You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home
Field Apparel. Welcome back to Crimson Cast.
Galen Claudia Scott Caulfield joining you here.
If you didn't listen to our earlier show where we had Jeremy
Gray on discussing the arrival of Hoosier the bison, well, go
listen to that immediately and then come back as video first.
But yeah, watch the well, yes, absolutely watch the videos.
All of them. Watch the Super cut, which I'm
assuming is going to be submitted to a Film Festival
somewhere soon. It it should be, but no.
Welcome back to Crimson cast. We are actually not talking IU
in this one. So if you're tuning in for the
IU content, there'll be other podcasts, but we're covering
Indiana based stuff as we'll be tackling our experiences with
the Indy 500 and and what happened overall there and then
this insane weekend that the Indiana Pacers had in the
Eastern Conference finals. Scott, good to see you again.
Although we still this is the same recording session that we
just got done with. So we've.
Already done it. We've already done all the all
the small talk. So moving forward, yeah, first
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Anyway, let's dive in, Scott. Let's start with the Indy 500,
as we're rapidly getting to the point where it's no longer news
story, but one of the weirder races I think I've ever been to
or watched. It was one of those races where
the outcome was was good and I was happy for Alex Pelo,
deserving winner. He's been by far the most
successful driver this year. And I think you got to give him
his flowers. Like he you know, he he finished
so well in the four races leading up to this race at the
Indy 500 that it felt natural when it happened.
But he wins a race where you've got kind of a combination of
weather issues that led to a lot of delays and just racing that
really didn't live up to I think the the standard that Indy has
set over the last decade in terms of close races and close
and a lot of passing. And it it just kind of felt that
in the climactic to some degree, despite the fact that
commercially it might have been the most successful 500 in
history. Yeah, I mean it definitely.
It started off very funky like this is going to be a weird day.
And it turned out, Nope, just going to be after we get going.
You know, there'll be there was a caution on lap one O 6 and
then there wasn't a caution again until lap 200.
And that those 100 laps, you know, you and I have this is
unfortunately kind of what happens in India is that
sometimes that the drivers get, you know, the exit on the the
broadcaster getting settled in. It means like they're not doing
anything. They just they don't want to
pass. They want to save some fuel.
But normally you get some passing in different parts of
the field. Maybe not for the lead.
You'd get to a point in this race where once they got strung
out, there wasn't passing at all.
I mean, it's just everyone was together.
And then if there was some, some, you know, pit stops,
people would start doing some passing in the passing that was
happening was teammates in the league just trying to do fuel
save. And I, I'm with you.
It was it, it, it started off like, oh, this is going to be
crazy. Like, you know, you have the
McLaughlin thing lap 1, you have Marco or McLaughlin lap -1 I
guess. And sorry I'm bouncing around,
but you had a very funny tweet where I was with people the
first time and like, my God, have you ever seen somebody do
that first lap? Yeah, I have.
Like I saw Pet, you have Guerrero do.
It's like, it's wild when you've been there enough.
Like, I've never seen it like that, but I've seen something
tangentially similar. I mean, you know, I wasn't
there, but you had the what? The 82 race where, you know,
Kevin Cogan just goes across and takes out Mario Andretti also in
the front stretch, you know, just so wild starting.
But yeah, it kind of, and then even the end, you know, you had
the the the Polo pass was for the lead, but it was on lap 12,
but it was behind two other cars.
And then it just was like, well, nobody can pass anybody and this
is just the way it's going to go.
And even the last lap, Ericsson made a bit of a push, but really
wasn't going to get close. So, you know, it wasn't awful,
but it wasn't. I kind of left being like, man,
I didn't really get a thrilling middle or ending.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we got robbed of a couple of
possibilities there. Some of it happened before the
race even started with the Penske cars being sent to the
back because, I mean, you talked about this when we previewed it.
New Garden had a rocket ship in this race and he had worked his
way all the way up to 6th. It really looked like he was
well on his way to challenging for his third in a row.
And then his fuel pump gives out in the pits and it's like, uh
oh. And it was interesting 'cause,
you know, Connor Daly leading and, and being up in the mix,
that was exciting. If you were a kind of a racing
partisan, it was, you know, that's not like a, a national
name for a lot of people. But every little thing that
happened along the way, especially in those last 60 laps
or so, felt like it was adding up to something.
