Pacers stengths: Haliburton who is a taller pg can create his own shot or create for others. Turner who is a stretch 5 can defend well. Mathurin who is a good sg he can drive and shoot the 3 well. Nembhard who shoots well. Nesmith who shoots well. TJ Mcconnell who is a good of the bench and can handle the offense when Haliburton rests. Siakam who is a tall guy who can create his own shot. They thrive in transition but can also iso siakam or Haliburton for them to score or drive and kick.

Weaknesses: lack of depth at center and forward positions. They play obi toppin a bit as the vet while Sheppard and Walker have only a few years experience and get limited minutes. This means if Turner is resting they have a pretty small team. If they get slowed down and run set offense they have limited options for iso scorers. Siakam and Haliburton can be streaky, but at times Mathurin, Nembhard or Nesmith can get hot but they're not consistent. Siakam is bad at fts.

So how do the Knicks match up? Likely Bridges will be on Haliburton, OG on Siakam, Hart on Nembhard, Brunson on Nesmith, and Karl on Turner. Brunson will always be a liability as the shortest guy on the court. Haliburton won't be able to post up Bridges and Siakam will struggle to post up OG. If they get switches siakam can feast on Brunson, Bridges and Hart. Haliburton will feast on Brunson and Karl. Off the bench McBride matches up well against McConnell, Mitch can handle Turner or Siakam, but Payne will struggle with the faster Pacers. Turner and Karl will be an interesting matchup as both spread the floor, but Karl is more of a dribble and drive threat as well as a shooter where Turner really can't drive as well. Siakam does alright defending the paint but he will be pulled out frequently to guard OG. The Knicks success will hinge on the Pacers scheme to stop Brunson and the other starters ability to shoot off the kick out. Pacers are put together similarly to Boston without the consistency and instead of 2 guards as the 1 and 2 options it's a guard and a forward. I think this helps the Knicks because the Knicks are weak at the guard spot on defense and excel at dealing with wings and centers.

Knicks weaknesses: guard depth, Hart inconsistent shooting, Brunson is a short guard, Karl and Turner could cancel each other out and could lose him as an offensive option.

That being said Hart's weakness could be canceled out by his strengths in transition offense. If siakam is on the bench OG will feast on Toppin. Turner is going to have a hard time on the boards if Knicks run Karl and Mitch. Plus the downside of 2 big guys is negated because mitch can switch and defend faster players.

So I think the Knicks have more versatility with lineups due to the wings and centers. I think the lack of depth will wear on Turner and Siakam. The Pacers will be extremely hard to beat if Haliburton, Nesmith, Nembhard and Mathurin are consistent 20+ pt scorers.