Lakers Can’t Match Indiana’s Pace : Pro basketball: Pfund grasping for positive signs after team gives up 74 points in the first half of 127-110 loss.

If the Lakers made progress in developing their running game Thursday, as Coach Randy Pfund says, those gains were difficult to detect among the ruins of their 127-110 loss to the Indiana Pacers at Market Square Arena.

Unable to counteract the Pacers’ swift movement up the floor, the Lakers gave up a season-high 40 points in the second quarter and a season-high 74 in the first half. The last time they yielded more points in a half was on Dec. 6, 1984, when the Denver Nuggets scored 80.

No Laker was in double figures at halftime, when the Pacers built a 74-45 lead on 60.8% shooting and a 28-17 edge in rebounding. Reggie Miller scored 24 points and Pooh Richardson added 13 points and 10 assists to extend Indiana’s winning streak against the Lakers to three, a franchise first.

“We made the game an up-tempo type of game and forced it from the outset,” said Pacer forward George McCloud, who scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half and tied his career high with nine assists.

“The Lakers are a half-court team and we got them into our game, and they couldn’t handle it. I put a lot of pressure on (James) Worthy and whoever was guarding me and I tried to make my teammates better.”

A fourth-quarter slowdown by the Pacers made the game less of a rout and sent most of the 13,085 fans home early. It also sent Lakers on to Charlotte tonight with seven losses in nine games.

“They pushed the ball up the floor and kicked it up,” said Byron Scott, who scored 12 points. “As far as our running game is concerned, we’ve got to look at a team like Indiana. They’re a team that kicks it up to (Reggie) Miller and those guys. Those are some of the things we want to do.”

They might have done those things during their 13-6 start, but they are not doing them now.

“I think (early in the season) we were playing hard, up-tempo basketball. We’re doing a lot of standing around now and we’ve got to stop doing that,” said Anthony Peeler, whose made all 13 of his free throws in recording a career-high 25 points. “Yes, it’s getting really frustrating, but we’ve got to stay positive.”

Pfund managed to find a positive aspect to the loss that left the Lakers at .500 (20-20) for the first time since they were 3-3 Nov. 15.

“We let them do anything they wanted in the first half and it’s unfortunate, because it was on a night we made some progress in terms of our running game,” he said. “And I know you say sometimes a coach looks for a silver lining, for anything he can grasp, but that’s how I have to look at it. I can’t believe we weren’t prepared or that we didn’t play hard, but somehow we walked onto the floor and didn’t do it.

“I’ll continue to look at the lineup and look at individual performances and look at what we need to do to get better.

“We seem to go to extremes. Either we’re slow and stagnant or fast and out of control. I don’t like it when we walk up and post it or when we run and throw it away. I’d like to think we can find a happy medium, but that doesn’t appear to be on the horizon.”

Is a personnel change on the horizon? “I’m not going to say that (or talk) in terms of that type of thing,” he said. “It’s time for us to just come out and execute what we can do better.”

Whether they have the players to execute that strategy remains a question. “Some pieces yes, some pieces no,” Scott said when asked if the Lakers can be a running team.

“I just know there are a few things we can definitely do better that we’re not doing, and until we start doing those things, we’ll continue to struggle.

“Maybe I’m being unfair because I’m comparing this team to teams that used to play for the championship. We used to play together and that’s one thing we’re definitely not doing. And until we do that, we’re definitely going to struggle.”

Laker Notes

Sedale Threatt, who expressed displeasure with the Lakers’ stagnant offense, met with Coach Randy Pfund on Wednesday. “I told Sedale we had to make some adjustments because with our guards out, I’ve asked him to play with Anthony (Peeler) so many games and now with A.C. (Green) and Byron (Scott),” Pfund said. “I don’t think that rotation’s helped him. Sometimes we relied too much on the pick-and-roll with him on top and teams have scouted us and seen that. Our half-court set is basically the same set we ran last year. I think Sedale’s frustration is in part related to the fact we’re trying to be a running team and right now, and we’re not a very good running team.” . . . Gary Vitti has accepted an invitation to be one of three trainers at the All-Star game on Feb. 21 at Salt Lake City.