But I think the the most representative thing I saw on
the track of how this one just wasn't quite there in the
hierarchy of great races that we've seen in the past is you've
got two cars at the tail end of the lead lap ahead of the the
pack of five or six cars that are in serious contention and
the leaders couldn't overtake them.
It was very interesting. And I kept waiting.
I was like, OK, surely somebody's going to break out
and get one or both of these cars or something.
And it never really happened. It almost jumped up the end of
the race. And it's interesting that the
only meaningful pass that seemed to happen down the stretch,
there was Polo passing Ericsson and Ericsson never really had
the juice to get back up and make the similar pass, which
maybe points to an Arrow kit issue, which kind of feels like
it's been an issue with Indy all year in every race.
It's something that they're going to have to get fixed.
Because I think one of the big arguments in favor of IndyCar
has been it's not F1, it's not a parade.
It's one where the, you know, all the cars are, they're,
they're spec cars. It's it's really about the
little minute adjustments, but you would have a lot of passing
and that just didn't happen in this race.
And this is, you know, Pelo's had an awesome season, like
Pelo's having one of the best seasons ever.
So he's a very deserved winner. But this also kind of came to my
mind as the race was going along.
Like this was just being served to Pelo on a platter.
When you look at, you know, Penske is the other dominant
team, you basically negate 2 of the cars by putting them in the
the back of the field. The one that's still up there
wrecks before the race even starts.
Like Mclaughlin's out now the two Penskeys are in the back.
And then Power didn't really have it.
And then like you said, your new garden goes out.
The other dynasty car is Dixon, who just has problems all day.
Immediately his brakes are on fire.
Before the race starts, he's out so like that puts polo at a
great spot like all right, the the one driver of the only two,
you know, I don't say good teams, but you know, really good
teams are there. It's like all right, your pole
sitter Schwartzman is a rookie team.
Like he he crashes in the pits. You know, Rossi had a good had a
good drive, but you know, his car catches on fire.
Like you, you start having a lot of good drivers and it's like,
well, they're on lower level teams and those lower level
teams and normally have pit issues.
Takuma Sato had a rocket ship. He had a pit issue.
You know, you just it, it's like if you're the only Ganassi and
Penske car in contention, you're going to have a really good shot
to win. And that is what happened.
It's not taking anything away from Pelo because he's might
have the best season of any driver we've ever seen an
IndyCar. But it definitely also all came
to hit came to him this year where it's like you're competing
with Conor Daly and you know, Marcus Ericsson.
It is not quite like doing Penske.
I thought Award might have had a shock because he, there was a
moment there he started really rocketing up.
And then, you know, he went from like 5th to 3rd.
And I told my wife, like, dude, a ward is on a tear.
And then it's like, no, he just hit a wall.
Like he just hit whatever proverbial air wall they had and
could not pass. Yeah.
It it was interesting. And then you get to what
happened after the race and you think about the fact that, OK,
Ericsson gets past finishes second.
It would have been a fascinating story if Ericsson had won,
because that's. My question if he wins do they
take away his? Victory.
Well, hold on. Well, I think I mean it was it
was an interesting historical thing because like if he wins
now he's in the 2 winner club. And what occurs, of course, for
those who were paying attention is that essentially all the
Andretti cars failed tech inspection because they had some
it, what was it impermissible parts that had been added after
the fact. I, I think they're protesting
that. I'm not sure if they're going to
have a chance to win the protest, but I think this is
something to to keep in mind. And actually Polo got asked
about it after the race. Like if if it had been found
that Ericsson's car had finished, tech inspection should
have been installed as winner. And Polo's response was, well,
if he had like AV8 in his engine, AV8 engine in his car
instead of like the V6, then maybe.
But you know, it's a minor thing than no.
And this is where as much as the Penske controversy beforehand
was problematic, I think mostly because of Rodger Penske's
position with the series and the track, these things do happen a
lot. Like we've had prior winners
whose cars have failed post race tech inspection.
And generally speaking, at that point, you don't pull the win,
you just kind of accept that it occurred and you move on.
It really does. I I think from a cultural
perspective, the no group or no set of people had a worse may
than the inspection crew for the Indianapolis 500.
And and it calls into question the rest of the series now, you
know, cheating or or stretching the rules happens in pretty much
every series of racing. It's just kind of part of the
game. But, you know, I don't think
they would have pulled the race win if Erickson had won.
