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No holiday Pacers endure rough weekend in New York
Posted: Monday May 29, 2000 10:12 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Reggie Miller knew this wasn't going to be easy. His Indiana Pacers marched into Madison Square Garden halfway to their first berth in the NBA Finals after beating the New York Knicks twice at home. And two games later, that's where they still are. With a chance to put a stranglehold on the Knicks, Indiana came up well short of that goal, losing on Saturday and then again on Monday. Now they head back home with the best-of-seven series reduced to a best-of-three and the Knicks with all the momentum. "This is a team that went to the NBA Finals last year, knocked us out and were shorthanded," Miller said of the Knicks. "They wouldn't do that if they didn't know how to play. By no means, nothing comes easy." The Pacers dug themselves a 17-point hole in the first half and nearly climbed out of it, narrowing the Knicks lead to one in the fourth quarter before losing 91-89. The comeback hardly satisfied Miller, who led the Pacers with 24 points but made just nine of 23 shots. "It's hard for me to take anything from a loss," he said. "We played harder, got up into them in the third and fourth quarters. We've got to start that way. We need a defensive effort for 48 minutes, not just a half." The Pacers were terrible in the first 24 minutes, outrebounded, outshot and outhustled. They took a halftime tongue-lashing from coach Larry Bird and played much better after that. Bird said there was no mystery about what had happened early. "It was all defense," he said. "We didn't play defense in the first quarter. We had our usual start that we have every once in a while. They were hitting shots, and they were just ripping us apart. Second half, we decided to defend. We forgot to rebound." So what's with the lackadaisical start for a team in position to take control of the series? Bird said that was nothing new for the Pacers. "We have had problems all year in the first quarter," he said. "We feel if we can keep it even in the first quarter that we're probably going to win the ballgame. A lot of times, we bury a hole for ourselves. Sometimes we get out, and sometimes we don't." Much of the Pacers' second-half spurt was fueled by Jalen Rose, who managed just three points in the first half but finished with 18. He remains optimistic about Indiana's chances to recover from this lost weekend in New York. "I still feel like we're going to win this series," he said. "I feel like we're the better team. We're disappointed, because any time you get a 2-0 lead and you're the No. 1 seed in the conference you expect to find ways to win on the other team's floor." Bird also tried to take a positive outlook. "We worked so hard all year to get home-court advantage, and we lose two games in New York," he said. "But we are going back home. We can't use that as a cushion, but we are going back home. Hopefully, we can play better." They'd better if they want to get to the finals.
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