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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
NEW YORK (AP) -- Reggie Miller says the New York-Indiana rivalry
is dead. Given the lack of passion displayed by the Knicks on
Sunday, they seemed to agree.
|  | | Jalen Rose put an offensive spin on a defensive battle, scoring 24 in Indiana's win over New York. |
Jalen Rose shot 10-for-14 from the field and scored 24 points
and the Indiana Pacers showed they, too, can play some dominating
defense in an 87-74 victory over New York.
Holding their fourth straight opponent below 80 points, the
Pacers took control early and never let the Knicks back into the
game in the first meeting of the season between last year's Eastern
Conference finalists.
"When they got rid of Patrick (Ewing), I considered it over
because he was the cornerstone of this franchise and he was
somewhat synonymous with the rivalry. So personally, to me, there
is no rivalry because of that," Miller said.
"It's still a big game because they are playing well, but
there's no such thing as Pacers-Knicks anymore like there used to
be," he said.
Miller added 18 points, Travis Best had 16 and Jermaine O'Neal
14 for the Pacers, who shut down two-thirds of New York's main
offensive weapons by holding Allan Houston to 12 points and Glen
Rice to two.
The Pacers snapped New York's three-game winning streak and
dealt the Knicks, who lead the NBA in defense, just their second
loss in the last 12 games.
Larry Johnson scored 22 points and Latrell Sprewell added 18 for
New York.
"We didn't take them lightly, we just came out flat and didn't
score early," Sprewell said. "Defensively, we could have
played better. We just had one of those offensive performances that
won't get it done against most teams."
Austin Croshere hit a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the
first quarter to give the Pacers a 23-12 lead, and New York
finished the quarter with just two points from anyone other than
Sprewell.
A driving layup by Best completed a 21-6 run that gave
Indiana a 29-14 lead, and a 3-pointer by Miller made it 42-25 as
the Pacers were on their way to a 46-33 halftime lead.
Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy benched starting point guard Charlie
Ward at the start of the second half, bypassing Chris Childs (who
had knee tendinitis) and inserting third-stringer Erick Strickland.
But with Strickland off-target from the field -- he shot just
1-for-7 -- Van Gundy later went to a big-guard alignment with no
true point guard, only to see little improvement.
Rose scored Indiana's first 11 points of the third quarter
before Best converted a driving layup to make it 59-50, and the
closest the Knicks got the rest of the way was 65-58 on a putback
by Kurt Thomas -- who had 18 rebounds in place of the suspended
Marcus Camby -- with 8:58 left in the fourth.
The Pacers answered with a 6-0 run, then went back ahead by 15
when Miller made a 3-pointer with four minutes left.
Indiana (20-21) has won four in a row and six of eight to move
within a game of .500.
"I'm satisfied with the progress even though there's still
progress to be made," Rose said. "Basically the way I look at it
is you've got a ton of guys still fighting for one bone in the
jungle, and nobody's better than the next guy until you finally get
it. I see us as the Eastern Conference champions and the Lakers as
the NBA champions, and it's going to stay that way until somebody
changes it."
Game notes
Camby served the second game of a five-game
suspension.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Indiana Clubhouse
New York Clubhouse
RECAPS
Indiana 87
New York 74
Washington 94
Atlanta 90
Toronto 110
Philadelphia 106
Utah 109
Phoenix 98
Minnesota 96
Vancouver 94
Miami 103
LA Lakers 92
Milwaukee 102
Detroit 98
Golden State 94
Boston 91
Seattle 109
Sacramento 107
FROM
ATHLETESDIRECT
Reggie Miller Official Site
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