NBA PLAYOFFS : Magic Gets Distracted : Eastern Conference: Pacers win battle of the pinwheels, 105-100, and cut Orlando’s edge to 2-1.

I don’t think we’re in Florida anymore, Toto.

Just when it looked as if nothing could stop the Orlando Magic’s precocious stars, they were dropped into the middle of Race Week in this home of the $300 hotel room and the unsympathetic referee, where the Indiana Pacers shot them down, 105-100, Saturday, cutting their lead in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals to 2-1.

Nothing worked the way it had in Orlando, starting with Shaquille O’Neal, who was held to 18 points, 17.5 under his series average.

Nor were the referees warm and friendly. O’Neal was in foul trouble throughout the game and played only 30 minutes. The Pacers shot 41 free throws to the Magic’s 20.

The Orlando people mentioned it only about 1,000 times afterward.

“Larry Brown whined,” the Magic’s Horace Grant said, “and a lot of people listened.”

No issue was too petty as the teams hunkered down for a long fight and started disliking each other. Magic personnel director John Gabriel, who said the league office had told him not to let fans behind the backboards spin pinwheels to distract free-throw shooters, asked the referees to ban them here.

The referees issued the order after Orlando’s Penny Hardaway missed a free throw. The crowd booed, the referees huddled, the order was canceled and the crowd chanted “Crybaby!” at Hardaway the rest of the afternoon.

After the game, Brown, who had been irritated by all the Magic’s bells and whistles in Games 1 and 2, snarled that, “John Gabriel, their whatever-that-guy-does, said that [NBA Vice President] Rod Thorn called them and said they couldn’t do it in Game 2 so he told the referees that we couldn’t do it.

“The bottom line was, they played music when we were down there during possessions, they wheeled whatever they wheeled and then they’re gonna to come in here and the referee’s gonna say, all of a sudden, this stuff don’t go?”

Said Gabriel: “We’ll make the biggest pinwheel they’ve ever seen next game.”

Oh yes, the basketball game.

After giving up an average of 112 points in two losses, the Pacers came home, bound and determined to slow the pace down, make the Magic shoot from the perimeter and start missing.

Imagine their joy at halftime when Orlando was shooting 64%, 55% on three-pointers.

“We had a hard time figuring out how to stop them,” Brown said. “We got beat when they posted up. We got beat when they isolated. At halftime, I told our guys we’ve just got to play better individually.”

Help was coming. Early in the third quarter, O’Neal was called for his fourth foul. Magic players and coaches hopped up and down, but the referees had actually given them a break, calling nothing on the previous Pacer possession when Shaq bashed a driving Reggie Miller as he was shooting.

Magic Coach Brian Hill put in the ancient Tree Rollins, but Rollins picked up five fouls in five minutes.

However, the Magic hung in. Ahead, 64-62, when O’Neal left with 8:03 left in the third quarter, they trailed only 82-80 at the start of the fourth when Shaq returned, Hardaway having just scored 12 of his 29 points.

The fourth quarter was played at the walk-it-up pace the Pacers wanted and the Magic went cold, missing seven shots and scoring no points for 4:59.

Amazingly, they were still right there. With 38 seconds left, Grant dunked off a nice pass from O’Neal, cutting the Pacer lead to 98-95. Hardaway then stole the inbounds pass. The ball swung to ace marksman Dennis Scott, who had already made four three-pointers, spotted up all alone at the arc.

Scott missed and the Magic faded away.

“I make that shot and we win the game,” Scott said, smiling and shaking his head.

“The pressure’s on them, 98-98, 20 seconds left and they have to score, so I take the blame for this one.

“Wide open shots--everyone knows I can hit ‘em with a hand in my face. Maybe I’ll start holding the ball until somebody runs at me and then shoot.”

Of course, the Magic’s shooters haven’t really started missing yet. They made 50% of their three-pointers Saturday and they’re averaging 12 three-pointers a game in the series, shooting 46%.

Either they go cold or the Pacers had better build that bigger pinwheel themselves.