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The New York Knicks will look to stay alive in their best-of-seven series when they meet the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday. Indiana grabbed a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 130-121 win on Tuesday, as the Pacers shot over 50% from the field and over 40% from beyond the arc. The Pacers (50-32), who are 6-1 on the road this postseason, are one win away from reaching their first NBA Finals since 2000. The Knicks (51-31), who are 3-5 on their home floor in the 2025 NBA playoffs, last won an NBA title in 1973. Karl-Anthony Towns (knee) is questionable for New York, while Aaron Nesmith (ankle) is questionable for Indiana.

Tip-off from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, N.Y., is set for 8 p.m. ET. The team that has outright won has also covered in every game of this series. The Knicks are 4.5-point favorites in the latest Pacers vs. Knicks odds from DraftKings Sportsbook, after opening as 5.5-point favorites. The over/under for total points scored is 222. Before making any Pacers vs. Knicks picks, be sure to see the NBA predictions from legendary SportsLine handicapper Bruce Marshall, who is an outstanding 74-48-1 (+2149) roll on his last 123 NBA picks, and is an outstanding 56-27 (+2624) in his last 83 picks involving the Pacers.

Now, Marshall has analyzed Pacers vs. Knicks and just revealed his coveted NBA picks and betting predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see his picks. Here are several NBA odds and NBA betting lines for Knicks vs. Pacers. Use a DraftKings promo code, a FanDuel promo code or a BetMGM promo code to get started.

Knicks vs. Pacers spread

New York -4.5 at DraftKings

Knicks vs. Pacers over/under

222 points

Knicks vs. Pacers money line

Indiana +152, New York -181

Knicks vs. Pacers picks:

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Why the Knicks can cover
Point guard Jalen Brunson has scored 30 or more points in three of the first four games of the series. In the Game 4 loss, he poured in 31 points, while dishing out five assists, grabbing two rebounds and making two steals. He had 43 points and five assists in a 138-135 overtime loss in Game 1. In 16 postseason starts this season, he is averaging 29.9 points, 7.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 38.3 minutes.

Center Towns (questionable) also helps power the Knicks. In 16 playoff games, all starts, he is averaging 21.3 points, 11.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 35.3 minutes. He has three double-doubles in the series, including a 24-point, 12-rebound and three-assist effort in the Game 4 loss. He had 35 points, 12 rebounds and two assists in the Game 1 loss. See which team to back at SportsLine.

Why the Pacers can cover
Point guard Tyrese Haliburton is coming off a near perfect performance in Game 4. He scored 32 points, dished out 15 assists, grabbed 12 rebounds, made four steals and had zero turnovers. It was his first triple-double of the season, and he had double-doubles in both Games 1 and 2. In Game 1, he poured in 31 points, while adding 11 assists and four rebounds. He is averaging 19.4 points, 9.8 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 14 starts this postseason.

Power forward Pascal Siakam is one of five Pacers players averaging double-figure scoring. In the Game 4 win, he scored 30 points, while adding five rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal. In a 114-109 win in Game 2 at New York, he scored 39 points, while adding five rebounds and three assists. In 14 playoff starts, Siakam is averaging 20.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 33.3 minutes. See which team to back at SportsLine.

How to make Pacers vs. Knicks picks
Now, Marshall has locked in another confident against-the-spread pick for Knicks vs. Pacers. He is leaning Over on the total, but he knows a crucial X-factor makes one side of the spread a must-back. You absolutely need to see what it is before locking in any picks of your own.

Two-time Academy Award winner Spike Lee is a prominent New York Knicks supporter and regular courtside attendee at Madison Square Garden, and during the Eastern Conference finals, he named a high price we would pay to see his team win a championship. Lee, ahead of the Knicks’ Game 5 matchup with the Indiana Pacers, said he would trade one of his Oscars in order for the franchise to win the NBA Finals.

The Knicks have not won the league since 1973 and have not appeared in the Finals since 1999. The most recent championship came well before Lee embarked on his storied filmmaking career.

“I would give up an Academy Award, Oscar, for the Knicks to win a championship,” Lee said on “Inside the NBA.” “I got two already.”

Former NBA MVP Charles Barkley responded to Lee’s trade proposal with a jab at the Knicks, saying, “Well, you’re gonna keep ’em.”

