Mission Impossible? Slowing Miller Is Cause for Concern

For starters, he’s Reggie Miller.

Plus, he’s pumped about being in the NBA finals for the first time, a short drive from his hometown, and a three-point shot from his college home.

He’s a player who thrives on the spotlight, or the minicam lights.

“So Ronnie Harper’s obviously got his hands full with this job,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said.

Which is no bold statement, given Miller’s ability to go flammable on defenses. And that was no bold statement by Jackson on Tuesday that Harper will draw the initial assignment on Miller when the championship series begins tonight at Staples Center, reinforcements at the ready.

It’s how the Lakers did it when they beat the Indiana Pacers in the same building March 3. Harper defended Miller and Kobe Bryant took Mark Jackson.

It’s how the Chicago Bulls of the Phil Jackson era did it when they beat the Pacers during neighborhood playoff skirmishes. Then, he would sometimes use the size and skills of Scottie Pippen, a small forward, to suffocate Mark Jackson on the perimeter and take away some of his post game. Someone else was forced to initiate the offense.

Bryant, a first-team all-defense choice, gets that role in Game 1 and probably until further notice, meaning, unless Miller savages Harper. If that happens, the Lakers can go with Bryant, who drew the assignment in the Jan. 14 Pacer victory at Conseco Fieldhouse but got in foul trouble, or another big guard, Brian Shaw.

“He’s got an idea about what he wants to do with him,” Phil Jackson said of Harper. “We’ve got a plan on how I want to defend Reggie and what we’re going to do. . . . [But Miller] counters well, I’ll say that. They’ve made an art of what they’ve been doing. They’ve been doing the same thing offensively as a basketball club for almost eight years.”

Said Harper: “When he gets hot, you try to hold a hand in his face. Try to just be sure that whatever he does, there’s a hand up there. He’s a guy who can hit five shots, not hit eight shots, then hit nine shots in a row. He’s going to get his shot off in every phase of the game. It’s going to be a tough job.

“He’s going to be fired up. He, for sure, is going to be fired up. He’s got a chance in front of his home fans. . . . I know he’s going to have that edge on him, where he has to play well.”

How do you counter that?

“You don’t,” Harper said. “You just go out and play.”

It’s like when someone asked Bryant after practice whether the Pacers have any way of stopping Shaquille O’Neal.

“Indiana? I don’t think so, no.”

So do the Pacers have any way of stopping you?

“No,” Bryant said, “I don’t think so.”

Oh, by the way. Do the Lakers have any way of stopping Miller?

“I hope so,” he said. “We better.”

There have at least been moments when they did. Miller scored 29 points in one of the regular-season games and 15 in the other, after getting 26 in the only meeting last season in what became the finale at the Great Western Forum for the UCLA and Riverside Poly High product. But he also shot only 44.8% in 1999-2000, compared to 48% in his career.

He arrives at the finals at 46.6% and 23.8 points a game in the playoffs, the latter the fourth-best in the league among players who had at least 10 postseason games. He is also shooting 40.2% on three-point attempts, up from the 39.3% of the regular season.

“We all know Kobe is much quicker than Ron,” Miller said. “But Ron plays great position defense. Kobe likes to overplay a lot, gambles a little bit more. I think Ron plays it safe.

“They’re both great defenders, Kobe being on the first-team all-defensive team and having great battles with Ron, when he was with Chicago, for three or four years. They both present different challenges. They’re both long. They’re both quick. They both play good position defense. And overall, their team defense is great too. It’s nice to have a Shaq in the middle, in case you get beat.”

He becomes the problem of every Laker tonight, O’Neal included, because Miller will go to the basket.

“We’ll have Kobe on him, we’ll have Brian Shaw,” Phil Jackson said. “We’ll have plenty of people who are going to have to guard Reggie.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Reggie Miller Factor

How Pacer guard Reggie Miller fared in two games against the Lakers:

Points: 22.0

Field Goal Shooting: 14-33

Free Throw Shooting: 14-16

Three-Point Shooting: 2-8

Rebounds: 6.0

Assists: 1.5