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Knick-killer disappears in Game 3
Posted: Saturday May 27, 2000 08:40 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rik Smits went from dominant first-half force to second-half non-factor. Reggie Miller wasn't even on the court at the end. Nothing from a player who couldn't be stopped before halftime, nothing from one of the greatest Knick-killers of all time. No wonder the Indiana Pacers lost Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals. Miller sat the final 1:49 of the Pacers' 98-95 loss to the Knicks on Saturday, one of the most curious moves coach Larry Bird has made in his three years with Indiana. When the Pacers pulled within six, Miller continued to sit. When they got the deficit to three with 4.6 seconds left, there Miller remained -- on the bench, a towel draped over his shoulders. "Reggie played hard for most of it," Bird said. "He just got frustrated down at the end, and he continued to talk to the officials. I figured I'd get him out of there at that point." Miller finished with 19 points, only two in the fourth quarter, on 6-for-12 shooting. The loss cut Indiana's lead in the series to 2-1. The Pacers went on a 14-6 run after Miller left the game as Jalen Rose carried the offense single-handedly, but the rally fell short. "I think at that time, they were up nine or 10 and I thought coach probably didn't think we were going to get back into the ballgame," Miller said. "We made a little bit of a run, so I think it's just one of those coach's calls." There was no decent explanation, from Bird or anyone else, as to why the Pacers stopped getting the ball to Smits. Taking advantage of Patrick Ewing's absence, Smits routinely outplayed backups Chris Dudley and Kurt Thomas in the first half. Ewing missed Game 3 with a foot injury. Smits finished with 25 points, but just four in the second half, on 12-for-20 shooting in 40 minutes. He entered averaging 11.6 points in the playoffs and surpassed that with an 8-foot hook shot with 2:15 left in the first quarter. He went into halftime with 21 points on 10-for-15 shooting. His offense disappeared, as did his opportunities, in the second half. "I was feeling fatigued in the third quarter," Smits said. "It has been a long time since I played that much." He shot just 2-of-5 in the half. The 7-foot-4 Smits' woes were punctuated when he had a shot blocked by the 6-2 Charlie Ward in the last minute of the third quarter. "It was kind of funny," Ward said. "It looked crazy. I am sure it felt crazy, but the Lord was that angel telling me to fly, fly high. The only way I could get there was to fly." Early on, Smits used a combination of hooks and jumpers to keep the Pacers in it -- 24-19 after the first. Other than Miller, no other Pacers player scored in the quarter until Dale Davis dunked an alley-oop pass from Mark Jackson with 56.9 seconds left. Smits was 6-for-10 for 12 points in the quarter, while Miller was 2-for-2 for five points. The rest of the team shot just 1-for-8. The Pacers surged behind Smits' offense in the second quarter, taking a 42-41 halftime lead. But that was about all for Smits, and ultimately the Pacers, as the Knicks outscored them 30-22 in the third quarter. Smits was held to just 1-for-3 shooting in the third, and made his first basket of the second half with 8:50 left in the quarter. He was replaced by Austin Croshere with four seconds left in the quarter, and didn't return until 9:03 remained. "They made adjustments and did a good job of keeping the ball away from me," Smits said. By then, the Pacers had fallen into a hole too deep to overcome -- with Miller or without him.
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