Lee won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay with his film “BlacKkKlansman” and was a recipient of an Honorary Academy Award in 2016. He also earned a Student Academy Award in 1983 for an independent short film he made for his master’s degree thesis at New York University.

Lee was among the stars in attendance at Game 4 of the Knicks-Pacers series when former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee slammed New York’s prominent supporters. McAfee called out Lee and others by name and encouraged Indiana fans to send them “back to New York with their ears ringing” in an expletive-filled address to the crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

John Mellencamp indirectly calls out Pat McAfee for poor sportsmanship at Pacers game in bizarre statement
Jordan Dajani
John Mellencamp indirectly calls out Pat McAfee for poor sportsmanship at Pacers game in bizarre statement
Grammy Award-winning artist and Indiana native John Mellencamp was also in attendance for Game 4 and did not appreciate McAfee’s comments toward the star-studded Knicks fanbase. He released a statement on social media two days later denouncing McAfee’s “poor sportsmanship” and lack of “Hoosier Hospitality.”

With their backs against the wall in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Knicks needed big outings from their biggest stars to keep their season alive. Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns delivered … and then some. Brunson scored 32 points while adding five rebounds and five assists, responding after a quiet second half of Game 4. Towns, meanwhile, posted 24 points and 13 rebounds after being a game-time decision due to a balky left knee.

Behind those two efforts and a much-improved defense, New York cruised to a 111-94 win over Indiana.

In the process, Brunson and Towns joined some exclusive company: They’re the first pair of teammates to both score 20+ points in each of the first five games of a conference finals since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal did so for the Lakers against the Kings in 2002.

NBA playoffs 2025: Spike Lee ‘would give up an Academy Award’ to see Knicks win championship
Carter Bahns
NBA playoffs 2025: Spike Lee ‘would give up an Academy Award’ to see Knicks win championship
Here’s a look at Brunson and Towns’ production in the series:

Brunson also made some individual history with his 10th game of 30 points and five assists this postseason alone. Only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, LeBron James and Michael Jordan have done that during a single playoff run.

The 2002 Lakers, much like the 2025 Knicks, faced a 3-2 deficit through five games despite the scoring exploits of their stars. New York will hope it can imitate Los Angeles one more time: The Lakers went on to win in seven and then swept the Nets in the NBA Finals.

There is no better company to keep in the NBA than Michael Jordan and LeBron James. They are, by almost any estimation, the two greatest players in the history of the sport. They each hold a wide array of NBA records, and when any statistical milestone has been achieved by only the two of them in all of NBA history, you know it must be impressive.

Until recently, that was the case for the 30-10-5 club. Entering the 2025 postseason, the only two players ever to reach 30 points and five assists in 10 different games in a single playoff run were, you guessed it, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. This should come as little surprise. Scoring gets harder in the playoffs. By extension, assists are rarer as well, and more than half of all playoff teams are eliminated before they’ve even played 10 games. It takes a special player on a special team to reach that milestone, and 2025 has given us two of them.

On Wednesday, as the Oklahoma City Thunder decimated the Minnesota Timberwolves to clinch their first NBA Finals berth since 2012, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander racked up 34 points and eight assists on his way to the Western Conference finals MVP trophy. In doing so, he notched his 10th game this postseason with at least 30 points and five assists. Welcome to the Jordan and James club, Shai, but spoiler alert, you won’t have much time to bask in the presence of the GOATs because, less than 24 hours later, a new member has earned admission.

https://t.co/jEgzM7O2Vh pic.twitter.com/FIHV7qVaX8

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) May 29, 2025
Jalen Brunson kept the New York Knicks alive on Thursday with a 111-94 Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. To earn that victory, he scored 32 points and dished out exactly five assists. Like Gilgeous-Alexander, that took him to 10 such games this postseason. In two days, the size of the club doubled from two members to four.

Now, if Brunson or Gilgeous-Alexander want to catch up to James or Jordan, they still have a bit of work to do. The two of them each reached this milestone three times. Jordan did so in 1989, 1990 and 1992, while James did it in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

4-PT PLAY‼️

30 PTS for JB pic.twitter.com/tQWScD8N70

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) May 30, 2025
However, it’s entirely possible that either Brunson or Gilgeous-Alexander holds the new record for 30-point, five-assist games in a single postseason when these playoffs are over. Both James and Jordan topped out at 11. That means they both need just two more to set the new record. Brunson may be eliminated in Games 6 or 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, but Gilgeous-Alexander still has the entire NBA finals ahead of him to add to his total.