It still would have gotten out. It would have cast a cloud over
things. So it ended up being probably
for the best that things worked out the way that they did.
It's just kind of weird that that cloud, which really ended
up being there for the entire month of May in one form or
another, was in many people's minds the last thing we'll think
about with this particular vintage of the race.
Yeah, No, it's true. And back to your comment that
the the friends I went with who had never been before I.
Kind of explain this to him, just not wonky, but like that
could have happened like that. Has that ever happened?
I'm like, yeah, actually in 81 there was a winner who they took
it away and gave it back to him. So like we, we, we've seen all
of this before. It it's, it's a trouble that
Indycars running into where, you know, 'cause it's not the test
inspection, you know, the last year it's the snake.
The snake didn't come into play this year or the dragon tail,
whatever, you know, the the swerving because you had two
cars who didn't need to swerve as much.
But but this is, you know, this is something race he's got to
figure out because, you know, in the end, most of the fans are
not super into the sport. I mean, they're kind of they're
there. It's like, Oh, I understand
racing like I understand track and field, like I the person who
finishes across the line first wins and then being like, oh,
no, they didn't win because they blocked and a block is actually
technically this or there's this arrow kit thing like nobody
wants to hear. That's like if you go to the
race for the first time and that was awesome.
I saw the yellow car win. That's the winner of the race,
You know, So on the one hand, you can't really take away wins
and move positions. On the other hand, you need to
have some kind of governing body.
There's some kind of rules because it does feel like we're
getting into the Wild West where it's like if the last two laps
drivers can kind of do whatever they want.
All the blocking rules are off the table and it feels like now
every team is just breaking all the inspection rules.
And, and the question I asked you, it's like, where are the
inspectors before the race and before, because powers car made
it through inspection and then like, Oh, we missed that.
And then, you know, it's like there should almost be like you
once you've made it to the grid, we're done inspecting like we
did our inspection and that's, that's it.
Yeah, no, I mean, as much as Penske has upgraded the in track
experience for fans, I think this is the next big thing that
the series has got to tackle. But it's tough because, you
know, again, this is not like the NFL that you know, that this
is this is a bunch of teams that come together under the banner
of, you know, this entity gold IndyCar.
It's like college football. Yeah, it's in many ways, yes.
So those are some things to keep in mind.
But you know, overall, I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm
like hyper negative on the race. I just, I don't think it was
entirely the fault of the competitive aspects that the
weather didn't cooperate. It went from looking like it was
going to be a beautiful day, albeit a bit cloudy, to then,
oh, we've got some rain. It's.
Our fault, it's our fault. We did our preview pod and we
were like, the weather looks awesome.
Like put that in stone. And what was annoying is
Saturday was fantastic, Monday was awesome, Sunday was just.
I know it just was, it was just and it was just, it was annoying
too because like last year it rained like it actually rained.
And here I we never felt more than sprinkles in turn 3 over
there in turn 2. It's super wet.
Scott has no idea how it felt because he was in an air
conditioned suite. Covered.
I was not. I was not in a suite, but I was
covered in the penthouse. But you know we can't.
I left my long sleeve shirt at home in the morning and I'm
like, I'll be all right. I'm just like, God, it's cold.
Yeah. It's, it was it, it, it bordered
on a little bit of, of that, but you know, it just to some
degree, it's like you almost wish that it just rained.
Yeah, when they dried the track and then you got the full.
But it was like it was intermittent up until about lap
100. And it really, it destroyed not
just the flow of the racing, but it kind of destroyed the flow of
watching the race and kind of, you know, if you if you've been
to Indy long enough or if you've watched the race on TV and
really paid attention to it, like there's a rhythm to these
things. There's a settling in period.
And it just never felt like you'd got there.
And so we'll we'll see what happens next year.
Obviously, it's not like they're gonna cancel the race for
anything. But yeah, you know.
Next to you, I'm, I'm very curious to see what happens to
Team Penske at the end of this year 'cause they already cleaned
house with a lot of their engineers and Tim Sandrick, I
text you, I'm like, I think Mclaughlin's done.
Like that's just that that month of May where you crash out and
practice and you crash out before the race starts.
I, that's not something Rodger is a huge fan of.
I, he doesn't normally like to run three cars.
