Pacers, and Lawyers, Get Down to Business

Since every dark cloud is supposed to have a silver lining, it should be noted that the Indiana Pacers aren’t actually dead yet.

With only eight players, most of whom you never heard of and none of whom has ever averaged double figures in the NBA, they beat the Boston Celtics, 106-96, on Tuesday night in their first game since getting the bad news from David Stern.

Jamaal Tinsley, the only starter left in the wake of all their suspensions and injuries, scored 29 points with six assists and four steals.

A rookie No. 2 pick named James Jones scored 22 points with 10 rebounds and is now averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds since the real team went away.

Said Jones: “Pretty shocking.”

Tinsley, back from serving a one-game suspension, was listed as a game-time decision with a sore wrist. He hurt it brandishing that long-handled dust pan at those Piston fans who were drenching his teammates as they came down the runway.

Tuesday, Tinsley was not only good but attitudinal. Once he threw a baseball pass off the backboard after a play. Another time he gunned the ball to referee Mark Ayotte, who hit him with a technical. Still another time, Tinsley went nose-to-nose with Boston’s Paul Pierce.

As reporters gathered around Tinsley afterward, a Pacer official reminded them, “Only basketball questions.”

“It’s just a tough situation that we’re in,” Tinsley said. “You know, we don’t have nobody to blame for it. We just got to put it beside us and just move on, knowing that we don’t have key players....

“It’s just frustrating but I’m trying to go out there and just play through it.”

These are difficult days for the Pacers and the city, smoldering in the wake of Stern’s decision to suspend Ron Artest for the rest of the season, Jermaine O’Neal until Jan. 14 and Stephen Jackson until Jan. 22 for their roles in Friday’s altercation with fans in Detroit.

Pacer fans have broken out “Free Ron” T-shirts. One fan held up a sign before the game: “Let Our People Go.”

The Indianapolis Star’s Bob Kravitz wrote a column supporting Stern’s decision and received 2,200 e-mails. He thinks most expressed disagreement, although he didn’t check them all.

“Some of them might be Viagra ads,” Kravitz said.

Unfortunately for the Pacers, this was a particularly inconvenient time to lose their three leading scorers, since Reggie Miller, Jeff Foster and Jonathan Bender were already out.

In other words, of the Pacers’ top eight players in rotation, they had two left, Tinsley and reserve guard Fred Jones.

“It’s time to stop talking about our problems ... ,” said Coach Rick Carlisle before the game. “We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. You can’t do that. We’re professionals.”

Actually, they’re feeling sorry for themselves big time, but trying to deal with it, and succeeding.

Whether or not people agree with Stern’s decision, most feel bad for the Pacers, an old-line, good-guy organization. Not that anyone is taking it easy on them.

The Pacers had only eight players Tuesday, including the two rookies who started, James Jones and David Harrison, and a third rookie, 7-footer John Edwards, they don’t use much, suggesting he’s either a project or a doorstop.

“I think in a couple weeks, you’ll know who they’re going to be,” Boston Coach Doc Rivers said before the game. “For us, we don’t know what they’re going to be tonight. We don’t know if they’re going to slow it down, play zone, play man, who they can bring in.... You just don’t know and that’s dangerous.”

So far, the Pacers are no walkovers. Saturday, without Artest, O’Neal, Jackson, Tinsley and Scot Pollard, who had a sore back and joined Miller, Foster and Bender on the bench, the Pacers shot it out with Orlando but lost, 86-83.

Rivers watched the tape and it wasn’t reassuring.

“The fans were amazing here,” he said. “I mean, it was a playoff atmosphere for the fans. When the players walked out, the fans gave them a standing ovation.

“I think this is one of those cases when the fans could help them.”

Who knew their best would be good enough?

Nine minutes into the game, Boston led by 11. The Pacers clawed back in while the Celtics seemed to be waiting for them to realize who they were.

A smoldering Rivers said he’d take the blame for this lame performance.

“When your talent is better, you should never lose a game,” he said. “I’ve been talking about one thing all year and that’s mental toughness. We got out to a quick lead and we thought we were going to blow them out and you can’t do that. Rick Carlisle and his crew did an unbelievable job.”

Per NBA rules, Artest, O’Neal and Jackson weren’t at Conseco Fieldhouse, although Artest was all over the airwaves in his TruWarier Records gear, hyping his album, his contrition seeming to fade with each appearance.

“I don’t think the team’s down,” said Vern Atkins, a fan who runs a home-health company in nearby Carmel, Ind. “I don’t think the town’s down. What we have left, we can compete with.

“This may bring the team and the town together.”

In the East, which had three elite teams until Friday night, 41 wins would probably get the Pacers into the playoffs. They already have eight and are hoping to steal a few more between now and Jan. 14, when O’Neal returns.

Tuesday, they didn’t steal anything, they won it fair and square. It’s as happy a story as this league has had in a few days.