Will New York build enough of a lead to get Tyler Kolek on the court at some point in the Eastern Conference Finals?
We’re down to just one former Marquette men’s basketball player active in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Jimmy Butler and the Golden State Warriors were eliminated in five games by the Minnesota Timberwolves. That may have happened largely because of Steph Curry suffering a hamstring injury, as Golden State won Game 1 in Minnesota with Curry but he missed the rest of the series and GWS would not win again. Jimmy Butler had a decent enough series, averaging 20.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game, but Golden State’s advantage after acquiring Butler was having both him and Curry in the lineup together. With just one of them? Not so much any more.
And so, we focus on the last remaining active Golden Eagle……
Tyler Kolek — New York Knicks
The New York Knicks advanced into the Eastern Conference Finals with a 4-2 series victory over the Boston Celtics. The big news coming out of the series is Jayson Tatum suffering an Achilles tear, but it’s important to note that he suffered said tear at the end of Game 4. The Knicks won Game 4, 121-113, to take a 3-1 lead. The Knicks had the strong advantage on the reigning and defending NBA Champions when Tatum got hurt, and only a wild shooting night by the Celtics in Game 5 — 22-for-49 from three-point land! — prolonged the thing to a sixth game.
Jalen Brunson was a terror against the Celtics, averaging 26.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. He shot 39% on three-pointers and averaged 6.7 free throw attempts per game as the C’s couldn’t do much to slow him down when it mattered. Karl-Anthony Towns was definitely beating the allegations in the series, averaging a double-double on 19.8 points and 12.7 rebounds, doing most of his work inside the arc both cleaning the glass and scoring, too.
We’re here for Tyler Kolek related things, and believe it or not, head coach Tom Thibodeau actually put the 2023 Big East Player of the Year in the game twice in this series. Kolek played a bit over two minutes in both Game 5 — Celtics won by 25 — and Game 6 — Knicks won by 38 — to record his first ever NBA Playoff minutes. Kolek ended up with a two trillion line in Game 5, but was able to hit his first ever playoffs field goal attempt in Game 6, and he came up with a rebound as well. In fact, Kolek’s bucket was a three-pointer that went as the last points of the game, so he was literally providing the cap to the end of the series win for the Knicks.
New York will be facing the Indiana Pacers in the Conference Finals, which means the team that eliminated Doc Rivers’ Milwaukee Bucks is back in front of our eyes here. After beating the Bucks in five games in the first round, the Pacers disposed of the Cleveland Cavaliers in just five games as well in the Conference Semifinals. That was a bit of a surprise, as Cleveland was the second best team in the entire NBA this season and was the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference after going 64-18 in the regular season. It was literally the second best regular season in Cavaliers history, landing behind the 2008-09 team that went 66-16.
The Pacers won the series somewhat emphatically, picking up wins with margins of 9 points, 1 point, 20 points, and 9 points. The lone Cavaliers victory in the 4-1 series was actually the most lopsided game of the entire series, with Cleveland winning 126-104. Indiana got to where they are going not because of any one particular player running wild all over the Cavs, but because of a team effort. All five Pacers starters averaged somewhere between 14 and 18 points with Pascal Siakam beating out Tyrese Halliburton for the scoring lead, 17.8 to 17.4. Three Pacers starters averaged between 6 and 8 rebounds per game in the series, led by 7.2 per contest from Myles Turner.
One major problem for the Cavaliers in the semifinals that Kolek and the Knicks will have to watch out for is whether or not the Pacers can keep hitting threes. As a team, Indiana shot 42.1% from behind the arc in the previous series, but all five Pacers starters shot at least 43%. Yes, even starting center Myles Turner, who went 9-for-16 in the series and was arguably the team’s biggest threat when he got loose to shoot it from deep. Indiana only hit 36.8% of their three as a team in the regular season, but four of the five starters shot at least 38%. They had an outlier series against the Cavs, but it wasn’t that far off their average if we’re being honest about it.
All games on TNT; all times Central
Game 1: Wednesday, May 21, 7pm
Game 2: Friday, May 23, 7pm
Game 3: Sunday, May 25, 7pm
Game 4: Tuesday, May 27, 7pm
Game 5*: Thursday, May 29, 7pm
Game 6*: Saturday, May 31, 7pm
Game 7*: Monday, June 2, 7pm
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