INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana coach Rick Carlisle had started counting off his team’s Eastern Conference championship series from the get-go, not by victories, but by duration.

“This is just Day 1 of 13 days,” Carlisle said after the Pacers pulled off an improbable, exhilarating, overtime victory over the Knicks in the opener in New York. When the Pacers won again 48 hours later, sure enough, it was simply “Day 3” in Carlisle’s world.

It seemed as if he was trying to provide a framework for his players, maybe even for the media and the Indiana fans, not to get ahead of themselves. Beware the irrational exuberance that can bite hard when things go awry, in other words, in a difficult NBA playoff series.

And it did appear to lay a calming blanket over the Pacers when they stunned even themselves in Game 1, dropped Game 3 at home, then fumbled a close-out shot in Game 5 Thursday in their worst performance of the series.

In the end, though, Carlisle was wrong.

The thing didn’t last 13 days.

The Pacers needed only 11 from the opening tipoff to the celebration late Saturday night on the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. They sealed the Eastern Conference title and the franchise’s second trip ever to the NBA Finals – the first was in 2000 – with an impressive 125-108 elimination of the Knicks.

The series lasted long enough for Indiana to show itself in full in Game 6, but not so long that it had to face the stresses of heading back to Madison Square Garden for a winner-take-all finish.

There should be plenty of that waiting for the Pacers, anyway, at Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center when the 2025 Finals begin Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). First, here are five takeaways from the victory that earned them the trip:

1. Every Pacers ingredient on display

It would be hard to conjure an Indiana outcome more “on brand” than what it served up Saturday. Seven guys put up double-figures. The same seven each hit at least a pair of 3-pointers. The Pacers’ shooting, despite New York’s dialed-up and rugged defensive pressure, was exemplary: 54.1% overall (46-for-85), 51.5% on threes (17-for-33) and 84.2% (16-for-19) from the line. They played fast, running to a 23-6 edge in fast-break points through three quarters, by which time they led 92-77.

And that pace, along with their pesky-enough defense, sprung loose 18 Knicks turnovers, good for 34 of the home team’s points.

Center Myles Turner had a modest stats line, foul trouble limiting him to 21 minutes and 11 points. But he has perspective on this team that no one else matches, his seniority stretching back to his arrival in 2015 at 19 years old, the No. 11 pick from Texas.

Turner rode the Pacers elevator from a playoff contender to three straight lottery finishes and now back up again. He was the subject of endless trade rumors for his first six or seven seasons, until Indiana brought in Tyrese Haliburton in exchange for Turner’s former frontcourt mate, Domantas Sabonis.

“When the buzzer was sounding, it was nothing but joy,” Turner said Saturday. “All the years, all the hate, all the love, all the in-between just made sense in that moment.”

Turner and his teammates are proud of Indiana’s egalitarian roster, the praise, the credit and the blame spread around just like the responsibility. He called the Pacers’ foundation “the power of friendship” in his postgame remarks.

“It’s not the flashiest, sexiest team,” he said, “but it gets results.”

2. Siakam snags the Bird trophy

The vote was close, 5-4 from the media panel that determined the Most Valuable Player of the Eastern Conference championship series. Pacers forward Pascal Siakam edged out teammate Haliburton to take home the Larry Bird Trophy after scoring 31 points with five rebounds, three assists, a steal and three blocked shots in the finale.

Haliburton finished with 21 points, six rebounds, 13 assists, three steals and one block. The lanky, frenetic point guard remains the head of Indiana’s proverbial snake and a reliable win-lose barometer for how their team does, following his lead up or down.

But this was a case of Siakam providing offense when the Pacers needed it most. In a slow Pacers start, it was Siakam’s 3-pointer that slowed New York’s early roll and a breakout layup that put them up 12-11. He hit another 3 to start the second quarter, and by halftime Siakam had a game-high 16 points that were essential to his team’s 58-54 lead.

When Indiana outscored the Knicks 34-23 in the game-cracking third quarter, Siakam had 10 more points. Haliburton was just 1-for-3 in that period, though it wasn’t as if the pair were competing with each other.

Siakam led the Pacers in the series with 24.8 ppg and his shooting – 52.4% overall, 50% from the arc – was a reflection of their offensive strength. He was able to pester Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns more than Turner with better mobility and a mighty wingspan.

“The versatility,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Siakam. “His ability to run the floor, his ability to play in the paint, his ability to get to the basket … makes him a tough cover.”

Siakam, 31, was the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2018-19 when his team at the time, the Toronto Raptors, won the NBA championship in his third season. It has taken him six years to return to the Finals, a trip he has said he took for granted.

