On Tuesday evening, Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks advanced to within one game of the Eastern Conference Finals with a dominating 30-point home win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of their conference semifinals series. Brunson was absolutely electric in this one, bouncing back from a rough Game 4 performance to the tune of 44 points on impressive efficiency and making a Knicks team operating without several of its best frontcourt players look like a juggernaut.

One person who was hyped by what he saw at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night is none other than occasional Knicks fan and ESPN sports media personality Stephen A. Smith, who on Wednesday morning took to ESPN's First Take to drop a bold prediction for the rest of the series, which will resume on Friday night in Indiana.

“I think they clinched the series,” said Smith, via First Take on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “Whether it's going to be in six or seven games remains to be seen, and obviously anything can happen in a Game 7. But I do believe they've clinched the series… Jalen Brunson… was absolutely spectacular, and they have no answer for him. I have to give major, major props to Tom Thibodeau, starting (Miles) McBride, going small.”

Indeed, Thibodeau made a key adjustment on Tuesday evening by inserting McBride into the starting lineup over Precious Achiuwa, who had endured some struggles since taking over for injured starter OG Anunoby. Anunoby left last week's Game 2 victory late with a hamstring strain and his status for the rest of the Knicks' postseason run is now up in the air.

Can the Knicks close it out?

Last Friday evening, the Knicks were up by nine points deep into the fourth quarter in Game 3 in Indiana, on the verge of taking a 3-0 lead in the series, a deficit from which no team in NBA history has ever come back. Instead, 48 hours later, things were all knotted up at 2-2 and it seemed that the Pacers had all of the momentum, especially considering the sheer amount of injuries that the Knicks were dealing with.

However, it's a testament to the Knicks' resiliency and mental toughness that they were able to put together such a dominating performance on the Madison Square Garden floor on Tuesday, led of course by Brunson and supplemented by some strong supporting cast performances, including another hot shooting night from Alec Burks off of the Knicks' bench.

The series is set to resume on Friday back in Indianapolis, where the Knicks are now 0-2 in the series. They haven't enjoyed quite the home away from home advantage that they did in their series in the first round vs the Philadelphia 76ers, but it's probably a safe bet that there will be a large contingent of Knicks fans in the building on Friday to try to see the Knicks clinch their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in over two decades.

Game 6 is set to tip off Friday at a time yet to be announced.