Pacers 1, East Coast bias 0

 I have a communique in my hot little hand this morning. It's an important communique, and it's actually several communiques, but they all say the same thing:

Dammit!

-- Stephen A. Smith

Dammit!

-- ABC and ESPN

Dammit!

\-- The NBA league office and various other moneyed interests

Yes, that's right, boys and girls. Your Indiana Pacers done did it. They defied Stephen A., the moneyed interests and the logic of this entire Eastern Conference series by marching into Madison Square Garden and laying an almighty whuppin' on the New York Knicks in Game 7, booting the New York market out of the NBA playoffs 130-109 in a contest that, shockingly, was never much of a contest.

The Pacers shot 67 percent and controlled Game 7 almost from the outset, leading by as many as 19 points in the first half, letting the Knicks get back within six and then burying them down the stretch. And now it's onto the conference finals against the fearsome Boston Celtics, leaving Stephen A., ESPN and ABC to weep into their  festive blue-and-orange Knicks pompons.

Yes, the ESPN/ABC pregame coverage was that comically boosterish, and if you're saying here "Wasn't that terribly unprofessional, Mr. Blob?", let me remind you: It's ESPN/ABC. Also Stephen A., ESPN megastar and (as he endlessly reminds us) Knicks megafan, whom his employers' cameras followed into MSG as if he were a player arriving for the big showdown.

And the team from Indiana?

Barely mentioned in all the Knicks love. A mere foil. The Washington Generals in this scenario, to the Knicks' Globies.

And then ...

And then, the game started. And suddenly it was, "Hey, no fair! Where does it say Tyrese Haliburton gets to make all these shots?"

Hard to say, but he did. Scored 26 points, Haliburton did. Dropped 10-of-17 shots, and 6-of-12 from the 3-point arc. Led six Pacers in double figures -- including three starters (Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard) who went for 20 or more. And Aaron Nesmith nearly made it four, finishing with 19 points on perfect 8-of-8 sniping

All told, the Pacers shot the rock 79 times, and 53 of them found a proper home. And they were a ridiculous 13 of 24 from Threeville.

All of this must surely have frosted everyone's cookies in both MSG and its apparently private TV network. Everyone outside the East Coast loves to gripe about major media's East Coast bias, and mostly the East Coast crowd laughs at us like we're a bunch of clueless hayseeds with lousy dental plans. Why, goodness, there's no East Coast bias ...

Except Sunday there was, clearly.

And it lost, even more clearly.

Ah, yes. It's lovely day, here in the sticks. Lovely day.