With Ewing and Camby Out, It’s Pacers Who Don’t Show

Not again?

Patrick Ewing not only didn’t make it back for Game 3, but the New York Knicks lost Marcus Camby too and still coasted to a 98-95 victory over the Pacers on Saturday, cutting Indiana’s lead in the Eastern Conference finals to 2-1.

As far as the Pacers are concerned, 12 mannequins in Knick uniforms would be dangerous.

“It was very disappointing,” Pacer Coach Larry Bird said. “We established inside position with Rik [Smits, who scored 21 points in the first half]. We were up one point at halftime. We talked about being 24 minutes away from putting ourselves in good position to win this series.

“To come out and play the way we did is very disappointing. . . . We had too many guys who didn’t show up to play. Every time we gave guys an opportunity to go out there and redeem themselves, they played worse. . . .

“I thought Dale [Davis] and Rik did an excellent job of fighting when they were out there. Other than that, we just didn’t show up to play and I don’t understand that.”

Among the other 10 Pacers Bird didn’t mention was Reggie Miller, the renowned Knick-killer, who made six of 12 shots, scored 19 points and was left sitting on the bench as his teammates rallied in the closing seconds.

Not that anyone on either side took the Pacers’ late surge seriously. It looked like one of those garbage-time exercises until Austin Croshere made a three-point shot to cut it to 98-95 with .07 seconds left.

Under almost identical circumstances, Miller made a steal, stepped back and made a three-pointer to tie Game 1 against the Knicks in the 1995 Eastern semifinals. The Pacers went on to win the game and the series. This time, he never got the chance.

“It’s a coach’s call,” Miller said. “I’m not going to check myself in.”

Said Bird: “It didn’t come down to whether Reggie Miller was in the game at the end. . . . He just got frustrated down the stretch and he continued to talk to the officials. I thought I better get him out of there at that time.”

Actually, it looked less like a message that Bird was sending to Miller than Bird resigning himself to the fact this wasn’t their day.

Without Ewing, the Knicks came out, playing with desperation, running up an early 19-9 lead.

In the second quarter, they lost Camby, who sprained his right knee. Camby had already returned to being the minor factor he always had been before last spring’s series against the Pacers, but that left Coach Jeff Van Gundy with only four players over 6 feet 5 as the 7-4 Smits began scoring at will against Kurt Thomas and Chris Dudley.

“I do believe our team has excellent pride,” Van Gundy said later. “I do. You could have subconsciously had a little give-in to you after halftime.

“You know what? I’m really proud of a guy like Chris Dudley. You look at the box score, nothing spectacular. He’s got a bad back, a bad knee, been sitting there, could have easily taken the rest of the season off because of his injuries and he just went out and played so, so hard.”

An injured Dudley is as close as the NBA gets to actually suiting up a mannequin, but he’s willing, he defends and, with the Pacers’ help, since they didn’t make too much of an effort to get the ball inside in the second half, he helped hold Smits to four points the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Knicks turned it up. Latrell Sprewell, whose four-for-31 shooting in fourth quarters this postseason had received prominent mention in the local media, scored 32 points. Allan Houston had 28. The Pacers slid away.

Game 4 isn’t until Monday, so the tabloids have 48 hours to work with Bird benching Miller, the Ewing watch (the Knicks’ doctor said he was, surprise, day to day), and the Camby watch (sprained knee, also, surprise, day to day.)

“We can’t be happy with ourselves because we won a little undermanned,” Van Gundy said. “We’ve got to find a way to win on Monday.”

How bad was it?

Someone actually asked Bird if he’d prefer to have Ewing back on the floor for Game 4.

“Not really,” Bird said.