And so I can see a world where it's like, all right, we can go
down to two cars. And I do wonder if it's just
going to be like, we're going to clean house and willpower gets
wrapped up in that and it becomes Newgarden and somebody
else. Like I, I could see a real shake
up where, you know, Team Penske's just like we're done
with all of this. And I, I do think McLaughlin,
unfortunately, he's a good driver, but that was not a great
month. Yeah.
I mean, it was a rough 1. And I mean, he's a good driver,
as you said. And I think he'll land
somewhere. I'm not totally sure that your
scenario will play out the way that it it plays out, but it's
very possible. And you know, but it's one of
many changes that we'll probably see taking place just in general
on everything you and I following the 500 then proceeded
down to Pacers game three. You went home, took a shower,
texted me taunting me about how refreshed you was Awesome.
Well, I, I, you know, got dropped off in downtown Indy
and, and went and had a piece of pizza and was just like, well, I
got a few hours to kill. But the, you know, game three
started off great. And then sadly for Pacers fans,
not sadly for the Knicks fans in our audience, Pacers kind of
forgot how to play basketball in the second-half of the game.
Knicks did a great job of coming back.
Atmosphere started off great. And then it just kind of felt
like a bummer at the end of the day.
And if you did both, it was like a somewhat unfulfilling race and
for Pacers fans, a really unfulfilling game.
But I want to tie in what happened with game four last
night, which you and I were both at an electric atmosphere of a
tight game again. Every as you know, Pacers are up
three one in this series, but every game has been close and
and highly hotly contested. But we end up getting to witness
not just an insane atmosphere with a ton of celebrities, which
is, I mean, not usual for Bainbridge, but an all time
game, like literally an all time game from Tyrese Halliburton,
one of the best stat lines in the history of the NBA playoffs.
Like people are rightfully gushing about it today.
It's it was quite a two days in the Eastern Conference Finals
for the Indiana Pacers and, and just a really remarkable
atmosphere all the way around it.
It was, you know, the game three, I I noticed something.
It was like middle of the second quarter, Nemhardt got a steal in
the open court and then, you know, pass it to Halliburton.
They got it and they, they, I have good seats.
I'm in the kind of in an angle and I can see Halliburton look
at Nemhardt. They kind of have look of like
we got it. Like we, we, we have the Knicks
figured out. And it was at that moment they
almost took their foot off foot off the gas.
I also think knee Smith getting hurt really affected things.
Just kind of threw the balance off.
But I, I noticed that and then the Knicks started to come back
and, you know, I, I do think the Pacers are better, but I don't
think there's so much better. I think they're very close.
So you kind of take your foot off the gas.
The Knicks will come back and that was a bummer in game three.
I say all that because last night as the Pacers made their
runs, I never saw that in any of the players faces.
It just looked like complete resolve, like we are locked in,
we are focused, we are winning this game and you felt it all
night. Halliburton was way more
aggressive. The entire team, you know, nee
Smith was just up on Brunson the entire time and I never saw them
let up. And the Knicks were really hard
to put away because they are a very good team.
But no, that that was the main thing I saw was the Pacers just
focusing in the whole time. The thing that I noticed with
the Knicks is kind of this is the Karl Anthony Towns
experience, which is. And I had Knicks fans sitting to
me both on game three and game four.
It was, which was annoying. But they all mentioned the same
thing. Like if Towns would just post up
every play, he we cannot stop him.
Like Turner is not able to guard him If he gets the ball on the,
you know, right at the free throw line and drives in, Turner
cannot stop him. Siakam cannot help handle him in
the post. And you know, Bradley is just
not able to like we have no one who can guard Cat in the post.
The trouble is Cat will do that for two possessions and then
suddenly want to play 3 point sharp shooting 3.
Just he will stop doing that. Like he's incapable of doing it
for the entire game. And that's just that is the Karl
Anthony Towns experience. But it's it's it must be madding
to be a fan of his. But I I see that and it's like
I'm after he does it twice. Like, all right, that sucks.
But I know he's going to stop, and I'm happy he does because
that's the one thing the Knicks can do that we seem to not be
able to stop. It's it's an interesting thing.
I mean, you watch this series and, you know, you really get
used to how the players play and, and where things sit.
And I mean, what's fascinating to me is I think the Knicks
clearly have the more talented starting 5, but it's a far
starting it to some degree. I was talking to to one of my
good friends about this, who's a Knicks fan last night.
