Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks Prediction: Will Donte DiVincenzo Get Hot From 3 in Game 1?
The Indiana Pacers are in New York taking on the Knicks for Game 1 of the East Semifinals. Can Donte DiVincenzo get hot from 3 on Monday night? Ben Rajavuori breaks down his Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks prediction.
Ben Rajavuori - May 6, 2024, 4:13 PM EDT
5 minIndiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks Prediction: Will Donte DiVincenzo Get Hot From 3 in Game 1?
The Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks meet for Game 1 of the second round of the NBA playoffs in Madison Square Garden tonight. The Knicks are coming off an impressive series win against the Sixers, beating them in six games and winning on the road to clinch the series.
PACERS VS. KNICKS GAME 1 DATE, TIME, AND WHERE TO WATCH
- Date: May 6, 2024
- Start Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Where to Watch: TNT
INDIANA PACERS VS. NEW YORK KNICKS Game 1 PREDICTION
The Pacers are also coming off an impressive series against the Bucks in which they were able to take down Milwaukee in six games as well. However, the Pacers face a very stiff test against New York, who are mostly healthy outside Julius Randle, who missed a lot of the season. They will not get the luxury of playing an injured squad as they did against the Bucks, who were without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard for most of the series.
This is an intriguing matchup for New York, which will be facing an Indiana squad that did not have a very good defense this season. In fact, the Pacers have the worst defense rating of any team in the postseason this year by a longshot. The next closest lowest defensive rating was the Bucks, who the Pacers just faced. The Knicks are a much better defensive team, and the Pacers love to get out in transition, so this should be an interesting battle of play styles between these two. In this battle, I expect the Knicks to score a lot of buckets in transition. The Pacers are not very good at getting a defense set, and I see them giving up a lot of threes in this series. On the outside, it looks like the Pacers don’t give up that many threes, but that’s because teams just decide not to shoot them because the Pacer's paint defense is so bad.
The Pacers ranked as the second-worst paint defense this season, allowing 57.7 points per game in the paint on average. Because of that, they allowed the lowest three-point attempts on defense in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean that the Knicks won’t get a lot of threes. The Pacers featured the 16th worst three-point percentage allowed to other teams, so when other teams did shoot threes against them, they made them.
This is where Donte DiVincenzo comes in. DiVincenzo was a sniper for the Knicks this year. After starting his career with the Bucks and then moving to the Kings and the Warriors, the first-year Knick averaged 8.7 three-point attempts per game this season, which was the fourth-highest in the NBA.
He averaged 40% from three this year and was one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA during the regular season. He was mostly quiet in the series against the Sixers, but he went 5–9 from three in game six, played all 48 minutes, and was a huge part of the Knicks series-clinching game last Thursday. His line tonight is set at 3.5 threes with great odds on the over. He only hit this in two of the six games in round one, but that was a much different matchup against a much better defense.
This season against the Pacers, DiVincenzo averaged 12 three attempts per game in the three games against the Pacers, which is the most he averaged against any team this season except for the Thunder and Pistons. He averaged 4.3 threes against the Pacers in their head-to-head meetings this season, and I love him to get hot in Game 1. The Pacers will be giving too much attention to slowing down Brunson and I expect DiVincenzo to get some great looks from three tonight.
INDIANA PACERS VS. NEW YORK KNICKS Game 1 PICK
Pick: Donte DiVincenzo Over 3.5 Threes +135 Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds
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