Miller Puts Final Knock on Knicks

In the building where Willis Reed limped out to slay the Lakers in 1970, where the New York Knicks came from 18 down in Game 6 against Miami two weeks ago, where they beat the Indiana Pacers twice last weekend without Patrick Ewing. . . .

Well, sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn’t.

They relived another chapter out of their lore, but it wasn’t one of the happy ones. It was the one where Reggie Miller walks in and puts Madison Square Garden in his pocket like one of those souvenir Statues of Liberty, which he did again Friday night, scoring 17 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Pacers won, 93-80.

Of course, all the time he was doing it, the Garden crowd was chanting Miller’s favorite chant. You’d think these sophisticates would have learned not to upset him further by now, but there it is.

“It’s only fitting,” said Miller later. “I think there’s three people in New York history that they hate the most--John Rocker, Michael Jordan and myself.

“It’s only fitting that I should have the ball most of the time.”

The Pacers thus win the Eastern finals, four games to two, and await the winner of Sunday’s Lakers-Trail Blazers Game 7, to see who they’ll play. In either case, Indiana will be a decided underdog, but in any case, they just made the NBA finals for the first time.

“It’s a great thing to happen to us,” Coach Larry Bird said. “Our veteran players have been around the league and battled so hard over the years and never had an opportunity to play in the finals and this is their day. . . .

“You know, that’s what this NBA is all about, it’s about having an opportunity to win. And they have no idea what they’re getting themselves into.”

At least, they have an idea what they got themselves out of.

“Game 7 would have been, tell you the truth, too much pressure for us,” Miller said. “Because New York is the type of team where they’ve proven in the past they can come in on somebody else’s court and win. We wanted to end it here. Tonight was our Game 7.”

For a while, it was looking like they’d get to play in the real thing. Indiana led by nine at the half, but the Knicks rubbed it out with an 11-2 run to start the third quarter and the Garden erupted in sound.

Playing for keeps, the Knicks flashed a picture of Bird on the scoreboards, with his quote about how “soft” the Garden crowd had been in Game 3.

By the end of the third quarter, New York was up three but then Miller made a three-point basket and the score was 62-62.

Latrell Sprewell, playing on a broken bone in his left foot en route to a 32-point game that might have become a new chapter in Knick lore under different circumstances, started the fourth quarter by making a three-point basket. Normally Sprewell’s range ends at 18 feet but he made three three-point baskets, suggesting he was in rhythm and the Pacers were in trouble.

Instead, Indiana went on a 15-2 run with Miller scoring 11 of the points, hitting three three-point baskets.

The capper came with the Pacers ahead, 72-67, and the Knicks trying to climb inside Reggie’s jersey. The Pacers ran a pick-and-roll and got the 6-foot-6 Miller matched against the 6-0 Charlie Ward, but Ward managed to bat the pass to Reggie out of bounds.

The Garden crowd jumped to its feet and gave Ward a long, standing ovation.

Meanwhile, the Pacers threw the ball back to Miller, dogged by the cat-quick Sprewell. Reggie faked inside, took a giant step backward over the three-point line, a move no one else would dare, and buried a three.

“He’s been a great player for a long time,” Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “We had done a pretty good job on him, but this game is one where he got away from us a little.”

Miller, who has one of the great love/hate relationships of all-time going with the Garden, is always talking about the Pacers’ need to exorcise their demons here. And, of course, he always thinks it’s going to come down to him.

And so often, it does. Today Rocker could win a popularity contest in New York, if he ran against Miller, but Miller couldn’t care less. He’s moving on.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NBA Finals

Best of seven

* Wednesday: at West champion, 6 p.m.

* Friday: at West champion, 6 p.m.

* June 11 at Indiana, 4:30 p.m.

* June 14 at Indiana, 6 p.m.

* June 16 at Indiana, 6 p.m.-x

* June 19 at West champion, 6 p.m.-x

* June 21: at West champion, 6 p.m.-x

x-if necessary. All times Pacific.