And it's like the the the problem for the Knicks kind of
reminds me of the problem the Pacers ran into 12 years ago
where they had a championship caliber team built around a
traditional setup of a team. But they ran into teams that
LeBron was on that they couldn't overcome because they were built
on a new model. And that kind of feels like what
the Knicks are running into here.
This feels like a Knicks team that was built for winning a
title six years ago where you have a dominant superstar scorer
and Jaylen Brunson, who doesn't play that great defensively, you
can get him in mismatches. You've got a dominant offensive
post player who who's got range, can stretch the floor and Karl
Anthony Towns, but also doesn't play defense particularly well.
But you can't rely on your complimentary pieces
consistently to do things. And you'll get you'll get, you
know, good games out of Miles Bridges every now and then.
You'll get Mitchell Robinson's had a a really good series last
night was not the best game for him, but it's it's not it, it
doesn't hold up well against this weirdly constructed but
very forward thinking like constructed Pacers team.
And you think about the you know what, what killed the Pacers in
Game 3 was they stopped pushing tempo the moment that they got
the game in hand. And then when knee Smith goes
out with the injury, they kind of lose the impetus during the
time zone. Halliburton's not on the floor,
and Halliburton didn't do a good job of getting the team back
into action last night. For most of the time that the
Pacers were playing well, they were really pushing tempo.
They were really forcing New York into disadvantageous
defensive positions. And yeah, it really becomes a
matter with the Pacers of you have to keep scoring.
And that was what they did down the stretch in game four.
It's what they did down the stretch in Game 2.
You know, you got game one, you kind of take out of the equation
because of how crazy that game was.
But the way that this Pacers team works, you get that great
game out of Halliburton, you get a great game out of Siakam.
Again, yesterday you didn't get a great game out of Nemhard.
Like he had a really, really bad game all the way around.
But it didn't matter because Benedict Matheran is able to
come in and he had not been good old series.
He plays well in that game. It's it is interesting how it's
and we've heard like the ringers talked about this a bunch.
Bill Simmons and Ryan Rosillo have talked about it quite a
bit. This idea that you're the way
that the NBA is about to change its structures with this second
apron and everything puts teams like the Knicks in real trouble
because we have to overpay or pay a high level for like a a
trio of superstars, which is how you won over the last 15 years.
In many cases, you're not going to be able to do that as well.
And the Pacers are both weirdly well designed to beat this type
of Knicks team while also able to sustain as they move forward,
provided they can re sign Miles Turner, who kind of fits in this
quirky system about as well as anybody could.
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, 2 two other things Last
night there was a couple of moments where the Knicks really
needed a basket and it's like Landry Shamit was taking the
shots and he he hit one. But it's like I'm like, I love
that this series is on on Shamit's shoulders.
Like let's go with that. I will take those shots all day
long. Like Deuce McBride, who's oddly
become unstoppable in the play offs.
But it's like that at some point that's going to wear thin.
There's that, but there's also, you know, you see it in person.
You know, these are all pro athletes, but it's relentless.
The Pacers and and you you brought it up.
They have to score because when they score, it allows them to
set up their defense. But they play 90, They play the
the entire court. They play full court defense.
And you can tell like Bronson is annoyed and he's tired.
It's like I just want to bring the ball up.
Like I don't want Nee Smith up on me the entire time.
It's not Nee Smith like he'll run around the screen.
It's like boom, there's Nemhart. Or like they're separate.
It's just like none of these guys can get any space And you
see them getting tired and frustrated and like Josh Hart is
making fouls because they're just they're annoyed.
And it's not, it's not like the Bobby Portis thing where you're
like messing with people. You're in someone's fate.
It's just like you're playing tough defense, like the Pacers
are just picking you up and they have seven guys who can pick up
full court. And it is you see it wearing the
Knicks down. How how it goes against the
Thunder or the Timberwolves will be a different discussion for
different podcasts. But you see them wearing the
Knicks down and and yeah, you are right.
If you look at the the Pacers in the future as Heather basketball
reference page up, sorry, but you know, you you look to the
future, they you know, if they re sign Miles Turner that they
they just this is a team that needs to be able to say we're
going to go on the tax for a little bit.
But it, you know, this first second apron stuff is, is rough.
And you have teams like Boston who like cannot, you know,
there's repeater taxes being in the second apron twice.
But you know, when you look at Siakam is making 4548 and 52 the
next three years, Halliburton's making 45485255.
That's that's really pretty good, especially when you
consider going to pull up the Knicks contracts.
