A Final(s) reckoning

Well, now. I guess the market for those "Game 7" Knicks caps just cratered, didn't it?

Orange lettering on a blue crown, they showed up on the Magic Interwhatsis the day before Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals, all neatly lined up for sale. Which suggested the Big Apple was in full swagger after their Knicks clocked the Indiana Pacers by 17 in Game 5 to save their season.

At last the anointed team had asserted its superiority. Or so the narrative seemed to go in New York.

Oh, me, oh, my. And "ahem" and "uhhh" and all that.

What Knickerbocker Knation forgot, see, is that -- and we can't repeat this loudly enough -- THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS MOMENTUM IN THE NBA PLAYOFFS. Clocker becomes the clock-ee with alarming frequency. Thus a team that left its mojo somewhere over Pennsylvania on the way to New York for Game 5 retrieved it on the way back to Indiana for Game 6.

Pennsylvania, it seems, was only hanging onto it for safekeeping.

Because Game 6 began in front of a howling home crowd in Gainsbridge Fieldhouse, and before long the Pacers were pressuring the basketball and making shots and doing all the things they didn't do in Game 5. The Knicks turned it over 17 times against the Pacers' ball pressure; Indiana got 10 of those 17 on straight-up steals. They missed 23 of their 32 attempts from Threeville. They were outscored by 13 in the second half.

And the home team?

Shot 54.1 percent and 51.5 percent (17-of-33) from the arc. Put seven players in double figures. Got 36 points off its bench, including 18 from Obi Toppin and 11 from Thomas Bryant. 

Oh, yeah. And won by 17, 125-108, to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years.

It was a 34-point swing from Game 5, and if Knicks Knation forgot Big Mo is a no-show in the playoffs, it is likely aware of it now. It might also be aware (though loathe to admit it) that the reason the Pacers were up 3-1 in the series going to Game 5 to begin with is they were simply the better team. 

They had more go-to's. A deeper bench. And they played at a tempo the Knicks simply couldn't match from one game to the next.

Some possibly relevant numbers: In Game 6, three players scored 65 of their 108 points -- OG Anunoby (24), Karl-Anthony Towns (22) and Jalen Brunson (19). Their bench contributed just 20 points, 12 of which came from Landry Shamet. The 16-point edge in bench points was almost exactly the margin of victory for Indiana.

Call it a Final(s) reckoning.

Call Indiana your Eastern Conference champs, and now Oklahoma City awaits, the best team in the league this season and likely your champions-in-waiting. Or so the boys in Vegas figure it.

And the Knicks?

Well, maybe those "Game 7" hats will wind up in the hands of some needy kids overseas, like all those "Buffalo Bills Super Bowl Champs" T-shirts used to.

More chutzpah gone wrong, that.