While the two of them would certainly love to break the record, they’d probably prefer to break a far more important trend even more. Of those James and Jordan seasons, only one of the six, Jordan in 1992, resulted in a championship. Gilgeous-Alexander is four wins away from the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Brunson needs six. Individual milestones are nice, but if you want to measure up to James and Jordan, it starts with championship rings.

NEW YORK — In a win-or-go-home scenario at Madison Square Garden, Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson outplayed Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton to stave off elimination and avoid an embarrassing five-game series loss. It’s as simple as that.

Now, the not-so-simple part: Brunson has to do this two more times.

And he has to do it not just to win the series (which Indiana still leads 3-2), but has to make history in the process — overcoming a 3-1 deficit — and would need to guide the Knicks all the way back in order to avoid Haliburton leapfrogging him in the NBA hierarchy of most valuable players.

That’s the power of the playoffs. The urgency and pressure of a do-or-die game can wither a lot of teams; the Knicks showed once more on Thursday how they aren’t so easily disposable, and it all started with Brunson’s composure and heady leadership.

New York trounced Indiana 111-94 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, never ceding the lead and putting up the best defensive performance against the Pacers this postseason. It took 15 games, but Thursday was the first time Indiana couldn’t crack 100 points in these playoffs.

Every win and every loss materializes for so many reasons, but the most obvious part on each ledger Thursday came down to Brunson being better than Haliburton. The play from those two trickled to their teammates and ultimately dictated the evening. It was symbolic and symbiotic. Brunson was ready and that was evident immediately; the Knicks won easy. Haliburton was oddly ineffective and couldn’t tap into his greatness; Indiana lagged for the better part of 48 minutes.

The surprise of this is Haliburton coming fresh off one of the best single-game showings by any player in league history. His 32 points and 15 assists and 12 rebounds and four steals and zero turnovers in Game 4, a restorative 130-121 Pacers win, was the first time those totals had ever been met by any player in any game since turnovers became an official stat in 1977-78.

Haliburton’s encore was a dud.

On Thursday night he was a shell of himself: eight points, six assists, two rebounds, two steals and just seven shots. He hadn’t taken fewer than 15 attempts in a playoff game this season until the Knicks blitzed and baffled him here at the Garden. Though Indiana did cut a big lead down to 12 midway through the fourth quarter, there would be no miraculous comeback here like there was in Game 1. Haliburton didn’t even play the final two-plus minutes.

“To start the game we didn’t have the right level of force, the right level of attitude necessary in this environment,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

This coincided with Brunson setting the tone early. A rowdy Knicks crowd starving for a definitive win was treated to a tone-setting start by Brunson, who scored the first six points of the game and logged 14 in the first quarter.

He finished with 32 on 12-of-18 shooting (4-of-7 from 3), plus five boards and five dimes.

“He was cooking,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. And KAT had some concoctions of his own, tallying 24 points and 13 rebounds in 36 minutes after being designated a game-time decision. (As if anyone believed a sore left knee was going to limit him in a crucial Game 5.)

By the middle of the second quarter, Haliburton’s impact was muted and Indiana was too far behind to make up for ground lost. And when Brunson had eight points in a blur in the opening minutes of the second half — the Knicks’ lead ballooning to 20 — it felt like New York couldn’t and wouldn’t allow itself to crumble.

“There were a multitude of things going wrong,” Carlisle said.

started the second half on 🔥😤

22 PTS and counting for cap pic.twitter.com/Kflt1vL2y9

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) May 30, 2025
Haliburton admitted the Knicks added some wrinkles defensively that caused some of his faults, but insisted “our pace has to be better, and that starts with me.”

Brunson — who still has a lot of that postgame humility that was programmed into him over three seasons, 103 wins and two national championships at Villanova — didn’t cop to the game being any kind of referendum on his response to Haliburton’s historic Game 4. Even if his play correlated to a win and Haliburton’s off night was the biggest reason Indiana didn’t stand a chance, Brunson was his typical diplomatic self afterward.

“Our backs are against the wall,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking, I need to play better than him. I was just thinking, I need to help my team win.”

