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Pacers' party After years of trying, Indiana finally reaches NBA Finals
Posted: Friday June 02, 2000 11:27 PM
NEW YORK (AP) - Three times in the fourth quarter Friday night, Reggie Miller did that little patented stutter step, located the 3-point line and launched long-range shots. Each time they found the net and slowly but surely, he exorcised some giant demons for the Indiana Pacers. Facing a troubled history in the Eastern Conference finals -- four losses, all of them in seven games -- Miller refused to let the Pacers be disappointed again. He scored 17 of his 34 points in the final quarter and guided Indiana to a 93-80 victory over the New York Knicks and a ticket to the NBA Finals. There had been too many Game 7 disappointments for Miller, too many teases. Indiana lost seven-game series to New York in 1994, to Orlando in 1995, then in the last gasp of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls in 1998 and then again to the Knicks last year. Miller didn't need another one. "Game 7 would have been too much pressure for us," Miller said. "This was our Game 7." And he played that way, too. Miller decided that if the Pacers were going down again, it would be with him in the middle of the loss. He had some incentive. Of the 32 NBA players with 20,000 points, he was the only one who had not reached the Finals. On the bench, he told coach Larry Bird and point guard Mark Jackson to get the ball to him. "I told Larry and Mark to run every play through me," he said. "Mark told me to shoot every time, no matter what. I had to have my hands on the ball." And he did. Indiana opened a nine-point lead at halftime, saw it evaporate and then methodically reconstructed the edge on Miller's long-range shooting in the fourth quarter to eliminate the Knicks, who had beaten the Pacers three times in previous sixth games. After the Pacers managed an club playoff low of 12 points in the third quarter and fell behind early in the fourth, Miller brought them back. Stepping gingerly back from the 3-point line time after time, Miller nailed long-range shots from both sides of the court, ignoring frantic New York defenders. The Knicks moved in front briefly but the Pacers never lost sight of them. "As long as we didn't get down seven, eight or nine, I could handle that," Miller said. "It was just a matter of time and we would make a run." When they did, Miller fueled it with his deadly shooting and the Knicks couldn't do much about it. New York coach Jeff Van Gundy paid tribute to the Knicks longtime nemesis. "He's been a great player for a long time," Van Gundy said. "We did a pretty good job on him most of the series. This game is one he got away from us a little bit. He did a good job of freeing himself and he made some bigtime shots that were characteristic of him." Larry Bird, taking the Pacers to their first Finals, saluted Miller. "Reggie was awesome tonight," he said. "He didn't want it to go to Game 7." Bird was right about that. Miller had seen too many of those, and none of them had gone Indiana's way. So he saw to it that Game 6 did.
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