Pacers Still Looking for Kryptonite

Thanks for coming, little fellers.

Just the Pacers’ luck. After all the years it took them to reach the NBA finals, they got in against a Laker team that overmatched them and all that has happened since is, form has prevailed.

The Pacers may even have played above themselves. Just not high enough above themselves.

“Well, obviously Shaq [O’Neal] is very dominating,” said Indiana Coach Larry Bird, “and the center position, we feel they’ve got the upper hand because he produces big numbers for them every night.

“Around the board, Reggie [Miller] and Kobe [Bryant] both make big shots. I feel we’ve got a good bench. It’s just that the man in the middle makes a big difference.”

Try a 94-point difference in the first three games.

That was how many O’Neal had outscored Rik Smits by. Shaq had 116, Smits had 22, and Bird was asked if he was going to stay with the aging Smits.

“Who we going to change to?” asked Bird.

After two days of getting bombed in the papers and on the airwaves, Smits was one teed-off Dutchman in Game 4, going for a surprising 24. Then there was Miller, who was up to here with the publicity he was getting for not making a shot in the fourth quarter in this series.

With 9:53 left in this fourth quarter, Reggie, who had missed eight of his 11 shots until then, knocked in a step-back 19-footer, and after that, his fangs came out and he started looking for necks to bite.

He wound up going for 13 in the fourth quarter . . . and another six in overtime . . . and O’Neal fouled out with two minutes left after scoring 36 points and taking 21 rebounds . . . and it still wasn’t enough for the Pacers.

At the end, the Lakers just gave the ball to Bryant, the 21-year-old kid, and he picked his team up single-handedly and carried it over the finish line.

Bryant, of course, was only at 80% on his sore ankle, or that was what Phil Jackson said beforehand, so imagine what he might have done if he had been healthy.

Not that the Pacers were buying. Before the game, Sam Perkins said he wasn’t falling for “the banana-in-the-tailpipe trick,” an allusion to “Beverly Hills Cop.” (Sam, you remember, was a Laker and knows his cinema.)

Said Perkins, after this game: “See what I’m saying? Ain’t nothing wrong with that man’s ankle.”

Let’s see, they just took your best punch, on your home court, in the game you had to win, and now they lead the series, 3-1, with two of the three remaining games on their home court.

What’s there left to say but, where would you like us to send your trophy?

“Well, we made shots, finally, in the series,” said a somber Miller afterward. “I think we were shooting 40% or lower in the series. We finally got Rik into the game. So that’s the most disappointing thing, when you shoot 50% against a good defensive team and still lose.”

Everything about this series has been uneven: teams, resident Supermen, celebrity fans.

In one corner, there’s the Lakers’ resident Superman, O’Neal, who has “S” logos everywhere in his house, cars and possibly on his underwear. He stands 7 feet tall and weighs 330 pounds and scares people.

In the other corner, there’s the Pacers’ resident Superman, Miller, who started wearing an “S” T-shirt under his warmups in the first round of this postseason. As Perkins said, the only thing big about Reggie, besides his heart, is his ears.

The count of celebrity fans is even more one-sided than the O’Neal-Smits matchup. The Lakers have hundreds of movie stars, directors, et al. The best the Pacers can do is show a video of Indiana-native David Letterman on the scoreboard before games.

Wednesday, the Pacers even introduced Rob Lowe, who’s in some NBC series and has been a long-time Laker hanger-on, as a Pacer fan. Maybe the Lakers were just lending them some of their celebs to even things up.

With their season and their hopes on the line, the Pacers let it all hang out. They played a video of Jackson saying Sacramento and Portland crowds were louder than Conseco Fieldhouse. In the part they left out, Phil went on to compliment Indiana fans on being loud, too. This was ironic, Jackson getting booed after being on his best behavior and not calling anyone semi-civilized, a redneck or a jackal.

For good measure, the Pacers also put up a Ron Harper quote--twice--to the effect that Conseco has a nice rook, but lacks banners and won’t get any “unless they steal one.”

But it still comes down to basketball. The Pacers have given a decent account of themselves, with one blown opportunity, in Game 2, when Bryant went out early and the Pacers faded late.

That was one more blown opportunity than they could afford in this particular matchup.

“Well, right now we’re definitely behind the eight ball, [down] 3-1,” sighed Miller. “But we’ve got a little bit of a pulse left in the heart so we’ve got to go after it on Friday.”

The problem is, they were behind the eight ball from the get-go and now they’re almost gone.”