Brunson, who can be hunted on defense, was certainly above average on that end of the floor in Game 5. Statistically, this doesn’t rate as one of his best games ever, but taking into account the circumstances, it’s probably among his most important.

“That’s something Cap always does,” Towns said. “He always answers the call.”

As for Haliburton, now he has to swing heavy in the opposite direction. Afterward, he put it plainly and confidently: “I gotta do better, and I’ll be better in Game 6.”

How marvelous would it be to get great versions of these two great guards on Saturday night? It seems in store, especially for Brunson because of the circumstances. The Knicks have a lot to overcome, well beyond the necessity to win on the road. In NBA history, teams that lead 3-1 are 284-13 all time; that’s a 95.6% success rate. If that wasn’t daunting enough, Indiana is 10-0 when up 3-1 in their history when it comes to winning a series in those scenarios. The Knicks are 0-15 when down 3-1. Plus: The Pacers haven’t lost two in a row since early March. Now the Knicks need to find a way to win three straight.

Brunson’s next big chance at his next great moment awaits.

Saturday in Indianapolis will require Brunson being his near-best, if not outright best, and in the process lifting up everyone around him. If Brunson hasn’t achieved superstar status yet (though you can make the case he’s there), then rallying New York from a 3-1 deficit to reach the NBA Finals would erase all doubt. The issue is the guy he’s going up against is just as good — if not better. And between Brunson and Haliburton, whoever is still playing against Oklahoma City next week will be one notch above the other, because at this point there’s very little separating the two. We’ve got two games left, at most, to render a verdict.

NEW YORK — Back in January, Tyrese Haliburton told me that the Indiana Pacers had been given a heavy dose of their own medicine. They’d picked up 94 feet during their run to the conference finals last season, and now their opponents were applying the same sort of ball pressure with regularity.

The key, he said then, was to “attack pressure with pressure.” You can set screens higher and you can vary who is bringing the ball up, but you cannot let the opponent bait you into slowing down. You need to fight to get into your offense quickly, get downhill and force the defense into rotation.

The Pacers were not always great at that. Six weeks into the season, they were 9-14, with an offense that ranked 21st overall and was weirdly underwhelming in transition. But then they course-corrected. They got healthier and ironed out their turnover issues, and Haliburton returned to his all-NBA form. They won 70% of their games in the last four months of the season, knocked out the 64-win, top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five games and, entering Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals at Madison Square Garden, were one win away from the NBA Finals and drawing statistical comparison to the Showtime Lakers.

Which is why their poor showing against the New York Knicks’ ball pressure on Thursday was so surprising.

“I thought they picked their pressure up today,” Indiana wing Aaron Nesmith said after the 111-94 loss. “And we gotta find a way to fight that pressure with our own and hit first.”

Game 5 was the Pacers’ least efficient game of the playoffs. They turned the ball over 20 times — their most this postseason and six more than their total in any of the previous games in this series — and rarely looked like the fun, free-flowing team that had piled up 130 points against the Knicks two days earlier.

“We just weren’t us,” Pacers wing Bennedict Mathurin said. “We weren’t the Pacers. We didn’t play with force. We weren’t relentless.”

They made poor decisions in transition. They threw errant entry passes in the halfcourt. They missed layups and attempted far too many contested, off-balance floaters. It was uncharacteristic of Indiana, and New York had a lot to do with this. The Knicks are not typically the most aggressive defensive team, but, just like at the end of Game 3, they dialed up their ball pressure when the situation demanded it. Mikal Bridges was primarily responsible for hounding Halliburton, and there was a collective effort to make the Pacers’ ballhandlers feel them. In the fourth quarter, reserve guard Landry Shamet forced two turnovers in less than a minute. The crowd chanted his name.

“We just didn’t bring the fight to them the way they did to us,” Indiana forward Pascal Siakam said.

Haliburton followed up his Game 4 masterpiece with eight points on 2-for-7 shooting, two rebounds and six assists in 32 minutes. He attempted only two 3s. Part of what makes him special is his willingness to get off the ball quickly, so a teammate can attack with an advantage. He may have been too willing to get off of it on Thursday, though, given how quickly those advantages disappeared.

Haliburton said he had a “rough night” and needed to “be better setting the tone, getting downhill.” He praised New York for mixing up its pick-and-roll coverages and being more aggressive, but took the blame for what had gone wrong.

