Pacers Escape With Victory to Even Series

At some point Tuesday night--apparently the three-minute mark in the third quarter--the New York Knicks got greedy.

It wasn’t enough for them to leave Indianapolis with their Game 1 victory in their pocket. They wanted not just home-court advantage over the Indiana Pacers, they wanted a commanding 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals to go with it.

But after erasing a 17-point deficit and holding the lead in the final minute of play, the Knicks watched Indiana escape with an 88-86 victory after an Antonio Davis basket and two Reggie Miller free throws with two seconds remaining.

The win evened the best-of-seven series at one game apiece and produced markedly different moods between the two teams.

“Disappointed,” Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy said.

“This is a game that we could have won, should have won,” Knick center Patrick Ewing said.

As for the Pacers?

“We’re very fortunate to be in this position,” Miller said. “I’m happy.”

The Knicks had a chance to send it into overtime. They got as good a shot as they could hope for with two seconds on the clock, no timeouts and the length of the court to go.

Charlie Ward, the former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Florida State, rolled right along the baseline and threw a pass three-quarters of the court down to Ewing. He caught it behind Antonio Davis near the free-throw line, turned and fired up a jumper.

“I thought I had a good look at it,” Ewing said. “I thought it was going to drop. It just didn’t.”

In a game in which the officials were very much a part of the story (they called a total of 68 personal fouls, two technical fouls on the Knicks, sent the teams to the free-throw line a combined 84 times and New York’s Larry Johnson, Chris Childs and Chris Dudley fouled out as did Indiana’s Rik Smits), Childs had serious issues with his sixth foul, which put Miller on the line for the winning free throws.

Miller was isolated against Childs on the left side, pump-faked and drew enough contact to get the whistle to blow.

“Bad call,” Childs said. “I didn’t touch him. I pulled my hands back.”

“Body,” Miller countered.

In the first half it was easy to tell which team had the greater sense of urgency. The Pacers were fighting for something, the Knicks were playing with house money.

So while the Knicks were harping at the referees and yelling at the Market Square Arena fans, the Pacers were doing whatever they wanted on offense, hustling for rebounds and loose balls and taking a 17-point lead.

The Knicks stayed with single coverage on Mark Jackson and he wore out their point guards, racking up so many fouls on Ward and Childs that New York had to play Latrell Sprewell at the point for a while.

Jackson registered team highs with 17 points and eight rebounds.

The only thing New York had going in the first half was Larry Johnson. He worked whoever guarded him, be it Chris Mullin or Jalen Rose, and scored 17 points in the first half. He finished with 22.

The Pacers took themselves out of the game for a while in the third quarter with 29% field-goal shooting and 25% at the free-throw line. The Knicks closed the quarter with a 9-1 run, then opened the fourth with a 10-1 spurt to go ahead, 78-72.

Jalen Rose, who scored 13 points, made a jumper, two free throws and a three-point basket as part of a 9-0 run that gave Indiana the lead.

Like Game 1, it came down to the wire. And the Knicks don’t expect anything to get easier just because the next two games are in Madison Square Garden.

“In this series, 1-1 is really not too much of a home-court advantage,” Knick guard Allen Houston said.

The Knicks surely can’t expect the Pacers--one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the league--to repeat their 62% performance at the free-throw line.

They certainly can’t count on Miller missing three consecutive free throws or going the last 40 minutes of the game without a field goal again. “As long as you make the last one, that’s all that matters,” Miller said. He turned to Ewing, who was waiting to follow him to the interview dais. “Right, Pat?”

On that one, Ewing couldn’t argue. He just couldn’t bring himself to voice an agreement.