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Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen A. Smith of ESPN is devastated . The big New York Knicks fan still couldn’t accept the fact that his team just squandered a 2-0 series lead and lost to the Indiana Pacers, 130-109, in a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. It was a tough pill to swallow for Smith and the legion of New York basketball fans, who were convinced at some points in the series that the Knicks would be able to pull through, survive the injuries, and repulse the stubborn Pacers.
But that simply did not happen and part of the consequence for everyone is a crying Stephen A. Smith on television while dressed as a doctor. He even had a stethoscope! Guess, we’ll give him some points for that. But no amount of ER cosplaying is going to resuscitate the Knicks’ hopes of making it to the Eastern Conference Finals this year.
"Doctor" Stephen A. Smith was going through it this morning on First Take after his injury-riddled Knicks lost Game 7 to the Pacers
pic.twitter.com/B9XmSbhf5n
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 20, 2024
Injuries hit New York hard
The Knicks would have had a better chance of getting the job done in the second round if they were healthy, or at least close to their 100 percent form. But they played in the Pacers series missing Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanovic. Mitchell Robinson saw action against Indiana for only a total of 12 minutes. As if those weren’t enough to hurt the Knicks, versatile weapon OG Anunoby missed four games because of a hamstring issue. He played in Game 7 but was removed off the floor by Tom Thibodeau after the head coach watched Anunoby painfully go up and down the court for five minutes. Josh Hart played hurt in Games 6 and 7 as well.
On top of those, Jalen Brunson was not able to finish the series finale versus the Pacers because of a hand injury.
The Knicks last made it to the Eastern Conference finals in 2000 and the wait to end that drought will have to be longer by at least a year, in large part due to the series of injuries New York ultimately could not overcome.
In what turned out to be the Knicks’ farewell game in the 2023-24 NBA season, DiVincenzo led the team with 39 points on the strength of nine 3-pointers, while Alec Burks came off the bench and fired 26 points
Fans sound off on Stephen A. Smith’s devasted reaction to Knicks’ injuries, Game 7 loss
Smith got plenty of reactions to his drama on First Take, and a number of them come from apparent Dallas Cowboys fans, who are reveling in schadenfreude.
“He sounds just like a Cowboys fan!”
“@stephenasmith sounds like a cowboys fan when they lose with all these excuses lol”
“He’s the jinx the minute he walked in there like he was playin we all knew it was over for us #stayaway”
“I love it. The New York media crying is music to my ears!”
“It honestly is worth shedding a tear. Knicks were destined for the Finals”
“Stuart Scott would never chump hisself like this j**k!”
“No excuses you get the same smoke you give the COWBOYS @stephenasmith”
“Who cares … seriously! Sas’s a joke”
“They suck! Like ur show!!”
“The Rangers called…said there’s no room for you on their bandwagon.”
“This guy is a clown
”
“Excuses excuses excuses.. the big bad physical knick fake tough guys flopping their way to wins couldn’t remain physical enough to win…”
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