You know, someone like Towns is making 5357 and 61 million over
the next three years. Those are just huge, huge
numbers and and it just becomes really tough to build a team
around guys like that. Well, and I will say I'm not,
I'm not willing until the Knicks are dead and in the ground to to
say that the Pacers are advancing.
Because I think what you've seen in these last two games is the
Knicks can score with you possession for possession.
And you know, the Pacers what what gives them the chances to
win, also almost prevents them from really building a huge lead
and maintaining it like these deep rotations that Carlisle
engages in. It worked.
I, I think it's worked once in these playoffs, maybe twice.
You know, it was game four in the Cavs series.
They, they that was a rocket ship and, and I forget which
game it was in the, in the Bucs series.
And that has been Game 2. That might be wrong on that, but
the rest of the games have been close or the Pacers have had to
come from behind. And they've had the benefit of
having a fresher starting five that's been on the floor at the
end of those games. But it does keep them from
really nailing the coffin shut. And I do worry, you know, if the
Pacers can't come out with the same mojo that they had in Game
4 where they're pressing tempo, they're, you know, they they
they knew early on they were getting a great offensive game
from Halliburton and they were going to great get a great
offensive game from Siakam. That's the first time in this
series that you could really say you got that from both of them
in the same game. And the Knicks are great at
drawing fouls. The Knicks are great at going on
runs. And they've got a scorer that
can go basket for basket with Halliburton.
And they've got Towns who, you know, if Siakam's on his game,
you can go basket for basket with.
But it's not a foregone conclusion that'll happen every
time. So I guess what I'm saying is
there's a route for the Knicks to come back in this.
I still think that I would, you know, 8590% would bet on the
Pacers just because of how they've been able to control the
flow of things when they've wanted to.
They just have to want to. They can't let that.
Wayne, when you hear Halliburton talking in the post game about
how he let his felt like he let his team down in game three,
really had to push things. It's like, that's true.
That's something that you just have to think about every single
time. And I think that that's kind of
the threshold that Halliburton's got to get through.
If he's going to really get into the top ten player argument,
he's got to do that every single game because he is the engine
that drives literally all of this.
Yeah, and unfortunately it it, there's probably going to be
other moments. And it's just it's a feature of
this team that they have these 10 minute spans where they just
kind of forget, you know, Zach Lowe talked about forgetting the
plot. Does they forget the plot of
their offense? And you get, you know, bad
McConnell shots? And it normally isn't those
spots where the rotation has gotten to a point where it's
like Halliburton 4 Subs or McConnell and a bunch of Subs.
Like, man, can we can we, can we always have Siakam or
Halliburton on the court at all times?
And unfortunately, it's like Indiana has in a good way, but
has a bit of the kind of the, I want to say the vibes like they
get the mojo going and they're hard to stop.
But sometimes when they get bogged down, it's like they also
have the bogged down mojo where it's hard for them to get going
again. So I, I hear you.
That's my fear is that you have another 5 or 10 minute kind of
just taking your foot off the gas at MSG.
You can very easily lose that game.
And then, you know, suddenly now the window becomes much tighter
and the pressure is really on that Game 6 where suddenly, you
know, it's like winning three in a row sounds tough in theory,
but suddenly you're in Game 6, It's a tight game.
It's like you lose that, you're going back to MSG in Game 7 and
suddenly everything doesn't matter anymore.
We'll stop talking about the future and talk a little bit
more about the the Game 4 atmosphere as a whole.
It was wild the number of people that were there.
I mean, first of all, the number of former Pacers that were in
the building for that game. Ever seen?
Yeah, it was staggering. I mean, Dale Davis, Antonio
Davis, Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington, Travis Best was in
the building. Derek Collison.
Darren Collison was in the building.
I my favorite of all of them and maybe arguably other than
Reggie, the guy that got the most loudest cheers.
Lance Stephens, and he's been back a couple times and he
owned. It's a huge ovation, Yeah, but
you know, but it was. I, I really felt like they,
they, the way that they spread that out throughout the course
of the game, like every time the crowd needed it, really, it felt
like a college crowd in a way that most of those games don't.
We stood most of the game. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I didn't because I was up in, you know, in the
cheap seats. Well, relatively they weren't
actually cheap at. All.
