Knicks open as strong second-round favorites in NBA playoffs vs. Pacers

After being Round 1 underdogs to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Knicks find themselves in a different position as they head into their second-round series with the Indiana Pacers.

DraftKings opened the Knicks as -225 favorites as they begin their playoff series at The Garden on Monday.

The Knicks are rather large favorites for Monday’s Game 1, coming in as 6.5-point favorites and -245 on the moneyline.

Interestingly enough, the spread for the series is Knicks -1.5, with some heavy juice pushing the Pacers to +115 on that line.

The game total for the series is 5.5 games, but oddsmakers are expecting this to go to six games based on the -160 line to go over and the series to end in six games the most likely outcome at +220 odds.

The Pacers won the regular season series against the Knicks 2-1, with trade deadline acquisition Pascal Siakam playing in two of those games (1-1).

Star forwarded Julius Randle played in only one of the three games for the Knicks and is lost for the season, while Indiana misses budding forward Bennedict Mathurin.

Defense is going to be the key factor for the Knicks in this series, as the Pacers shot 58.5 percent and 61 percent from the field, respectively, in their two regular season victories.

In the loss at MSG, they shot just 45.2 percent.

OG Anunoby, the Knicks prized trade acquisition, did not play in any of the three games and figures to match up with Siakam.

The two will be featured in a grudge match of two physical defensive stalwarts who can change the complexity of any game with their ball-hawking attitudes.

It should be a hard-fought series, but oddsmakers clearly think the Knicks will win based on the 69.23 percent implied chance to win that their odds suggest.

The 76ers were favored to open their series against the Knicks, although money flew in from interested bettors to back the higher-seeded Knicks.

Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse thought the series was a hard-fought battle that could’ve gone either way, but it went against them for now.

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“This series probably could’ve gone the exact opposite way of what it did, but it didn’t, so we’ll congratulate them,” Nurse told reporters after the game.

The Knicks play on thin margins with their physical style and have a chance to show an old friend, Obi Toppin, how New York plays ball in the playoffs from the opposing team’s perspective.

As The Post’s Howie Kussoy pointed out, this series will look much different than the Round 1 triumph in Philadelphia.