Reggie vs. Spike, head-butts and phantom calls: Ranking every Knicks-Pacers series

In the winter of 1992, the early stages of the Chicago Bulls' dynastic run, then-Indiana Pacers general manager Donnie Walsh pondered how exactly he wanted to overhaul his roster. He remembers the exact moment inspiration struck.

Or, more accurately, the moment it leveled star guard Reggie Miller.

The Pacers were hosting Pat Riley's New York Knicks on Dec. 30, and Indiana was running a set play on offense. Center Rik Smits controlled at the top of the key, while Miller flashed to the elbow before cutting toward the rim in hopes of receiving a backdoor pass from the Pacers big man. The ball got there. Miller did not.

Before the future Hall of Famer could set foot in the paint, Knicks enforcer Charles Oakley stepped forward and had a shoulder waiting for Miller. The guard went crashing to the floor as the ball sailed out of bounds.

"Whoa!" play-by-play announcer Marv Albert said on the telecast, muffled by the collective groan of the Indiana crowd. The officials -- perhaps thrown off by the sheer force of Oakley's action -- surprisingly opted against calling a foul. All of this stuck with Walsh.

"The refs had no idea what to do," Walsh said of Miller's collision with Oakley, which later led to the New York forward being fined $10,000 by the league office despite no foul being called. "Right then, I told myself: 'This summer, I'm getting two guys just like Oak.' Because players like that would immediately change the makeup of our team."

Adding defense-oriented guard Derrick McKey and physical power forward Antonio Davis did exactly that. And as Walsh transformed the up-tempo Pacers to be far more like the grindstone Knicks, the makings of what would later become a fiery rivalry began to form.

Indiana and New York, who are set to play for the Eastern Conference crown beginning on Wednesday, have a ton of shared, highly dramatic playoff history. They met in three straight series from 1993 to 1995 and six times in eight postseasons from 1993 to 2000.

The rivalry was renewed in a big way last year, when the clubs duked it out in the conference semifinals, with Indiana ultimately winning the series by taking out the Knicks at the Garden with a historic shooting performance in Game 7.

With this being the ninth playoff meeting between the rivals, we ranked the first eight matchups -- filled with head-butts, celebrity run-ins, classic comebacks, series-changing injuries, phantom four-point plays and iconic blocks -- before setting the stage for what could make this year's series a worthy next chapter.

1. 1995 East semifinals

In one of Miller's most iconic moments, he scored eight points in nine seconds as the Knicks melted down, surrendering a six-point lead in the final 19 seconds to lose Game 1 at home.

The Pacers built a 3-1 series lead, but New York came back to force a Game 7, only for Patrick Ewing to miss a potential game-tying finger roll off the back rim as the final buzzer sounded. (He'd made a dramatic turnaround floater with 1.8 seconds left to win Game 5.)

With the series victory, Miller and the Pacers not only closed out the Knicks on the Garden floor, but they also closed out the Riley era. The coach resigned his gig with New York 10 days later and controversially agreed to take over the Miami Heat as coach and team president. (New York accused Miami of tampering while Riley was still under contract in New York. A settlement -- $1 million and a first-round pick from the Heat -- cleared the way for Riley to officially take the job.)

2. 1994 East finals

With Michael Jordan retired from the NBA to play professional baseball, there was a golden opportunity for both clubs, who found themselves tied heading into Game 5 of the conference finals.

The Knicks were up double digits for most of the game, one in which Miller was shooting poorly, giving ammunition to Knicks fan and legendary filmmaker Spike Lee to repeatedly chirp at the guard. But Miller caught fire in the fourth quarter, glaring at Lee courtside each time he hit a shot. After one particularly long Miller triple, which gave Indiana the lead, he looked at Lee and put both his hands around his own neck, a suggestion that the Knicks were choking the game away and didn't have what it took to close it out.

Miller would finish Game 5 with 39 points -- 25 on just 10 shots in the fourth -- to lead Indiana to the stunning comeback and a 3-2 series lead. But New York dug deep and won Game 6 in enemy territory behind guard John Starks' 26 points. A performance for the ages from Ewing -- 24 points, 22 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 blocks and the winning putback dunk -- swung Game 7 and vaulted the Knicks to the Finals.

3. 1999 East finals

The new-look, lockout-year Knicks -- with Latrell Sprewell in place of Starks and Marcus Camby instead of Oakley -- lost Ewing to a partially torn Achilles tendon he suffered (but played through) in Game 2 of the series.

But this series is most remembered for what happened in Game 3. With the Pacers up three points at the Garden with just under 12 seconds left, Indiana coach Larry Brown implored his players to implement tight perimeter coverage to avoid giving up a triple. Knicks forward Larry Johnson caught the inbound pass, pump-faked Davis to get him off balance, then let a 24-foot attempt fly.

