Knicks Leave Pacers Dazed, Confused

Indiana Coach Larry Bird keeps saying this is the Pacers’ year, their best chance to win their first NBA championship.

It’s as if his players think that by Bird simply saying it, the title will come to them.

It won’t if they keep playing the way they did Wednesday night in a 101-94 loss to the New York Knicks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, a pattern of play that was all too consistent with previous games in this series and has led to New York’s 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.

A team that was within one game of the NBA finals last year is now one game away from elimination as it returns to New York for Game 6 on Friday night. For all of that season-long talk about experience and cohesion, the quality they need now is desperation, the Pacers need to find something else or this opportunity will be gone.

“I try to instill a lot of confidence in them,” Bird said. “I want them to have confidence. It’s too bad for us that some guys talk it and they don’t walk it.”

The Pacers have blown fourth-quarter leads in every loss. Center Rik Smits has given them only one good game.

They keep straying from what made them, according to Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy, “the best offensive team in the league.”

After a strong first quarter, the Pacers looked like a bunch of guys with different ideas on how to win. They had only 12 assists, their lowest total in the 1999 playoffs, and only one in the third period.

Not even a more familiar statistical line for Reggie Miller (30 points--his eighth 30-point playoff game against the Knicks in his career) was enough.

All of the Pacers’ good statistics looked hollow, including Dale Davis’ 18 rebounds, which tied a franchise playoff record.

As the series progresses, the Pacer to watch is Jalen Rose. The Pacers won both games in which he scored in double figures, including his splendid 19-point performance in Game 4. Rose scored six point Wednesday night. Rose’s total of fouls and turnovers (six) exceeded his total of field goals, rebounds and assists (five).

Rose’s wild-card counterpart on the Knicks, Latrell Sprewell, came through with 29 points.

Van Gundy kept Sprewell in the starting lineup, even though Sprewell had a bad shooting game in his first start in Game 4. This time it paid off, as Sprewell scored 16 points (two more than his Game 4 total) in the first half. He also made seven of eight free throws in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks put the game away.

If Marcus Camby is auditioning for a starting spot next year, it’s something that Van Gundy--or whoever is coaching the Knicks by then--will have to consider. Camby had 21 points and 13 rebounds, marking his third consecutive double-double. He also blocked six shots.

The Pacers came out like they wanted to end it, scoring the first nine points. Then New York came back with 10 straight points to take the lead with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first quarter. The Knicks scored only four more points and the Pacers led comfortably, 28-14, at the end of the period.

After their 90-78 victory in Game 4 on Monday, it appeared the Pacers had finally solved the Knicks. Then it looked like their computer’s hard drive crashed and erased all the data.

Then they stopped playing smart basketball, and when they do that they’re not a threat to beat anyone. They went away from matchups that worked in their favor and gave the ball to players in matchups that favored the Knicks.

Point guard Mark Jackson was more of a post player than a playmaker. He kept trying to pound the ball inside, often against the taller Allan Houston. Although he scored 16 points, he had only four assists.

In the second quarter Miller appeared more interested in drawing fouls than trying to score, and his array of wild shots missed badly.

They lost their 14-point lead and went into halftime tied at 42.

“We sort of broke down into isolation again,” Bird said. “You’ve got to get good ball movement. If you don’t, they’re quicker than we are and can get up on you.”

The game was there for either team in the second half, and the Knicks grabbed it. Houston scored nine points in the third and Larry Johnson resurfaced for the first time since his four-point play that won Game 4, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter.

EASTERN FINALS

Knicks lead series, 3-2

RESULTS

Game 1: N.Y. 93, Indiana 90

Game 2: Indiana 88, N.Y. 86

Game 3: N.Y. 92, Indiana 91

Game 4: Indiana 90, N.Y. 78

Game 5: N.Y. 101, Indiana 94

SCHEDULE

Fri.: Indiana at N.Y., 6 p.m.

* Sun.: N.Y. at Ind., 4:30 p.m.

* if necessary