All the Pacers know is that, since they acquired him 16 months ago for three players and three first-round draft picks, they have gone to the conference finals twice and now are four victories away from taking home the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Said Haliburton: “When we brought him here, we envisioned something like this.”

3. This ending ‘sucks,’ but the Knicks’ run did not

New York point guard Jalen Brunson has been in that city long enough to know how the tabloid newspapers work. So he gave them easy back-page fodder with his first postgame comments Saturday.

“It sucks,” Brunson said, providing the stuff of big, rude headlines. “Simple as that. It sucks.”

Of course it did. New York ground out 18 games of postseason drama only to spit out the bit in the second half Saturday, when they got outscored 67-54. The Knicks never led after halftime, never really got close after Indiana reeled off the first nine points of the third quarter.

Frankly, it was a near-miracle that they got up one more shot than the Pacers, considering their 18 turnovers. If you’re going to get outscored by 24 points on 3-pointers, you had better not give up 34 easy points by throwing the ball away or snuffing possessions with offensive fouls.

“Some of it was our own doing, some of it was their ball pressure,” Thibodeau said.

Said Brunson, who had five turnovers to go with seven assists: “I try to control the things that I can control, and that’s one of them. That’s terrible on my part.”

Zooming out a few thousand feet, however, the Knicks’ season looked better than their final 24 minutes. They pushed through an injury-riddled season to win 51 games, their most in a dozen years. They had a major piece dropped in their laps, Towns, on the eve of training camp and patched around the departures of Isaiah Hartenstein, Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.

New York handled a scrappy Detroit team in the first round, then bumped off the defending champions from Boston in six games with a pair of 20-point comebacks. They got a round further than when they lost in the East semis to Indiana a year ago.

“There were a lot of people saying we couldn’t do a lot of things,” Brunson said. “A lot of negativity around what we were trying to accomplish Just kind of put blinders on and went to work.”

Any speculation about Thibodeau’s job status, an inevitability for a New York fan base, will be premature at best. Folks fretted about the heavy minutes he loaded on Knicks starters, then never explored why they were as healthy as any team eight months in. Thibodeau has steered the Knicks to the postseason four times in five seasons, compared to three times in 16 seasons by the nine guys who preceded him in the job.

4. Carlisle’s golden touch once more

Backup center Thomas Bryant had played in just three of the series’ first five games for a total of 22 minutes. So he goes out in Game 6 and gives the Pacers 11 points in 13 minutes, hitting three of his four 3-pointers, grabbing three rebounds and blocking a shot.

It went that way with Bryant in the previous round too. In the first four games against Cleveland, he totaled nine points in 42 minutes. In the decisive Game 5, Bryant responded to Carlisle’s tap on the shoulder with nine points in 11 minutes to help defeat the Cavaliers on their own floor.

It’s chicken-or-egg stuff at this point: does Bryant play well in clinchers or do games become clinchers because Bryant plays well? Let’s not forget, the much-traveled 27-year-old (five teams) was on the 2023 Nuggets championship squad.

Said Siakam: “I told him, the basketball gods reward you.”

🗣️ “4 more, that’s all we are worrying about right now.”

A 2023 NBA Champion with Denver… Thomas Bryant is going back to the Finals 💯🏆 pic.twitter.com/PvSB3v8tn0

— NBA (@NBA) June 1, 2025

5. Low-wattage Finals? More like high concept

Siakam and Turner both took knees to the groin from attacking Knicks players in Game 6 – and both got called for the fouls on the two plays. But in the grand scheme, that might serve as solid prep work for the force the Pacers can expect when they face the Thunder in the 2025 NBA Finals.

Oklahoma City plays the league’s most physical and smothering defense, the sort of the-refs-can’t-call-every-foul style that can stymie opponents competitively and mentally. Indiana just demonstrated how potent it can be when it plays fast, attacks both inside and out, and pushes its point total north of 110 points (11-0 in the playoffs so far when doing that, 52-23 in the regular season).

So it’s offense vs. defense in a Finals that will lack a major TV market for the people focused on ratings. But it shouldn’t lack much for basketball fans who can watch without worrying if the folks across the hall or down the street are doing the same. If the neighbors miss out, they miss out.

* * *

Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.

INDIANAPOLIS — With hopes to meet Caitlin Clark, Kestas Jociuf and his 8-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, left their seats in section 119 and went to the tunnel next to the Indiana Fever bench. Before her family started their nine-hour drive from Minnesota to Indiana, Elizabeth painted a picture draped with Fever logos and a “Caitlin, we love you” message. 

The Jociuf’s attempt to meet Clark was successful. Elizabeth’s painting now has a new owner. 

“Caitlin actually took the picture,” Jociuf said. “Elizabeth probably wrote Caitlin Clark at least 14 times on that drawing.”

