The Indiana Pacers and Spike Lee have had beef for three decades, dating back to the 1990s heyday of the Pacers-Knicks rivalry.
Indiana went into Madison Square Garden on Sunday and broke the hearts of Lee and every other Knicks fan, blasting the home team 130-109 in a deciding Game 7.
With the win, the Pacers moved on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 10 years. The No. 6 seed, they have now knocked out the No. 3 seed (Milwaukee Bucks) and No. 2 seed (Knicks).
Following the win, the Pacers sent a “friendly” message to Lee on X/Twitter, including a GIF of the famous actor/director with his head down during the fourth quarter of today’s game.
🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/MF1HOCOD9f
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 19, 2024
The Pacers came out smoking, scoring 39 first-quarter points while shooting 15-of-20 from the field. For the day, Indiana made 53-of-79 shots, setting an NBA playoff record for single-game field goal percentage (67.1%).
“We have a historic offense obviously, but this guy got things rolling and everybody kind of just followed suit,” said Pacers center Myles Turner, referring to point guard Tyrese Haliburton (26 points).
“To do that on the road here in the Garden in Game 7 obviously is phenomenal, but I think this is what we’ve been doing all season long and we were able to show it on the biggest stage.”
The Pacers will now face the Boston Celtics for the right to play in the NBA Finals. Game 1 is set for Tuesday night in Boston.