, Karl-Anthony Towns headline All-NBA Third Team

Law Murray: The New York Knicks were outscored by 20 points with Karl-Anthony Towns on the floor in Game 2 The Knicks 5-man starting lineup of Brunson / Bridges / Hart / Anunoby / Towns was outscored by 13 points in Game 2 and has been outscored by 29 points in the 2025 ECF vs Pacers. -via Bluesky / May 23, 2025

Does Van Gundy think the Knicks will let the loss impact them in Game 2? “They’ll look at the mistakes and pick themselves (up) and get ready to go. I don’t think (Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau) has to worry about (hangover from Wednesday’s loss) at this time of year,” Van Gundy said. “Their pick and roll defense to me, early on in the game, (Karl-Anthony) Towns was really back. (Myles) Turner was just getting wide-open shots. And then they had some miscommunications on perimeter screens; small-small (screens). Are we switching or not? They had breakdowns there. And then late in the game, they were really soft on their switches and (Aaron) Nesmith was hitting threes. To me, they’ve got to clean up their pick-and-roll coverages, being up and more aggressive. And their communication’s got to be a lot better on what they’re doing . “….There was not a hard three in that stretch (of Nesmith’s six threes late in the fourth quarter). It’s still hard to make six straight threes. But it wasn’t like the shot-clock ran down and someone had to throw one in. He got great looks. Nesmith, all five of his looks were great looks. And the one (Tyrese) Haliburton got, (Mikal) Bridges gave him a lot of space on that one, too. They got really good shots. I just thought the Knicks’ defense in that stretch was very soft. And in the overtime, they had breakdowns on (Obi) Toppin’s dunk and (Andrew) Nembhard’s back cut. They just, defensively, didn’t get the job done.” -via SportsNet New York / May 23, 2025

Scott Agness: NBA’s Last Two Minute Report says they missed two calls that should’ve been in favor of the Pacers . – shooting foul, on Towns – Toppin fouled on dunk in OT -via x.com / May 22, 2025

Fred Katz: FINAL: Pacers 114, Knicks 109 . Pacers lead the Eastern Conference Finals 2-0. • Siakam 39-4-3 • Haliburton 14-8-11 • Turner 16 pts • Brunson 36-3-11 Game 3 scheduled for Sunday night in Indianapolis. -via x.com / May 23, 2025

There was one historical echo that could be a bright spot for Knicks fans, however. Haliburton even pointed it out after the game. “I know that they didn’t win the series,” Haliburton recounted. The Knicks would come back to win that 1994 Eastern Conference finals in seven games. “So I would not like to repeat that.” -via ESPN / May 22, 2025

Bobby Marks: The impact of All-NBA -via Twitter @BobbyMarks42 / May 23, 2025

Bobby Marks: Cunningham joins Evan Mobley in earning an extra $45M . Mobley met the criteria when he won Defensive Player of the Year. -via Twitter @BobbyMarks42 / May 23, 2025

Keith Smith: Cade Cunningham will see his rookie scale extension jump from 25% of to 30% of the cap by virtue of making the All-NBA Third Team: 25-26: $46.4M 26-27: $50.1M 27-28: $53.8M 28-29: $57.5M 29-30: $61.2M Total: five years, $269.1M -via x.com / May 23, 2025