It found the bottom of the net while official Jess Kersey was blowing his whistle for a foul -- a highly dubious one, given that Davis didn't appear to make much, if any, contact with Johnson. (Even Kersey himself acknowledged a year later that the call was a mistake.) Johnson completed the four-point play, the Knicks won Game 3, and they eventually won the series to meet the Spurs in the Finals.

4. 2024 East semifinals

There were a handful of huge moments throughout the first few games of this series: namely the bizarre kicked-ball violation late in Game 1 that shouldn't have been whistled (and clearly disadvantaged the Pacers) and the deep 3 from Andrew Nembhard that helped Indiana seal Game 3 to keep the club afloat in the series. But above all else, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and the Pacers pieced together a flat-out dominant Game 7 performance on the road, hanging 39 points on the Knicks in the first quarter alone.

That initial flurry was a sign of things to come. Indy shot a playoff-record 67.1% from the field in a contest where the already banged-up Knicks got even thinner. OG Anunoby tried his best to return to the lineup after straining his hamstring earlier in the series but could hardly move and was quickly subbed out. Star guard Jalen Brunson broke his hand during the game. Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanovic -- all key members of the Knicks' rotation -- had already been ruled out for the season. Because of that, you can bet that the players from this Knicks team, who led the series 3-2 before losing two straight, will relish the shot at revenge, even if they won't say so publicly.

5. 2013 East semifinals

The top-ranked Pacers' defense, led by Paul George and Roy Hibbert, gave Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks fits throughout the six-game series. In particular, No. 2-seeded New York was unable to pull Pacers big man Hibbert from the basket and couldn't comfortably score around the rim.

The clearest example of this: With five minutes remaining in the clincher, and the Knicks up 92-90, Anthony had a step on George and spun baseline before attacking the basket. He went up for a one-handed dunk, but the 7-2 Hibbert met him there for a highlight block.

Hibbert has said he has two posters of the block -- arguably the defining play in his career -- in his home.

6. 2000 East finals

Miller saved his best for last in a way, hitting one crowd-silencing dagger after another and scoring 34 points -- including 5-for-7 from 3 -- at the Garden to knock out the Knicks on their home floor in six games. This matchup was the final playoff meeting between the clubs involving both Miller and Ewing, who were 34 and 37, respectively. (Ewing missed Games 3 and 4 with an injured foot.)

Indiana's victory earned the franchise its first, and only, trip to the NBA Finals, where the Pacers would fall to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Phil Jackson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

7. 1993 East first round

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Stephen A. and John Starks are fired up about the Knicks' win

Stephen A. Smith and John Starks can't contain their excitement on "SportsCenter" after the Knicks eliminate the Celtics.

The 60-win Knicks had a chance to sweep Indiana in three games (the league didn't move to best-of-seven in the first round until 2003), but Starks head-butted Miller in the third quarter with his team ahead.

The decision got him ejected, angrily shoved by Oakley and Ewing, and also completely shifted the game's momentum. The Pacers went on a 59-34 run for the rest of the game to stave off elimination. Luckily for Starks, the Knicks closed out the Pacers in Game 4.

8. 1998 East semifinals

The 58-win Pacers, who added Chris Mullin and Jalen Rose the prior offseason, had a clear advantage in this series: The Knicks had been playing for months without Ewing, who'd shattered his shooting wrist in a devastating fall against the Milwaukee Bucks just before Christmas. New York managed to get by Riley and the Heat in the first round but dropped its first game with Indiana.

The 1-0 deficit prompted vigorous rehabbing from Ewing, who returned for Game 2 but with far too much rust to make an immediate impact.

The series ended in five games, with Indiana using its elite balance of the league's fourth-best offense and fifth-best defense to set up a conference finals showdown with Jordan and the "Last Dance" Bulls.

Where could the 2025 East finals land?

Looking for more drama? You've found the right series. After the Pacers won in seven games in 2024, Haliburton wore a sweater with an image of Miller making his famous choke signal toward Spike Lee, solidifying the Pacers point guard as a Madison Square Garden villain in the same way Trae Young became one.

Even the WWE tapped into the scenario, staging a confrontation between Brunson and Haliburton when the pro wrestling tour came to the Garden. "WWE, they were cooking when they did that," Brunson said of the coincidence that the Knicks and Pacers are facing off in the playoffs again following the stunt.

Brunson said he has a ton of respect for Haliburton, who was picked over the Knicks star for the U.S. Olympic roster that went on to win the gold medal last year. The two got to know each other as teammates during the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

If this series continues the wild end-of-game scripts that both teams have been following, this matchup could scale this list as one of the best Knicks-Pacers playoff showdowns.

Both teams have had a pair of improbable, 20-point comebacks in this postseason -- once against both the Bucks and Cavaliers for Indiana, and twice against the Celtics for the Knicks. And Haliburton and Brunson have been two of the best performers when it matters. The Knicks' floor general is leading the playoffs in clutch baskets with 14, while the Indiana star has a league-best four such makes this postseason when looking at just the final minute of games.