“Put it on me,” Haliburton said.

The Knicks did not have a lights-out performance offensively, but they took care of the ball better than the Pacers did. As Indiana guard Andrew Nembhard noted, the Knicks also won the rebounding battle “pretty heavily, and that kind of plays into our whole attack.” The Pacers want to run, which means they need to come up with steals and defensive rebounds.

“That wasn’t a great defensive game for us,” Haliburton said. “Our pace definitely goes down when we’re taking the ball out of the rim the whole game, so we gotta get stops. That’ll jumpstart our offense, allow us to play faster.”

Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said that “there were a multitude of things that were going wrong.” The good news is that they’re all connected: Get better on the margins, and offense will come easier; fix the offense, and you can set your defense.

“I think we just had lapses, pretty much every possession,” Nesmith said. “One guy didn’t box out, one guy let themselves get backdoored, there was no press-ups. There was always something, every possession, whether it was offensively or defensively, so I think that’s completely on us.”

New York saved its season by defending with physicality and making the Pacers uncomfortable. It was nothing they hadn’t seen before, but they did not handle it the way they’d like to. After getting “punched in the face like this,” Nesmith said, all they can do is respond in Indianapolis on Saturday. He said there is “no doubt in my mind” that this will happen.

For a team that missed an opportunity to punch its ticket to the finals, Indiana seemed remarkably calm, cool, collected and confident. This is a reflection of its coach’s consistent messaging. After the crazy comeback in Game 1, Carlisle began his pass conference by saying, “This is Day 1 of 13 days.” After taking a 2-0 lead, he said, “It’s Day 3 of 13 days.” Thursday was Day 9, and the series was never supposed to be easy.

It’s also a reflection of the arc of Indiana’s season. “We’ve had a lot of low points,” Siakam said, and in early December the Pacers did not resemble the they’ve been for the past five-and-a-half months. Siakam said he’s proud of how, “when things were going bad,” the team stayed connected and played hard. This was a bad game, but hardly a low point.

“We’re up 3-2 in the conference finals,” Siakam said. “It’s amazing.”

The Knicks stepped up their game and their intensity level on Thursday, and Indiana played well below its standard. In Game 6, the Pacers must be prepared for New York to have the exact same approach. And they must do everything in their power to play to their identity in spite of it. This is not the first time that they’ve had to find themselves.

“If we play Pacers basketball, everything will take care of itself,” Mathurin said. “We’ve been winning, we’re going to keep winning, but we have to be aggressive. We have to be the aggressor.”

This is an article version of the CBS Sports HQ AM Newsletter, the ultimate guide to every day in sports. You can sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday morning here.

🏀 Good morning to all but especially …
THE NEW YORK KNICKS AND THE EDMONTON OILERS

They’re still down, but they’re certainly not out. And if they can reproduce their efforts in Game 5, they’ll certainly have a chance to pull off a comeback for the ages. The Knicks beat the Pacers 111-94 to cut their series deficit to 3-2 and send it back to Indiana for Game 6.

After a quiet finish to Game 4, Jalen Brunson responded with a 32-point masterpiece, including 16 points in the third quarter. Brunson joined some exclusive company with his 10th 30-point, five-assist game of this postseason.
Karl-Anthony Towns, a game-time decision due to a balky knee, not only played but played phenomenally: 24 points and 13 rebounds.
Brunson and Towns are the first duo to score 20-plus in each of the first five games of a conference final since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in 2002.
But the biggest difference, by far, was the defense. Tyrese Haliburton had just eight points and attempted just seven shots. Indiana had 20 turnovers and 94 points — both its worst this postseason — after scoring at least 100 in each of its first 14 games of these playoffs. New York extended its pressure, limited Haliburton’s space and protected the paint with aplomb (60-34 paint points advantage).

The Knicks are the 298th team to go down 3-1 in a seven-game series. Only 13 have finished the comeback. But if Brunson can outplay Haliburton twice more, New York has a chance, Matt Norlander writes.

In the NHL, we do have our Final matchup, and it’s a rematch at that. The Oilers finished off the Stars with a 6-3 Game 5 win and will face the Hurricanes with Lord Stanley’s Cup on the line. Florida beat Edmonton in a seven-game thriller last year.

