Fighting Good Fight Doesn’t Spare Pacers

There was no victory for the Indiana Pacers Monday night. Which means there will be no NBA championship. Not this year, anyway.

But there was valor. There was vindication.

And while those values feel empty when so determined and prolonged a quest finally has been denied, when the pain of defeat feels like a stake being driven through the heart, in time the Pacers should look back with pride on their resiliency, resolve and effort, if not the final result.

On this night, with the odds and obstacles stacked against them, with a Staples Center crowd raising an unholy din, the Pacers drained their batteries. They left everything they had on the playing floor. They expended every bit of energy and emotion they could muster. They played as hard as they could for as long as they could.

They carried the fight to the favored Lakers. They pushed them to the limit, further than all but a few thought possible. They proved that they belonged in this series and in this setting.

“We played our hearts out,” said Larry Bird, who now has coached his last game of a storied three-year career on the Indiana sidelines. “But there’s only one champion.”

And that champion is the Lakers.

MICHAEL WILBON, WASHINGTON POST / Shaq Looms Large at the Center of It All

Shaquille O’Neal will probably never be the biggest star in the NBA; not everybody roots for Goliath. But Monday night Shaq left the basketball world with no doubt he is the most dominant force in professional basketball, a scoring, rebounding and shot-blocking wrecking ball.

The Lakers returned to championship prominence because Shaq shook the Indiana Pacers like a rag doll. In a classic championship confrontation that was every bit as desperately competitive and entertaining as those championship games of the celebrated 1980s, Shaq was virtually barred from touching the ball during the final two minutes of the game because he is a foul-shooting liability like no other.

But his impact on Game 6 and this series with the Pacers had already been established, and the other Lakers eventually were able to rally around him in the final few minutes to secure a 116-111 victory and NBA championship for Los Angeles.

Shaq’s third 40-point game of this series--he scored a game-high 41 --was the foundation on which the Lakers won their first NBA title since 1988, the franchise’s seventh in L.A.

The Pacers played brilliantly for most of the game, but ill-advised shots taken by Austin Croshere and Reggie Miller in the final minute sabotaged Indiana’s opportunity to force this series to another Game 7.

Larry Bird’s coaching tenure with the Pacers ended the same way his championship playing days ended with the Celtics: with a loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. And while Bird isn’t going to be removed from basketball forever, he candidly talked about his feelings.

All Bird wanted to win Monday night was one more game, to extend this series to Game 7 Wednesday night. And to that end, he was worried about having to double-team Shaq, which violates everything Bird believes in defensively. But Bird and his Pacers had to deal with the reality of Shaq and the 37.4 points and 17.6 rebounds he was averaging through the first five games of the Finals.

“I don’t like to double team,” Bird said. “I know when you start running down, doubling up guys, they make the pass out, what Shaq’s doing 98% of the time. Once you get good ball swings, you can break down defense, then you’re in trouble. . . . I feel when you really double team, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.”

The biggest disadvantage comes from simply having to play against Shaq. He was the only Los Angeles player to play with purpose the first quarter. The Pacers knew they were in a win-or-else situation, but the Lakers seemed oblivious. Shaq had 15 of Los Angeles’s 29 first-quarter points; he hit 7 of 10 shots.

But the rest of his teammates produced only three baskets, one each by Glen Rice, Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant. Even when Bryant and Rice got going a little bit in the second quarter, it was still Shaq who kept dunking, hooking, clogging the lane.

By halftime, when Indiana led, 56-53, Shaq had 21 points to Rik Smits’ two. Shaq had played all 24 minutes, the only player on the floor to do so. Before the game Shaq had said, “I know the whole world is going to be pumped up, the city is going to be pumped up, and I’m home now sleeping in my bed.”

In other words, Shaq was going to do everything within his power, which is considerable, to make certain this series ended right here in Game 6.