COMMENTARY : Pacers Did Not Give Up and Knicks Did Not Put Them Away

The court at Market Square Arena had been cleared of the early one-on-one fireworks between John Starks and Reggie Miller, when it sometimes seemed as if they had found a playground where they could settle this basketball war between them once and for all. And the court had been cleared of the drinks and cups and ice thrown out there in the third period, when some bums in the crowd got mad enough at the refs that they tried to spoil the night when either the Knicks or Pacers would get a very big game, in another of their fine basketball wars.

It was not the fans fighting with the refs anymore, or the Pacers fighting with the refs, which they had done for so much of Game 3. It was the Knicks and Pacers fighting each other through the fourth quarter this time and into overtime. Fighting for a one-game lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals. All of a sudden, Miller’s fourth quarter fireworks last Sunday seemed like something in the playoff distance.

So much of the first half had belonged to the shootout between Starks and Miller. Now, down the stretch, it was Oakley, shooting and rebounding and getting all the loose balls again, trying to get the Knicks to the locker room with a 2-1 lead over the Pacers. Reggie Miller and the Pacers trying to stop Charles Oakley from doing that. The Knicks got ahead 10 points in the fourth quarter, then 11 points. The Pacers came back with a rush, making a 15-4 run at the Knicks over the last six minutes. Patrick Ewing had fouled out by the end. So had Charles Smith. Oakley committed his fifth foul on the Knicks’ last offensive possession of regulation.

Then right before the buzzer there was a Reggie Miller three-pointer in the air and another chance for him to kill the Knicks. He missed. The Knicks and Pacers went into overtime. And the Pacers finally won, 97-95.

“Tonight, we’re going to find out a lot about how things are going to go for Reggie, and for us,” Pacers coach Larry Brown said before the game.

It figured that Starks and Miller would be the show early. It seems they are always trying to be the show. There is this idea they would like to find a playground and settle things, just the two of them. So much of the drama--and pure silliness--of this hard rivalry between the Knicks and Pacers has involved the two of them. There was the famous head-butt incident two years ago, right here at Market Square Arena. There was another game when Miller accused Starks of diving for his knees while Miller was on the floor and, according to Miller anyway, trying to hurt him.

“It was one of the times when the Knicks crossed the line and became a dirty team,” Miller has said. He forgets nothing about the Knicks.

Then there was Game 1. Starks had outplayed Miller almost all day. Miller put himself into the record books, and NBA playoff history, with his fireworks display in the last minute. In Game 2, Starks never let Miller into the game. The Knicks did nothing differently with Miller in Game 2. Starks just played him as fiercely as he ever has, and as well.

“When I heard Reggie say (the Knicks) were predicating their whole defense on stopping him, I couldn’t believe it,” Brown said before the game. “They didn’t double-team him. They didn’t triple-team him. All I saw was Starks all over him, and then Hubert Davis.”

In the first half of Game 3, it was Starks making the shots from outside the three-point line, making them from a place that is supposed to be Reggie-ville in this series. Starks made four three-pointers in the first quarter, and then two more in the second quarter. In the first half, he had made as many three-pointers as Miller made in his famous Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks in 1994. Six three-pointers in a half tied the playoff record set by Michael Jordan in the NBA Finals once, and Miller in Game 5.

After Game 2, somebody asked Starks if he had anything to say to Miller, since Miller had insulted the Knicks with his “choke artist” talk after Game 1.

“Nothing to say,” Starks said quietly. “All we’ve got is Game 3 ahead of us.”

They made the first half of Game 3 something to see, setting the stage for everything that would happen later. If one of them is going hard to the basket, it is usually Starks. Thursday night it was Miller. He went to the basket for a reverse layup 30 seconds into the game. His first score, the Pacers’ first score. He went wide-open on a drive for his second basket. He had spent all of Game 2 in a deep sleep, and finally seemed to quit the game in the second half. Back home in Market Square Arena, Miller was back to accepting the responsibilities of being a star, and the responsibilities of his big mouth, which he can never seem to shut whenever Starks and the Knicks are around him.

By halftime of Game 3, Miller had 16 points. He had made eight of 12 shots. Starks had more points, most of them from Reggie-ville. He had made seven of nine shots and had 20 points. The difference between them was the difference in the game and the Knicks led, 49-45.

The Pacers seemed ready to come apart in the third quarter, just as they had in Game 2 at the Garden. They could not get a call, and Market Square was getting good and crazy about that. Rik Smits got a technical. Then Miller went to the basket and thought he was fouled and got called for an offensive foul instead. He slapped the ball into the crowd and got a technical. It was here that a handful of punks in the crowd behaved as badly as the Knicks and Pacers have sometimes behaved the last couple of seasons.

The drinks and cups were on the court. Some of the Knicks covered themselves with white towels.

The Knicks and Pacers went from there. The Pacers did not give up. The Knicks did not put them away in the third quarter, the way they had put the Pacers away in the third quarter of Game 2. But they had stretched the lead, from four points to eight, 73-65. Late in the fourth quarter of Game 1, the Knicks thought they had a one-game lead on the Pacers in this series. Now they went for the lead again in the fourth quarter of Game 3. If they could get the game, they could get the homecourt advantage back.