Warriors Guard Had Savage Reason for Being Happy Knicks Aren’t in NBA Finals

Brandin Podziemski celebrates his three point shot against the New York Knicks during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden in March.
Brandin Podziemski celebrates his three point shot against the New York Knicks during the third quarter at Madison Square Garden in March. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder will face off in the 2025 NBA Finals starting on Thursday night. Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski is excited for the series and glad that the Pacers will be taking on the Thunder instead of the New York Knicks.

While recovering from wrist surgery, Podziemski was a guest on Up & Adams this week and told host Kay Adams why he believes the Pacers are a much better matchup for the Thunder if you're rooting for a good series.

"I'm super excited for it. I'm glad it was the Pacers, not the Knicks because I felt like if it was the Knicks it would have been a sweep just because I don't think the Knicks had enough to compete with OKC, both offensively and defensively. The Pacers on any given night they play, what, ten guys I think. And there's games where all ten of them score in double figures. So you don't always necessarily know where the points are coming from with Indiana."

Podziemski pointed out that the Thunder are great at shutting down primary scorers, but could have more trouble with the Pacers because they have so many different players who can provide scoring on any given night.

Podziemski and the Warriors lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of this year's playoffs.


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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.