Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN the Indiana Pacers (9-1) will try to become the NBA's first 10-win team this season, and will take the Madison Square Garden hardwood angry about their first loss of the 2013-2014 season against the struggling New York Knicks (3-7). Live stream the game free here; Pacers fans can listen to the game on 1070 The Fan, while Knicks fans can listen to the action on 98.7 ESPN New York.
The hobbled Knicks are struggling mightily both offensively and defensively, but that doesn't mean Pacers head coach Frank Vogel is expecting his team to underestimate them.
"Our guys are dialed into a New York opponent that's playing a unique style of basketball, a unique style of small ball," Vogel said. "We have to be ready to win the next game."
Pacers star Paul George said guarding against complacency is a big deal right now, and claimed laziness set in against Chicago in Indiana's lone loss.
"I don't feel like we were complacent but watching film, it showed that we were complacent," George said. "I think that loss helped us get back to reality that we can't just come into a gym and expect to win. We got to continue to keep working in practice and transferring it over to games because a lot of stuff that we did were uncharacteristic and I think that was a sign of us being complacent being 9-0."
Meanwhile, the Knicks are trying to treat their extremely slow start like a mere slump that they'll work their way out of. "We're going to get this together," Kenyon Martin said.
"Teams go through slumps like that during a season, but we are doing it in November, so it gets magnified. We just have to figure out our problems on offense." They also will need to put forth better effort, as several Knicks have pointed to a low energy level as the source of their woes.
"We played like a team that was tired, but there was no reason for us to be tired," coach Mike Woodson said. "Some of that is because of Raymond [Felton], but you can't use that as an excuse." Felton sat out last night with pain in his hip and lower back.
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