Finally back in Eastern Conference finals, Knicks face Pacers team that eliminated them last year

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks nearly ended their lengthy Eastern Conference finals drought last year, only to lose on their home floor to the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the second round.

With two new starters and much better health, the Knicks finally made it this season for the first time in 25 years.

The opponent will be those same Pacers, who return to Madison Square Garden for a series that begins Wednesday night.

“More to go,” Knicks guard Mikal Bridges said. “We’re not done.”

Since their last trip to the conference finals in 2000 — another loss to the Pacers — the Knicks had reached the second round only one time until doing it each of the last two years following the arrival of Jalen Brunson.

So finally getting over that hump with their 119-81 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Friday was a significant step, just not one the Knicks cared to celebrate.

“The goal is always to win a championship and so we’ve got eight wins. You need 16, right? And each one gets harder and harder, so you've got to keep fighting,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.

The Knicks had a 2-0 lead in the series against the Pacers last year before they were decimated with injuries, and Indiana ran them off the floor in Game 7.

New York then traded for Bridges shortly after the season and made a blockbuster move to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns from Minnesota just before the start of this one. It didn't appear those were going to be the final moves that built a championship team, as the Knicks finished 51-31, well behind Cleveland and Boston, and went a combined 0-8 against those teams.

But they won’t have to worry about the Cavaliers, who lost in five games to the Pacers, and completely turned things around against the Celtics. New York overcame 20-point deficits in the second halves of both games in Boston to open the series.

The resolve the Knicks showed in those comebacks wasn't there during the regular-season matchups against the Celtics, when the first three were blowouts. But maybe the Knicks have found it just in time.

“When you’re in these situations, especially in the playoffs, we talk about that New York grit, that unrelentless belief that we will never lose,” Towns said. “And I think that this series, when you want to go deeper into the playoffs, you have to have that and we showed it this series and I think that was really special for us.”

The Knicks were decided underdogs going into the series after the ease with which the Celtics handled them in the regular season. Boston obviously wasn't quite the same team after Jayson Tatum's ruptured Achilles tendon late in Game 4, but the Celtics were still the defending champions and felt they had enough to win even without their leading scorer.

Instead, the Knicks were so dominant in Game 6 that Brunson was asked afterward if their victory in the series felt like an upset.

“Regardless of what anyone thinks, upset or not, we’re just happy to come out of this series with a win and moving on we’ve got to prepare for another team,” he said.

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Boston Celtics' Payton Pritchard, right, defends New York Knicks' Mikal Bridges during the second half of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks' OG Anunoby (8) celebrates after making a three-point shot during the second half of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Boston Celtics Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks' Josh Hart (3) gestures after Boston Celtics' Jaylen Brown (7) fouls out during the second half of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns (32) celebrates during the second half of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Boston Celtics Friday, May 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.

The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.

Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.

Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.

Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.

The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.

Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)