The Other Davis Is Still Missed

Lost on the end of the Indiana Pacers’ bench, sits rookie forward Jonathan Bender, who was picked up in a trade before the season from Toronto for veteran Antonio Davis.

Bender, selected in the first round out of high school by the Raptors, may be a player Indiana is counting on for the future but he’s not giving the Pacers anything during their NBA finals matchup against the Lakers.

With center Shaquille O’Neal dominating Indiana’s big men, the Pacers definitely miss Davis’ toughness and physical inside strength.

Veteran point guard Mark Jackson didn’t like the deal for Bender then and doesn’t like it now.

“I thought the team would be successful, but I knew we would miss [Davis],” Jackson said. “I didn’t see Jonathan Bender, I didn’t know him. But it didn’t make me a difference because I didn’t believe that there was a high school player in America better than Antonio Davis . . . that was it . . . but I understand they did it for the future.”

With Davis, the Pacers would have another big body to play O’Neal.

“I was sad to see him go basically because he was a great guy and a great basketball player,” Jackson said. “We miss him.”

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According to Indiana Coach Larry Bird, shooting guard Reggie Miller should do less talking and more playing. After Miller failed to step up offensively in the fourth quarter of Game 2 at Staples Center, Bird was disappointed with Miller’s lack of aggressiveness.

“Reggie got lost in the shuffle,” Bird said. “It is very important that he demands the ball, he needs to start making things happen.”

Though Miller played much better in Game 3, Bird was still displeased with his on-court skirmishes with the officials and the Lakers.

“As you seen late in the game, I think he got fatigued,” Bird said of Miller who failed to make a field goal in the final quarter. “You have to save all the energy you can and forget about that stuff.”

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When he played in the NBA finals with the Boston Celtics, Bird was very vocal about his dislike of the league’s 2-3-2 series format. But now he’s hoping for Indiana’s loyal fans to help get the Pacers back in the series.

“When you’re down 0-2 and you have three games at home, this is the only time I like this setup,” Bird said.

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It’s hard to find any Pacer who is fond of Hack-a-Shaq but if the tactic helps them win, it’s a different story.

“At the time, I thought it worked pretty well,” Dale Davis said about the numerous times the Pacers fouled O’Neal in Game 2. “It’s something to use down the stretch when the game is tight and you want to take your chances and play the percentages. . . . But I don’t think you can do it a whole game. Doing it for any long extensive time, I don’t think will work.”

Veteran Sam Perkins, who will retire after the season, said Hack-a-Shaq is only a strategic move.

“We need to implement it at times and see what happens,” Perkins said. “When you are down like we were, you have to do something so they don’t run out the clock.”

Stopping the rest of the Lakers is just as important, according to Davis.

“We have to do a better job of containing Shaq, but like I’ve always said, you are not going to stop him,” Davis said. “He has the ball a lot and and gets pretty good position . . . what you don’t want is to allow other guys coming in and getting 20 and 15 points. That is what kills you.

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During the regular season, Indiana was a team which moved the ball around and it didn’t matter who took the open shot. Against the Lakers, the Pacers are starting to realize they have to try something different in order to make O’Neal work harder on defense.

“The only way you can make Shaq work on defense is to give the same force to him that he’s giving to you,” swingman Jalen Rose said. “You may score on him a couple of times, but if you’re not putting pressure on him to play defense or if you’re not trying to get him in huge foul trouble, then it really doesn’t matter.”

Austin Croshere has become a scoring threatagainst the Lakers but he said the Pacers have to have more players be aggressive with the ball.

“I think in order for us to be successful, we need to get the ball in the paint,” Croshere said. “Any time we can get it in there, it attracts the defense and then we can spread the ball out from there.”

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Croshere on his foot injury, which has bothered him during the regular season.

“The foot is still pretty sore, it has been throughout the playoffs,” he said. “It has been pretty consistent since the beginning of the New York series. It hasn’t gotten any better but it hasn’t gotten any worse.”