But we were up and down a bunch and, and it was loud, it was
engaging. There are a lot of random
celebrities like you know, you mentioned Jelly Roll was there
in the last podcast, but then it was 50 Cent, $0.50 was there and
Mountain. Camp Triple H.
Yeah, they were just the triple H1.
I was like I I don't total. McAfee.
That was McAfee, Yeah. What's awesome is all of the,
all the celebrities, like First off, any you don't mention them
because they're Knicks fans, but like Timothy Chalamet was there,
Ben Stiller, Spike Lee was all there.
But the, the biggest ovation of anybody was McAfee, who then
caught up. And if you haven't seen it on
Twitter, just just does. It's like, on one hand you
should give McAfee the the mic because he's great.
On the other hand, like you don't know what you're in for
when you give McAfee the mic. I saw a lot of jokes this
morning on Twitter and and on Reddit.
Like if, if David Stern was still alive and in charge of the
NBA, he would have like McAfee would be like a black site right
now. Like we wouldn't, we wouldn't
know where he was at. Like they would have escorted
him out of the building in an unmarked tunnel.
But, and it, it hit just right at that point, Like, it really
kind of pumped the audience up at the end there.
It was a lot of fun. I, I give the Pacers game day
staff a lot of credit. Like they, they set that up for
crescendos at exactly the right times.
And I give the Pacers credit too, Like when they needed to
get the crowd back into it, they hit, they hit shots when they
needed to. There were plays that happened
despite the officiating, which was wow on a on a very
particular level of, of bad for both teams really, Although the
the foul disparity and everything.
It's like This is why Pacers fans are constantly saying that
the NBA doesn't respect them and they get screwed at every turn
when it comes to these sorts of games.
It ended up not mattering in this one.
But yeah, just a wild atmosphere all the way around in the arena
and. It's something that I noticed a
little bit last year, not not as much because I went to the game
four of the Eastern Conference finals, but that one was a three
O lead and it kind of felt like a fake accompli that Boston was
going to win. But you know what, what's cool?
And I'm I'm very, you know, I'm hoping we can get to a finals.
But what's cool is as you go through the playoffs, you know,
the intensity picks up, but just not only the celebrities in the
crowd, but you start notice there's more media there, like
ESPN Deportes is there and they're doing, you know, stuff
on the sideline and where there used to be cheerleaders or
pacemates. It's like there's two rows right
where I sit of new media that's sitting there and there's so
many TNT cameras. What you just you feel like, oh,
this is different. The TNT booth is in the stadium
for the halftime show and from everything I've heard, not been
to a finals game. It's like it's that another
level when you get to the finals and suddenly, you know, an hour
before the game, it's just tons of people milling around.
There's all this media and it was really cool to see.
That was really cool. And I agree with you, The having
been a season ticket holder with the Pacers for 10 plus years now
going to games, they've always done a great job with the in
game experience. And, you know, it's, it's a an
arena that's built just for basketball.
I love that. You know, the, the Garden is
great, has like the organ, but you know, the Patriots are
great. They have a drum line up in the
top that kind of starts the defense chant, you know, and
they, they use the drums very effectively.
It's just it's a very fun place to go watch a game.
Yeah, it was, it was good. And it's one of those where I
hope the next game we see at game bridge is, you know, game
three of the finals. But we'll see what happens.
I mean, obviously, the, the thing about this and it, this is
where it does somewhat contribute, I think positively
to the Pacers. And, and frankly, it's like the
the fact that Nesmith was able to go as long as he went and
looked relatively unaffected by the ankle sprain that he
suffered in game three. They got to play again tomorrow.
You know, they're they're playing.
Carlisle in the post game saying like, you know those, you know
what, what helped us was we didn't have to fly 'cause
sometimes those things, you know, balloon up in the
airplane, which I'm like rent a van like the Nesmith drives.
Like sorry, hey, you're, we're taking you a limo to New York.
You have to drive. Sorry buddy.
Put him on a train, get get him out there.
I don't know if there's even train service, but hey, you
know, do what you need to do. But that's that was that was
interesting. I hadn't heard that.
But no, should be a lot of fun. It's it's going to be
fascinating seeing what happens these next couple of days.
I mean, you're going to I what was I heard?
I forget which podcast it was. It might have been it might have
been Zach Lowe's podcast about game three of the Timberwolves
and Thunder series where he said, you know, you you can't
quoting somebody else was like, you can't fake desperation.
