NBA PLAYOFFS : O’Neal Transforms East Into the Magic Kingdom : Pro basketball: He leads Orlando to the conference title in a 105-81 rout of Indiana.

Boyz II Men II Finals.

For those not familiar with rap music, the young Magic players, the first members of the MTV generation to compete at this level, have grown up this spring, and Sunday night came the thundering proof, a 105-81 rout of Indiana that sent them into the finals.

If this is the way the Magic is going to handle Game 7s, the NBA had better get ready for its next dynasty.

“I don’t know if we had played our best if we’d have been able to beat them tonight,” Pacer Coach Larry Brown said. “It hurts to get so close and get it to a seventh game, but the best team won.”

The best team romped, throwing out another of those monster efforts. The team that had failed to shoot 50% in a game this series and averaged 11 three-point baskets a game, shot 57% Sunday and made 13 three-point shots.

The crowd of 16,010 set a new record for noise, at the prompting of Shaquille O’Neal, who led cheers while the scoreboard flashed his quotes like, “I want it so loud we can’t even hear ourselves calling the plays.”

Said a jubilant O’Neal afterward: “I just want to thank the fans of Orlando. Throat lozenges on me.”

The Magic had never been in a seventh game, a fact the Pacers tried to remind them of. However, from the moment the Magic players huddled on the floor in Indianapolis’ Market Square Arena after being routed in Game 6, it was clear they intended to take charge of events.

It was 23-year-old Penny Hardaway and 25-year-old Dennis Scott who gathered the players together. On this team, with one starter older than 26 and none older than 30, the young have to lead because there’s no one else.

Of course, huddles are nice but actual performance on a basketball court is something else.

This city vibrated Sunday, waiting for this game.

“I couldn’t sleep,” O’Neal said. “I called D. Scott a couple times. He was like, ‘Relax. Let me sleep.’ ”

Scott arrived at the arena early to practice shooting. He said he knew when he looked at O’Neal that his big teammate was in the proper frame of mind.

“When he comes in and I can see his veins poking out,” Scott said at the postgame news conference, tapping O’Neal’s bald head, “I know he’s ready.”

The Magic was braced for a storm, and it wasn’t Allison boiling up out of the Gulf of Mexico but Reggie Miller, the big noise from Indiana.

But Hurricane Reggie seemed to have blown itself out by the time it came ashore. The man who scored 20 points in the first quarter of Game 6, started quietly in Game 7, and the Magic jumped off to a 24-12 lead.

The Pacers hung in. The Pacers always seem to hang in. They cut it to 27-24 after the first quarter and went ahead in the second, but that turned out to be their best shot.

Miller took only seven shots in the first half. In the third period, he made an early three-point basket when Hardaway got casual and gave him too much room. Miller then got a dunk on a fast break off a turnover, but he tried only one more shot in the quarter and finished with 12points.

“I didn’t play well,” a subdued Miller said. “I take the burden. They [his teammates] have nothing to put their heads down about. This was Reggie Miller’s.”

Midway through the third quarter, Rik Smits picked up his third foul, and Brown took him out. The Magic went on a 10-0 run and turned the game into a rout.

The Magic led by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter. Hill pulled the starters with :52 left, which Indiana’s Mark Jackson called “a total lack of class.”

As if someone cared what someone on vacation thought.

Before the game ended, the massive O’Neal, who scored 25 points, picked up little Brian Hill and sat the Magic coach on his shoulder, Shaq’s own victory cigar.

“I thought they announced themselves when they beat the Bulls,” Brown said later, “when they won the conference, when they won 55 games, when they won 50 games last year.

“I think it’s all been a steady process and I think it’s only going to continue. ‘Cause you got to deal with Shaq, which I don’t think is going to be possible. And they’ve surrounded him with quality players and they’re playing as a team.

“I think they’re going to be around for a long time.”

Another week or two at least.

The Finals

HOUSTON vs. ORLANDO

ALL TIMES PDT

Date Site Time Wed. Orlando 6 p.m. Fri. Orlando 6 p.m. Sun. Houston 4:30 p.m. June 14 Houston 6 p.m. *June 16 Houston 6 p.m. *June 18 Orlando 4:30 p.m. *June 21 Orlando 6 p.m.

* If necessary