Elizabeth and her father also told Clark to feel better soon, to which she thanked them. The Fever announced Monday that Clark would miss at least two weeks with a left quad strain. Since Clark’s injury, the Fever played the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun, losing both matchups. Indiana will be without their star guard for at least the next two games, when they host the Mystics on Tuesday and travel to the Chicago Sky on June 7.

Jociuf and his wife, Sulema, had taken their daughter and 10-year-old son to see Clark when she visited the Minnesota Lynx last season. Elizabeth and her brother fell in love with Clark, so Sulema and Jociuf bought seats closer to the court for the family’s first visit to Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

While Sulema admitted she was worried for Clark after hearing of her injury, she said her kids were “upset” when they learned Clark wasn’t playing. 

“The visit was worth it even though she’s not playing because we wanted to experience Gainbridge and it’s been great. They have a lot of cool things for the kids. Also, there are other good people on the team,” Sulema said. “I told them we can get more tickets later in the season (to watch Caitlin).”

The family of four spent $900 on their tickets. On game day, the price for the same tickets in section 117 was $174.70. The price difference reflects the impact of Clark’s injury on tickets.

IndyStar collected data from Ticketmaster and found that selected ticket prices for Clark’s future matchups against the Sun, Mystics and Sky, in which she is expected to play, increased by as much as 366%.

Note: These are resale prices and may change daily. These numbers were logged up to two hours before the Fever and Sun tipped off Friday.

The most expensive ticket in section 120 for Friday’s contest against the Sun cost $86.25. When Indiana hosts the Sun on June 17, a ticket in the same section will cost $140.30, a 62.7% increase. 

The price difference for a seat nearer to the court when the Mystics return to town Aug. 15 is more consumer-friendly. A seat in section 116 on Tuesday will cost $391.95. The price will increase 11% when Washington makes its final regular-season visit to Indiana.

Sky and Fever games are always a hot ticket, with Clark and Sky forward Angel Reese headlining the matchup. If a fan desires to sit in section 225 at the United Center and watch Indiana and Chicago square off in their WNBA Commissioner’s Cup matchup, the cheapest ticket will cost $57.50. 

When the two teams reconvene in Chicago on July 27, the cheapest seat in section 225 will cost $267.95. 

More: What happened to Caitlin Clark? Here’s what we know about her injury and when she’ll play again

Although Clark’s availability may alter ticket prices, the impact of her presence remains the same. 

”My 8- and 5-year-old daughters were sad not to see her play, but they were still glad to see her in the building,” said Chris Gerrity, a Fever fan who bought tickets for his family before Clark’s injury was announced. “We are still excited to support the city, the rest of the players and the WNBA.”

More: Indiana Fever taking ‘long-game approach’ to Caitlin Clark’s strain; star out at least 2 weeks

More than 200 employees are expected to be laid off at Ivy Tech campuses across the state as a result of the Indiana General Assembly’s decision to cut funding to the college system.

This announcement was made by Ivy Tech’s president, Sue Ellspermann, on May 30, as she broke the news to many who were affected by this sudden development. Layoffs began the same day and continue into next week.

Emily Sandberg, Ivy Tech’s assistant vice president of communications, confirmed in an email to the IndyStar that the Indianapolis campus is expected to lay off seven faculty and 14 staff members, and the Hamilton County campus is expected to lay off two staff members.

In Ellspermann’s letter, she notes that the Indiana government’s decision to cut 5% of the school allocated fund, on top of the 5% cut from the state budget agency, would equate to an expected loss of $54 million over the next two years.

These cuts, coupled with Gov. Mike Braun and the Indiana Commission for Higher Education recommending a 0% tuition increase for all state educational institutions, left the school with another revenue option.

“Because the college’s primary revenue sources are state appropriations, tuition, and fees, these developments have had an immediate effect on our planning,” Ellspermann said in her letter. “We have reached the difficult decision to adjust our staffing levels, in addition to efforts to reduce our operational expenses.”

During the 2023 budget session, the General Assembly appropriated about $243 million and $245 million for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, respectively. For 2025-26 and 2026-27, that will drop to about $236 million each. That doesn’t count additional reductions.

Laid-off Ivy Tech workers will receive separation packages, according to Ellspermann’s letter. However, details regarding the separation packages were not provided in the email, noting that laid-off employees will meet with human resources representatives to determine their package.

In total, 202 people will be affected by these layoffs across Ivy Tech’s 45 locations in the state.

“This is a challenging moment for our college, but I know Ivy Tech is strong,” the letter reads.

“I remain confident in our resilience and in our commitment to our students and to one another.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Noe Padilla at npadilla@indystar.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Courier & Press reporter Jon Webb contributed to this story.