This one was over shortly after it started: Corey Perry scored just 2:31 in, and Mattias Janmark and Jeff Skinner tallied within the next six minutes. Peter DeBoer controversially pulled Jake Oettinger after the third goal.
The Stars would twice cut the deficit to one, but the Oilers had answers: Connor McDavid in the second period and Evander Kane in the third. Kasperi Kapanen’s empty netter ended it.
The Oilers are looking to be the first Canadian team to lift the Stanley Cup since the Canadiens in 1993.
😊 Honorable mentions
CBS Sports announced its 2025 Big Ten football schedule. Here are five key early season games.
Here’s how Paul Goldschmidt rediscovered his MVP form.
NBA trade rumors are heating up.
Patrick Mahomes says Travis Kelce isn’t acting like this will be his last season.
Jayden Daniels’ work ethic keeps fueling his improvement.
The Dolphins and the Steelers are discussing a trade involving a Pro Bowler.
Von Miller says he’s not retiring. Where could he end up?
This new Texans wide receiver is drawing praise from Nico Collins.
Chip Kelly raved about Geno Smith.
The NFL preseason schedule has been finalized, and here are the top five matchups.
Labaron Philon’s stunning return to Alabama boosted the Crimson Tide to No. 14 in Gary Parrish’s Top 25 And 1.
Marcus Freeman says Notre Dame wants to play USC every year.
Robby Kalland got an early peek at “EA Sports Football 26.”
The NCAA Baseball Tournament and the Women’s College World Series are underway. We have best bets and Cinderella squads on the men’s side.
The Kraken hired Lane Lambert.
Jonathan Toews plans to return to the NHL.
😐 Not so honorable mentions
The Fever have much to figure out without Caitlin Clark.
Mahomes doesn’t sound like he wants to play flag football in the 2028 Olympics.
John Harbaugh addressed the Ravens releasing Justin Tucker, calling the decision “multi-layered” and “complicated.”
Will Levis is not happy.
The Capitals accidentally sent out an email to season ticket holders mistakenly saying 2025-26 will be Alex Ovechkin’s last season. They cleared the air — no such decision has been made — but still … awkward!
AJ Smith-Shawver (elbow) landed on the IL.
Big changes are ahead for the Maple Leafs.
John Mellencamp called out Pat McAfee.
Billy Napier addressed Dijon Johnson’s arrest.
SEC schools will be fined $500,000 for storming the field.
Mike Leach is finally eligible for the College Football Hall of Fame, but the selection criteria remains broken, Shehan Jeyarajah writes.
⚽ UEFA Champions League final: Picks, preview for PSG vs. Inter Milan
soccer.jpg
Getty Images
The largest UEFA Champions League field ever has been winnowed down to two: PSG faces Inter Milan in the Champions League final tomorrow at 3 p.m., airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. It’ll be the first time since 2010 that a team outside Spain, England or Germany lifts this hallowed trophy, and Francesco Porzio says that’s good for the sport.

Though PSG is a considerable favorite, Inter has shown remarkable spirit and has a trophy-collecting striker in top form, Francesco writes.

Porzio: “Lautaro Martinez showed to be one of the best strikers around the world this season and drastically improved since the 2023 final, becoming a much more central figure of the team, where he’s now the captain. The Argentinian player, the heartbeat of the Nerazzurri, made an incredible comeback after a muscular injury sustained in Barcelona to return for the crucial second leg … Having already won the 2022 World Cup and the 2021 and 2024 Copa America with Argentina, the Champions League remains Lautaro’s latest ambition.”
But PSG … my goodness. Les Parisiens boast a tremendous attack, led by the headliners of James Benge’s five players who could define the final.

Benge: “One of the three or four best players in the world this season, Ousmane Dembele has been the star who best defines PSG’s remarkable season. … In 19 games leading the PSG line since the turn of the year, Dembele has 18 goals and four assists … Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a one-man defense buster, the sort who can drive defenders into paroxysms of frustration … There is magic in the Georgian’s boots.”

One of college basketball’s highest-paid players last season, former Duke star Cooper Flagg had estimated NIL contracts that were staggering, according to longtime sports journalist and author Howard Bryant. During a recent sitdown with Bob Costas at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Howard asked his co-host how much much Flagg earned in NIL at Duke.

Costas was unsure, but then Howard provided an answer that resulted in an audible gasp from the audience — $28 million.

