Pacers Get Quiet in Hurry : NBA playoffs: Knicks even series with big second-half run, 96-77. Miller held to 10 points. Indiana has 35 turnovers.

No choke for the New York Knicks this time, and no sweep for Indiana, either.

The Knicks shut the Mouth of the Midwest, Reggie Miller, on Tuesday night, overwhelming the Pacers in the second half to take a 96-77 victory and even their Eastern Conference semifinal at 1-1.

Leading the way for New York was Derek Harper, who came back from a Game 1 ejection to score 24 points, and John Starks, who had 19 points two days after missing two foul shots that cost the Knicks a victory in Game 1.

Afterward, Miller said Starks “choked” and didn’t stop there, calling the Knicks “choke artists” and predicting a Pacer sweep.

The Knicks answered with a 25-4 surge to start the second half and put the Pacers away, and it was all that needed to be said.

“After all the talk is over with,” Harper said, “we still have to play basketball.”

In boisterous Madison Square Garden, the crowd began taunting Miller before the game even started. And after this one was over, Miller didn’t have much to blab about.

By the game’s last five minutes, he was out of the action for good, and derisive cries of “Reg-gie, Reg-gie” and “Che-ryl, Che-ryl,” in reference to his basketball star sister, rained down on the Pacers’ bench.

Guarded by Starks, Miller shot three of 10 for 10 points and scored only two in the second half, a far cry from his virtuoso Game 1 performance. On Sunday, he scored eight of his 31 in the final 16.4 seconds to lift the Pacers to a 107-105 victory.

Miller didn’t take back his inflammatory comments, didn’t even regret making them. But he was gracious in complimenting Starks’ defensive job on him.

“I didn’t play well. That’s first and foremost,” he said. “The Knicks are predicating their whole defense to stopping Reggie Miller.”

Dale Davis had 13 points and Rik Smits 10 for Indiana, which scored only 27 second-half points, tying an NBA playoff mark for fewest points in a second half.

After Sunday’s wrenching loss, the question was whether the Knicks, who like to talk about their ability to respond to adversity, could bounce back and keep themselves from falling behind two games to none heading back to Indiana for Thursday’s Game 3. In the first half, they showed few signs of recovering.

The second half, however, was a different story.

“We felt we were fortunate to be down by two (50-48 at halftime),” guard Hubert Davis said. “We had a positive feeling coming into the second half that if we started forcing some turnovers and coming up with loose balls--started playing Knick basketball--we could come out with a win.”

The Knicks built a 73-54 lead with 4:06 left in the third quarter. Patrick Ewing got things going with five points, and Harper and Starks each had seven during the spurt.

The Pacers, meanwhile, went almost 5 1/2 minutes without scoring, committed 11 turnovers, two offensive fouls and were forced into a shot-clock violation.

“The game was decided in the first three minutes of the third quarter,” said Pacer Coach Larry Brown, whose team’s 35 turnovers set a club playoff record and missed the NBA playoff record by one. “They just turned it up defensively and got aggressive.”