Pacers Defeat Magic In A Shootout 114-107

[Pooh]

By Johnnie Clay - Pacers Insider
January 6, 2004 - 11:30 PM

The Indiana Pacers played "old school" ABA basketball tonight against the Orlando Magic. As in those days, defense was non-existant as was the case this evening.

Jermaine O'Neal scored 25 points to lead six players in double figures as the Pacers easily withstood 43 points by Tracy McGrady in a 114-107 victory, their sixth straight and fourth of 2004. Ron Artest scored 23 points and Al Harrington added 19 off the bench for the Pacers, who never trailed, opening a 15-point lead after one quarter and held on despite an offensive explosion by McGrady, the NBA's reigning scoring champion.

McGrady made 14-of-27 shots, including 8-of-11 three-pointers, in his third 40-point game of the season. To put that into perspective, McGrady's 8 three-pointers, were more than the Pacers (7-12) as a whole.

The Pacers started the game off running, shooting 62% outscoring the Magic 33-18, and appeared to have the game all squared away. Towards the end of the first quarter, the Pacers recieved a brief scare.

Jermaine O'Neal went down hard after landing on Juwan Howard's foot on a jump-shot attempt late in the quarter. He quickly headed to the locker room to have his sprained left ankle re-taped and returned to the game with 8:39 left in the half.

While O'Neal's ankle was getting taped, the Magic came to life. Led by McGrady, the Magic went on a 10-0 to begin the second quarter. McGrady scored 20 points that quarter to draw the Magic to within 5 points, at 40-35. The Pacers responded with a 10 point run to extend the lead back up to double-digits, followed by a 7-0 run to end the quarter, heading into halftime, up 69-53 as both teams combined to score 71 points that quarter alone.

The Magic opened the second half with a 14-4 run that cut the lead to 73-67. Reggie Miller's 3-pointer put a temporary end to that push, and the Pacers put together an eight-point run behind Al Harrington and Jeff Foster to stretch the lead to 88-73. Gordan Giricek then stepped in for McGrady and scored Orlando's final eight points of the quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, but the Pacers still took a 94-81 lead into the fourth quarter.

McGrady entered the fourth quarter still rolling by midway through the final period, he went cold. But the Magic wouldn't go away and trailed by just 7 points, 106-99 with 3:37 remaining. Then Jamaal Tinsley hit a 3-pointer, then found Reggie Miller for a long jumper in transition to put the Pacers up 111-99 with 2:58 remaining as the Magic ran out of scoring and eventually out of time.

The Pacers shot 51% (44-87), including (7-12) from the arc. O'Neal's 25 points led the way. Ron Artest scored 23 points with 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Al Harrington had 19 points off the bench. Jamaal Tinsley had 16 points and 6 assists, hitting (4-7) from the arc. Reggie Miller had 11 points, and a season-high 8 assists. Jeff Foster had 10 points and 11 rebounds, his first double-double of the year.

Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle talked about his teams' performance and the Magic's Tracy McGrady.

"It was obviously a tough game. Orlando is a tough team to play. They proved that last time when they came in here and beat us." Carlisle said. "Tracy McGrady got going. It was an unbelievable performance. They guys who played him individually had a strong effort. But we couldn’t find him quick enough in transition. He’s a great player and those kinds of great players have breathtaking nights. We were doing everything we could to make it tough on him. Eventually he missed a few shots but he had a great night offensively. We sort of got into their tempo; but when you’re building a lead it’s hard to slow down. This was an unusual type game for us. We played our fourth in five nights, which made it tougher defensively. But when you win six in a row, I’m not going to nitpick. Jamaal Tinsley has turned into a huge factor for us. What’s showing up in Jamaal’s game is how hard he worked for when he got the chance to play.”

Ron Artest explained the urgency to play well, especially with the numerous back-to-back games the Pacers have been playing lately.

“We wanted to take control early." Artest said. "We just wanted to do what it takes to win with all these back-to-backs we’re having. I think we’re clicking now and we’re about to get everybody healthy and that’s going to make us better as a team."

His teammate, Al Harrington agreed.

"I think the intensity we have now as a team is much better and we just have to work for a full 48 minutes." Harrington said. "We need to concentrate on that and regroup here the next couple of days before going west this weekend. This team has a lot of pride and I think losing two games lit a fire under us. With the talent we have, we should never lose two in a row.”

Tonight's win was the Pacers sixth in a row, improving their record to 27-10 overall, tops in the Eastern Conference. The 27-10 mark matches the best 37-game record in franchise history. The Pacers now have two days off before the beginning of their Texas two-step, starting first with the Dallas Mavericks Friday night at American Airlines Arena.

Game Time Friday is at 8pm (EST)

[The Best Board]

Beating Orlando is not a big accomplishment these days, hehe. I think they only have nine wins this far into the season! That is pretty bad. I think they are THE WORST team in the league! It's amazing. You would think they would still be able to win some games. Only a few years ago, like 1995 and 1996 they were THE TEAM TO BEAT when they had SHAQ, PENNY and HORACE GRANT. But when The Bulls beat them in the playoffs in 96 that was the end of the line. The team pretty much broke up and never recovered after that.