“He had a $13 million deal with New Balance and then $15 million with Fanatics,” Bryant said at the 51:09 mark of the conversation.

Here’s the thing — Howard’s reported total is likely Flagg’s NIL contracts in totality and not an annual payment. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski previously reported Flagg’s New Balance agreement was “significant.” These are often multiyear contracts between incoming rookies and sneaker companies.

Flagg’s massive deal with New Balance ahead of his first season in the NBA makes him one of the brand’s newest signature athletes. Flagg signed his multiyear partnership with Fanatics in January, but terms of the deal were not released.

Other exclusive Fanatics athletes include Victor Wembanyama, Paul Skenes, and CJ Stroud. Flagg’s first “rookie” card is part of the 2025 Bowman University Chrome set, which is put out by Fanatics.

Flagg’s previous estimated NIL valuation of around $5 million with the Blue Devils during his only season of college basketball was the leading number in the sport, so to think he was bringing in more than five times that number in a single season is almost unfathomable.

Regardless, the market value for the projected No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft is real.

Flagg earned national player of the year accolades last season after averaging a team-best 19.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, leading Duke to the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend.

Costas used Howard’s staggering figure to get on his soap box of sorts to make a broader point.

“That’s why, at least, it’s more profitable for a woman … a female college basketball player to stay in college and collect the NIL because, because for the time being, the top salary in the WNBA is like $75,000,” Costas said. “Now, it will go up a bit and if you’re Caitlin Clark it doesn’t matter and a few others because their deals carry over, but something that used to always bothered me when this convesation was going on before NIL, people would say, ‘Everybody is profiting off of this except for the athletes.’

“That implicitly says this whole thing is a sham and that the education itself has no value. So, if this student-athlete attends class, he could very well be sitting next to someone whose parents worked multiple jobs to put that boy or girl and their siblings through college. (And) that’s something that might be a present, at some universities worth on a four-year ride, $300.000. Not to mention what it means down the road for your earning power.”

Costas later said fans who are disparaging NIL numbers were “okay with the corruption” but not OK with the chaos these figures have caused in recruiting and player retention.

The Pacers squandered a chance to close out the New York Knicks with Game 5’s 111-94 loss at Madison Square Garden, sending the Eastern Conference finals back to Indiana. Pascal Siakam got into an awkward exchange with a reporter following the contest after admitting the Pacers didn’t give the same effort that previously helped established a 3-1 lead in the series.

Pushed to elaborate, Siakam wasn’t having it.

“They played harder than us … we played hard, but they played harder,” Siakam said. “What’s your point, I don’t get it? That happens in a game that’s basketball.”

The awkward exchange continued with Siakam sayig “You good, bro? You’re looking for something, but I told you … what else do you want me to tell you … Who’s this guy, what’s your name, bro?”

“You good bro?… Who is this guy?” 😳👀

Awkward exchange between Pascal Siakam and this reporter after Pacers Game 5 loss 😬 pic.twitter.com/t3Y5bEeGhu

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 30, 2025
The interaction was a microcosm of the frustrations shown throughout Game 5 during a sluggish effort from Indiana. The Knicks built an 11-point halftime lead and did not look back after turning up the heat defensively. A 12-0 spurt from New York in the third quarter after the Pacers had cut into the lead was the

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle alluded to Indiana’s lack of poise in the aftermath.

“We obviously didn’t play with the level of force that we needed to,” Carlisle said. “We lost the rebound battle. We lost the turnover battle. We didn’t shoot well. They had a lot to do with it. So, give them a lot of credit and we’re going to have to play better.”

Siakam scored 15 points, his lowest total of the series. Cooling off Indiana’s hot shooting was the game plan for the Knicks, who limited Tyrese Haliburton to eight points and forced 20 turnovers.

“We’re a resilient group,” Haliburton said after the game. “We always want to respond when things don’t go well after a game like that. We understand what the stakes are. … We’re fine. There’s no need to panic or anything.”

Siakam and the Pacers haven’t lost consecutive games in two months and have a chance to reach the NBA Finals with one more victory in the series.

“You’re going to have bad games,” Siakam said. “This is the NBA, and there’s going to be times where a team is going to play hard. In fact, they’re going to beat you. It is just all about us, man. It’s always been us against the world, and I don’t expect it to change. We are 3-2 in a series, and we have an opportunity to go back home and show what we’re made of.”