Jalen Brunson returned from the locker room, checked back in, and 14 seconds later with 3:02 remaining in the third quarter, he checked out, ending his season and the Knicks' season in the process. The loss of Brunson was likely the final blow to this shorthanded Knicks team that had struggled all afternoon with the up-tempo Indiana Pacers, who would go on to shoot 67%, setting a game seven record, including a first quarter that had them shooting 77.8% from beyond the arc. In fact, outside of a few minutes to start the second half, the Pacers controlled the game wire to wire. They left a Stunned Madison Square Garden and will head to The Boston Garden Tuesday to face a well-rested Celtics team.

There were a few takeaways from Sunday's game seven at Madison Square Garden. The Pacers' offense can, in fact, travel. The Knicks team finally succumbed to their injuries, and basketball is better when New York is involved.

The Pacers are a shoot-first, play defense...later? Maybe not at all team. While that could get you to an in-season tournament final, very few people thought it would get them to a conference final, but here they are. The underdogs of two series are putting up points in bunches, enjoying the them against the world mindset buying into the NBA's "hates small-market teams". They bring their historic offensive pace to Boston, a team they bested in 2 of their 5 meetings in the regular season and who had struggled defensively this postseason since the loss of Kristaps Porzingis.

The Knicks were beyond broken with injuries on Sunday and for most of the postseason, with confusion around what was the roster and what was the injury report heading into game seven. Josh Hart and OG Anunoby suited up but played hurt, and looked like it. Finally, the nail in the coffin was Brunson's hand injury. However, that is just sports. Injuries happen, and they impact your team. Both things can and are true.

The New York Knicks were a lot of postseason fun. "Basketball people" came out of the woodwork, Stephen A. Smith got his walk-in filmed as if he were in the game, courtside celebs filled the Garden, Knicks talk dominating national sports talk shows. It was fun and exciting to see so many people get invested in the sport, certainly, and a Boston-New York City series would have been something that would have captured the nation's attention. However, there will still be an Eastern Conference Finals, and people will still watch. One of the most frustrating things I saw yesterday was the talk about "ratings" and "people won't watch Pacers and Celtics." They will, sports fans will, Pacers fans will, Celtics fans will. So the idea that now the Eastern Conference does not mean as much because there will not be the investment of celebrities and New York is just flat-out wrong. I understand the people who are tuning out; they are the same ones who watched maybe 10 regular-season Knicks games and are not certain who is even playing in the West right now. And that's okay, more basketball for me!

Game seven at the Garden was something I built my Sunday around. I was deeply disappointed when the Knicks were not able to match the Pacers' offense and make it at least a game. In the end, the onslaught of threes and the speed of the Pacers' team proved too much to match as injured as the Knicks were. The people who are planning on tuning out now that New York is not involved and are proud of that are only doing a disservice to themselves. Styles make fights, and I think this Indiana-Boston matchup is going to surprise a lot of people by being much more competitive than the casual fan would suspect.