33 Points by O’Neal OK With Pacers

He may call himself “The Big Aristotle” but for the Indiana Pacers, Laker center Shaquille O’Neal had been nothing but “The Big Pain” over the first two games of the NBA finals.

The Pacers had thrown everything but the kitchen sink at O’Neal and all they had to show for it was a 0-2 deficit in thebest-of-seven series.

But practice sometimes does make perfect and the Pacers showed Sunday in a 100-91 Game 3 victory at Conseco Fieldhouse that they are quick learners.

O’Neal still finished with dominant numbers, scoring 33 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. But with Kobe Bryant sidelined because of an ankle injury, O’Neal did not have the same impact he had in the Lakers’ two victories at Staples Center.

“Whatever your meaning of contain is, I think his [33] points tonight wasn’t as dominant as his points in L.A.,” Indiana point guard Mark Jackson said. “He controlled the game and was a nightmare in those games. Tonight he made a variety of shots and we made him work a little bit.”

In Game 1, O’Neal simply overpowered the Pacers’ big men as Indiana mostly used soft double teams against him. O’Neal finished with 43 points and sent Indiana center Rik Smits to the showers early with six fouls in only 20 minutes.

In Game 2, the Pacers tried a different tactic and got more aggressive with O’Neal. They fouled him almost every time down the court but O’Neal still finished with 40 points despite making only 18 of 39 free throws.

On Sunday, the Pacers changed up again as they not only trapped O’Neal from different angles but also rotated better to slow down role players Glen Rice, Ron Harper and Robert Horry.

“Now that we have played them a couple of games and had several practices, the guys are getting a lot better at [double-teams],” Pacer forward Austin Croshere said. “Guys understand when they are supposed to go and who they are to rotate to. I think the better you understand it, the better the execution is going to be.

“It’s a completely different defense we haven’t done all year. We know it is very unique to get to the finals and then have to do something you haven’t done all year. But that is a tribute to Shaquille. He’s a one-of-a-kind player and you have to play defense just to stop him.”

With a sellout crowd of 18,345 cheering, the Pacers came out smoking from the start. Reggie Miller was in serious attack mode and he was joined by Jalen Rose, as they combined for 15 points in the opening period, matching the Lakers’ first-quarter total.

But the real reason Indiana jumped out to an early lead was its defense against O’Neal, who didn’t score his first basket until 8:06 remained in the first quarter.

“We came down hard on Shaq and got out pretty good in the first half,” Indiana Coach Larry Bird said. “I thought the second half, they got us in some trouble by going in and back out. But individually, I thought we did a pretty good job.”

Instead of using Smits to defend O’Neal early, the Pacers stuck with power forward Dale Davis against the Laker big man. Davis is much stronger than Smits and is able to bang better against O’Neal when he fights for position under the basket.

“Dale is strong,” Bird said. “Obviously he is not as strong as Shaq or as big. But, he’ll battle you. He did a good job of standing behind him and trying to force him out a little bit, which the task is almost impossible. But Dale will battle you. That’s what he did today.”

Davis said the job of defending O’Neal is even tougher than it looks.

“The guy gets great position down there, and he gets the calls too, so that helps him out,” Davis said. “I thought we did a better job of at least trying to push him out. I thought we went a little harder tonight.”

Once O’Neal did get the ball on the low post, Indiana did not hesitate to trap him. In the previous two games, O’Neal handled the Pacers’ double teams, but he had trouble Sunday without Bryant.

“For the most part, I thought we did a good job of pushing him out a little bit,” Davis said. “I thought we had better ball pressure.”

Laker Coach Phil Jackson said it was the Pacers’ double teams that gave O’Neal trouble, not Davis.

“The strength of their double teams was to run into him and knock him back off the post and make him turn out,” Jackson said. “He had to retreat to get rid of the basketball.”

And once O’Neal did that, the Pacers had the Lakers right where they wanted them.