Pacers Have Enough in Reserve

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers are a deeper team than they were in past years, which is why they survived terrible start and a bad shooting day by center Rik Smits for a 93-83 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Reserves Jalen Rose, Travis Best and Antonio Davis, led the way Tuesday as the Pacers overcame an early 19-point deficit and a three-for-19 shooting performance from Rik Smits.

Rose and Best finished with 18 points apiece and Davis chipped in 14. Indiana’s bench outscored New York’s 56-20.

Indiana, which hadn’t played since last Thursday, trailed 23-7 before its reserves went to work, scoring 35 of the Pacers’ next 40 points to give Indiana a 47-45 halftime edge. Rose had 13 of the points and Best chipped in 10.

John Starks had 17 points and Allan Houston 16 for New York, which picked up right where it left off Sunday in Miami by jumping out to a 30-11 lead.

“We can’t take any solace out of playing a good first quarter,” New York coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “What we need to look at is why and how we got dominated over the last three.”

There were four ties and four lead changes in the third quarter before Indiana took the lead for good with an 11-1 run in the final three minutes of the period.

Miller had nine of his 17 points in the period, including a 22-footer with 3.4 seconds left to give Indiana its biggest lead of the night to that point, 73-64.

“It was disheartening. The momentum and intensity really swung it in the second half,” Houston said. “Rose is a great player, but we can’t afford to let one guy beat us.”

Game 2 will be played here Thursday night, and Larry Johnson will be rejoining the Knicks after sitting out the opening game as he completed a two-game suspension for a fight with Miami’s Alonzo Mourning in Game 4 of their first-round series.