Knicks Start With Flourish : NBA playoffs: New York builds a 17-point lead in first half and holds off Pacers in opener, 100-89.

From the playbook that brought fullback off-tackle to the NBA comes an offensive showcase, or at least what passed for one by New York Knick standards.

It was a brief glimpse, but it was enough. The Knicks used it to build a 17-point lead before halftime, then needed almost every bit of that lead to withstand another in what has become a string of fourth-quarter comebacks by the Indiana Pacers and hold on for a 100-89 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night before 19,763 at Madison Square Garden.

This was practically a point glut for the Knicks, who had reached triple digits only twice in their 11 previous playoff games and hadn’t surpassed 90 since Game 3 of their series against Chicago. And then to win Tuesday’s game in a fourth-quarter shootout, allowing 26 points but scoring 30? It happened, so help us Pat Riley.

The second quarter was the strangest of all, with the Knicks scoring on 10 of 13 possessions, without the help of a single trip to the free throw line. Jumpers, including a pair of three-pointers by Greg Anthony, who shot just 30.2% from the field against the Bulls. Dunks. Drives down the lane. Things were going so well John Starks could blow a wide-open reverse dunk and it didn’t make a difference.

By the time the Knicks realized they weren’t supposed to be doing this kind of thing, the lead was 17, first at 43-26 and as late as 47-30 with 3:30 left in the first half. They finished the quarter 12 of 21 from the field, or 57.1%, which was worth a 53-37 advantage at the intermission.

Riley reminded the Knicks about Indiana’s history of comebacks in these playoffs, particularly in opening games on the road. At Orlando, the Pacers climbed out of a 12-point deficit in the first quarter to win, and in the conference semifinals at Atlanta, they turned a 17-point deficit into another victory.

“We were very leery of that,” Anthony said. “You are going to have some kind of letdown. You just don’t want it to be too big.”

It was big enough. The Pacers closed to within single digits early in the second half, 53-44, fell back again, then mounted a new assault. The deficit was only, 68-63, in the closing seconds of the third quarter, and this charge didn’t look to be temporary.

With 8:28 left in the game, the Pacers got within three, 77-74, the closest they had been since early in the fateful second quarter. That became two when Vern Fleming, given his first start of the playoffs over Haywoode Workman as a reward for all his years of suffering with the organization, banked in a short running shot from the right side.

The Knicks called timeout and went back to a recent hero, Hubert Davis, whose two free throws with 2.1 seconds left made the difference in a one-point victory against the Bulls in Game 6. This time, Davis took a different approach, making a three-pointer from the right flat for an 88-83 cushion with 3:50 to play.

It could have been a temporary setback for the Pacers. But when they followed that by going 3:34 without a field goal, and Charles Oakley made a key tip-in for the Knicks, it turned out to be the end. Indiana got no closer than six points the rest of the way, impressive considering Rik Smits had to carry most of the load with 27 points and 10 rebounds in just 27 minutes while Reggie Miller went five of 11 from the field and Derrick McKey finished zero of seven.

“I don’t think we fell apart,” said Pacer Coach Larry Brown, whose team trails in a series for the first time. “We had a chance. We got within 85-83, and Oakley made two great plays. That was the game.

“The problem we had was getting down by 16 on the road against a great defensive team, and you fight uphill. When you get down late in the game, you can’t give up offensive rebounds.”