One W away

 And now your Indiana Pacers head back to Madison Square Garden looking to close out the New York Knicks tomorrow night, and is the Blob worried? Of course the Blob is worried.

I wonder what will happen if the Knicks shake off last night's loss in Indy, locks down Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith and Pascal Siakam, and sends the series back to Indy.

Then I'm thinking Game 6 is a must win for the P's, because they don't want a Game 7 in the Garden, and what happens if the moment's too big for them and they wind up with exactly what they don't want?

Then I'm thinking what an epic collapse it would be, gagging away a 3-1 lead in the series, being one W away from their first NBA Finals in a quarter century and then ...

Ah, hell. My heart's just not in it, all this worrying.

My heart's not in it because I think the Pacers have made it clear they're the better team here, just as they made it clear they were the better team in taking out the East's top seed, Cleveland, in five games. Were it not for one bad half and a blown 20-point lead, this series would already be over.

Last night they put that bad half and blown lead behind them, and dispatched the Knicks again, 130-121. Haliburton was a monster: 32 points, five threes, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals. Siakam was an emergency backup monster: 30 points, five boards, two assists, a steal and a block.

Nesmith?

Added 16.

Pacers as a team?

Shot 51.1 percent and 40.6 percent from Threeville, with 13 triples.

The Knicks?

Got their usual big game from Jalen Brunson, who dropped 31. Karl-Anthony Towns (24 points), OG Anunoby (22) and Mikal Bridges (17) backed his play. But except for Josh Hart's 12 off the bench, the Knicks got 15 points from everyone else.

A recurring theme, if you will. And a telling win for the Pacers, because until last night, the Knicks were 6-1 on the road in these playoffs.

Now it's back to the Garden, where they are unaccountably 3-5. Which means they'll probably win and send it back to Indiana for Game 6, the strange logic of the NBA playoffs being what it is.

Onward.