MIAMI -- One guy, Jermaine O'Neal, said there's absolutely nothing wrong with the Indiana Pacers' offense and everything wrong with its defense. Another, Ron Artest, called for the triumphant return of Jamison Brewer, even though he's not on the active roster. Another, Reggie Miller, said the defense is "regressing" and suggested all the basic principles that carried them to 61 victories have been "thrown out the window."

Here's a question to be posed as we make return reservations for South Beach:

What happened?

Three nights earlier, Indiana's flat performance could be excused, explained away by playing three weeks' worth of regular-season basketball in a playoff setting.

So how do you explain Wednesday night's collapse?

You can't.

Well, you can explain it. Lousy defense. Lack of rebounding. No production from anybody not named O'Neal or Artest, who took 46 of the Pacers' 73 shots and scored 65 of their 88 points.

But you can't explain it away.

Not on a night when the Pacers were supposed to wake up and start playing real playoff basketball.

"We've just got to play," O'Neal said quietly. "X's and O's are what they are. We've just got to play. We're scoring enough points, but we aren't playing defense. And we're fouling, bad fouls. Clock is down, guy's leaning almost out of bounds and we foul him. This isn't who we are."

You wouldn't think so, not after that remarkable regular season. But this has been four straight poor performances against the Miami Heat, and it's becoming clear the Heat are responsible for having made the Pacers look so ordinary. Maybe after four games like these, this is who they are -- very flawed and very beatable.

It's bad enough the Pacers played no defense, got out-rebounded for a fourth straight night, got absolutely nothing from Miller and got no production from their bench, notably Al Harrington. But at the end of Game 4, they lost small chunks of their dignity, too, with two pretty flagrant flagrant fouls.

A little late to be sending a message, wouldn't you say?

By the end of Game 4, the Pacers were looking like frustrated playoff newcomers and the Heat were playing like they've been here a million times before.

The frustration was evident everywhere, especially in Artest's corner of the visitor's locker room. Asked about the team's dreadful defense, he said he'd like to see Brewer play -- except that he's not on the active roster and can't play in this series. And he sounded the call for Jonathan Bender to get more action, which wouldn't be a terrible idea.

"We need to get people in there who can help us get some stops," Artest said.

While Artest and O'Neal played great games and shot a high percentage, Artest said both men took "too many bad shots," and he wondered if the Pacers' pound-it-home offense hadn't become too grinding, too predictable. "All I know is, it's not working," he said. "They always know where the ball is going."

This used to be a balanced offensive team. It was one of the things that made the Pacers so hard to beat. For some reason, that has changed this series.

The biggest issue, though, is defense, something the Pacers seem to have forgotten somewhere between Games 2 and 3. How many times can one team be beaten off the dribble, left to scramble once the defense has broken down? They even rolled out a zone in the first half. Didn't work. Not even a little.

"All year long, we prided ourselves on defense," Miller said. "In Games 3 and 4, we didn't show it. It seems like they have us back on our heels."

The Pacers now return to Indianapolis in the throes of a series that already must go one game longer than necessary. And it's no longer simply a question of how long it will take Indiana to dispatch these Heat.

Now, it's a question of whether they will knock out the Heat.

At two games apiece, the Pacers are one cold shooting night, one bad call, one funny bounce of the ball away from throwing away their season. The numbers say the Heat can't win in Indy, but who could have imagined this series would have come to this?

For four games now, they have been performing like they're waiting for the Heat to fall down and genuflect.

Sorry.

Isn't going to happen.

What happened?

The Pacers have three days now to figure it out.