And that's what you're going to see out of the Knicks on in game
five. That is going to be a desperate
team. This is it for them.
And the Pacers have managed that.
I mean, they managed the atmosphere in game one where it
was like there was an Uber confidence out of the Knicks and
the Pacers didn't look ready to deal with it.
And then they figured out a way to deal with it.
And they've played them very even and slightly better up to
this point. But I am curious to see how this
Pacers team, which is still learning some of the finer
points of finishing off games and series, you know, as a
collective unit, because they are relatively young, all things
considered, you know, at least in terms of like who they rely
on as their engine in Halliburton.
It's it's going to be fascinating to see how they deal
with that and what the gardens like.
Because I will say the one offset to that in the Garden is
these you've got Knicks fans who are going to get nervous very
quickly if things don't go their way right away.
I mean, it kind of it happened at the end of game one where the
atmosphere just kind of went S weirdly there over the last five
minutes or so. So I am there's a lot of
different factors. I'm fascinated to see what ends
up happening. You hope for what I was saying
before game five against Cleveland, which is you just got
to keep the game close. You can't let the Knicks get on
a heater, get up by 10 or 12. Like you, you saw it in game
five against Cleveland. The Pacers kept it close.
You just keep it close to the third quarter.
And if it's close, then you know all those Warriors are going to
start creeping. The pressure mounts on the
Knicks. And then if you can just get up
by three or four points, which is what the Pacers did in the
fourth quarter against the Cavs. The Cavs, you know, the Pacers
continue to play well. The Cavs self constructed and
just turned into like, all right, Mitchell, save us and I
can see that. I can see the Knicks doing the
exact same thing where she's like Brunson save us and he's
good. That the trouble is, and this is
mentioned other places as well, but like when you start playing
that hero ball, like that's when Mitchell Robinson and other
players, they stop going as hard for rebounds and defense because
you say you start getting disconnected from the game.
You saw it with the Cavs where Struce started missing shots.
It's like then all of a sudden they're down by 6 and they don't
have the ball. And it's like, Oh my God, we're
going to lose in five games. And then once that sets in, now
you got it, you can just topple the giant.
I think that's the path to victory is just you keep it
close, save your dry powder and then in the fourth quarter
you've got to just get them to a point.
The the worst case would be if you let the Knicks get to like a
7 or 10 point lead. Let them get comfortable and
never feel that. Pressure should be a lot of fun,
whatever ends up happening in Game 5.
Looking forward to seeing what happens.
Scott, any final thoughts before we wrap up our?
Our Indiana wrap up of the 500, the double, the Pacers.
Let's do some finals talk. If we if we make to the finals,
we got to do a couple of pods on the finals.
If we make the finals, I'm going to be simultaneously donating
plasma and running a bunch of bake sales.
See if I can generate enough money to pick buy a ticket.
Man, I looked at those ticket prices yesterday.
They're already finals. Yeah, well that cause 'cause
season you can sell the tickets before the matchup is set.
I actually did that for the ECF game three.
I bought it before the matchup was set, but yeah I mean top
upper level like 2 two 14216 tickets are going for like 850
each right now so yeah yeah so it's it's if anyone even love a
delightful companion to watch the game with I'm very
available. I just want to say that so I.
Will end on this probably way too much information, but I I
try and, you know, I want my kids to have good experiences.
I like to travel with them. I do trips with them and you
know, I took my my son James, like we went to a road trip to
New Orleans to watch the Pacers game there.
And I was kind of telling him, like, you know, if we make the
finals, IA road trip to Oklahoma City is not off the table and we
can try and I'm kind of like, we can try and do that.
And so he's been excited about that.
And then in game three, you know, he he goes a lot of games.
They were game three. And he's like, Hey, Dad, if we
make the finals, we should also do a game where you buy two more
tickets and as a family, we can go to a home game.
And I'm like, James, money is not unlimited.
Like there does like I want I want you to have the world as
your oyster. But like there does come a point
where I I cannot provide everything to you.
And he's like, we can't also do two games in Oklahoma City and
then come back and buy four more tickets for for the home.
The finals tickets start to get pricey, my man.
Yeah, I had to tell. It's probably not going to
happen. Now you're in this is a
different stratosphere that we're talking about unless like
someone from you and Tim Cook from Apple.
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All right, all right, we're done.
We're wrapping up full Scott. I'm Galen.
This is a Crimson cast. It's been a lot of fun talking
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