Pre-Game: Knicks vs. Pacers 7:00 PM

The New York Knicks will face the Indiana Pacers tonight. The Knicks are coming off a win against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night. The Knicks will face a tough competitor tonight in the Pacers. The Knicks did sweep a home and home series, but they still have to come out and try to get this game as well.

The play of Iman Shumpert over the last three games have been very remarkable. Shumpert isn’t known for his offense, but over the last three games his shot has looked better than ever. His defense is always good and that has led to more steals and fast break opportunities. Tonight look for Shumpert to be the spark defensively that the Knicks will need in this game against a very underrated Pacers team.

Carmelo Anthony played a tough stretch of games after he strained his groin again. Anthony has been scoring and playing a much better all around since the coaching change. This has been the best Anthony has looked in over a two week stretch in his whole Knicks career. Tonight Anthony will need to be effective on both ends of the floor and help keep the Knicks close in this game.

As a team the Knicks have struggled on the road this season. They have a 9-16 record on the road this season and are really struggling to play defense and score. The concerning thing is that the Knicks seem to lack energy on the road and often times look lost. Tonight they need to come out with energy and rebound the ball. In all of their wins under Mike Woodson they have been outstanding on the boards. This game could get very physical, so expect tonight to be a very close game.

The key for the Knicks tonight is the production out of their second unit. Steve Novak and JR Smith have been very good together and tonight the Knicks will need both of them to be successful. As the leaders off the bench it is very important that both of them have solid nights. The Knicks have had a very good dose of great bench production over the last couple of weeks. They need those two to be successful if they are going to keep winning games.

This game will start at 7:00 PM live from Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Let’s go Knicks!