Frozen moment: Miller's sparks cool L.A.
By Greg Collins
ESPN.com
|  | | Reggie Miller drained four 3-pointers among his 25 points. |
INDIANAPOLIS -- Need a spark? Reggie Miller has the lighter.
In a first-quarter offensive explosion seldom seen in these defensive-oriented NBA days, Miller and the Pacers raced out to a 39-28 lead by nailing 15 of their first 20 field goals. That was the start Indiana needed to power to a 120-87 victory over the Lakers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Conseco Fieldhouse on Friday.
There wasn't one key shot -- how could there be when everything seemed to go down? -- but Miller's four-point play to put the Pacers up 22-13 at the 4-minute, 45-second mark looks pretty good in retrospect. After that point, the Pacers never led by fewer than seven points, and it showed what kind of karma Indiana had on its side to send the series back to Los Angeles.
Miller and Jalen Rose combined for 22 first-quarter points, hitting all eight of their shots. Rose sank three 3-pointers, Miller two. His second of the quarter -- which turned into the four-point play when Ron Harper fouled him -- came at a time when neither team was too sharp.
Mark Jackson had just turned the ball over, and as Shaquille O'Neal palmed it in one of his beefy mitts, the behemoth lost the handle. Rose picked it up and found Miller outside the 3-point arc. The shot and ensuing free throw meant that instead of a five-point lead and the ball, the Lakers were suddenly down nine.
"I thought we were playing relatively good ball (to start the game)," Laker coach Phil Jackson said. "Then Shaq throws the ball away, the ball comes to Rose and he hits Miller for a four-point play. That was really an emotional lift for them and just enough of a bump for them to put some distance between us early."
Jackson noted that the early lead let the Pacers play the style of ball they wanted, working it inside-out. He also said it pointed to a general sloppiness the Lakers would show the rest of the game.
Indiana finished the first half shooting 61 percent, and "cooled" to 57.4 percent overall for the game. But the fast start -- even when the Lakers did well themselves by hitting 52.2 percent in the first quarter -- would be all the Pacers needed.
"We know we're not a good come-from-behind team," said Miller, who finished with 25 points. "We had to come out early."
Said Travis Best: "It helped us live another day."
Miller came through with a similar play in the final quarter. If the Lakers were to get back into the game, they would have to come out on fire after trailing 86-67 after three stanzas. But rather than let L.A. rattle off a run to trim the lead, the Pacers pushed it farther out.
Twenty-eight seconds into the fourth quarter, Miller was again fouled on a 3-pointer -- but this time it didn't go in. What happened next was just as harmful to the Lakers. Derek Fisher, who had fouled Miller deep in the left corner, said something that disagreed with the referees and was called for a technical foul.
Miller calmly sunk the free throw for the technical and then three more for the shooting foul. Another four-point possession and the lead was up to 90-67.
Jackson said he thought it was obvious that Miller kicked his leg out to draw the foul, but by that point no favors were being given to the Lakers. They had already given up 39 points in the first quarter -- the most points scored in any quarter of these Finals -- and the manner in which the fourth quarter started quickly turned crunch time into garbage time.
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Reggie Miller knocks down the open 3-pointer.
Reggie Miller says the Pacers have to establish their game early in Game 6.
