We would like to make this feel the way the old Dodgers-Yankees World Series used to feel: same teams, same matchups, same familiar faces. Yogi versus Campy. Mickey versus the Duke. Jackie versus Billy.
More to the point, we’d like to make this feel the way Knicks-Pacers used to feel back in the ’90s, when they met six times in eight years between 1993 and 2000 and the matchups used to write themselves.
Patrick Ewing versus Rik Smits.
Reggie Miller versus John Starks (later Allan Houston).