By Johnnie Clay - Pacers Insider.
March 13, 2004 - 2:30 AM.

The Indiana Pacers marched into the Fleet Center tonight and quickly snuffed the life out of the Boston Celtics. Using a swagger that has never been seen before, the Pacers quickly jumped out to an early lead, extended it by halftime, then blew the doors off early the second half to destroy the Celtics tonight, 99-81.

The win was the Pacers seventh in a row, pushing their NBA best record to 49-16, one game shy of becoming the first team this year to reach 50 wins. If tonights' performance was any indication, that milestone should come soon, perhaps as early as this weekend.

In what has become a pattern these past few road games, the Pacers quickly jumped out to an early lead, up 18-6 before the Celtics knew what hit them. However, the Celtics (who just had a six-game winning streak of their own snapped the other night) climbed right back into the game, going on a 12-2 run which cultimated with a Walter McCartey three-pointer, which gave the Celtics an 25-24 lead early in the second quarter.

The Pacers bench, (led by Jonathan Bender's 16 points) came through when called upon, scoring eight quick points to snatch the lead away from the Celtics, 32-25. A late run by the Celtics tied the game at 38-38 when Ron Artest speared a swift Pacers' run to head into halftime up nine, 48-39.

"We were up nine at the half and, in the locker room, we made it our business to come out and put 'em away." Artest said about the urgency to put a team like Boston away quickly.

The Pacers needed someone who had a knack of putting a dagger into an opposing teams' chances of catching up. They needed to look no further than to the man affectionally known as "Uncle Reggie", Reggie Miller.

Miller came out on fire, hitting a jumper and then burying consecutive three-pointers to give the Pacers a 56-42 lead. That lead grew to 21 points, 66-45 by the end of the quarter, leaving no doubt who would be victorious this evening.

“We tried to take control to win and not let these guys back in the game. At one point we were just trying to find someone on the team to get us a bucket and get that momentum going and he’s always coming through. That’s what he (Miller) did for us, he hit a couple big threes.” Artest said.

By the halfway mark of the final quarter, the lead was now up to 24 points, (81-57) as the Pacers were completely in control of things as they headed towards a decisive victory tonight.

Afterwards, Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle talked about tonight's convincing victory.

“Our third quarter was strong. We did some good things in the first half, but we were a little sloppy with the ball and defensively weren’t rotating as well as we needed to. In the third we were able to get some stops and put the ball in the basket and I thought Reggie really all night hit timely shots to help give us some spurts and we had everybody play well.” Carlise said.

“When our second unit goes in and plays the way that they did tonight it’s a great luxury; especially at this time of year when a lot of teams are getting worn down. We are able to play guys like Jermaine O’Neal 30 minutes, and Ronnie Artest 28, that really helps.”

“We were active defensively all night. One of the things we got better at as the season has gone on is our decision making in transition. Tinsley tonight was probably the key guy in the game because he set the tone defensively with ball pressure, got his hands on a lot of balls and made great decisions in transitions. When you have a game like this where everybody plays well, it’s great.”

Jermaine O'Neal summed up his teams overall performance tonight and what could lie ahead in its' future.

“We’re a team that’s so deep, it takes a lot of pressure off of us. When I shoot 3 for 11, when Ron shoots 3 for 11 and we still won almost by 20 points…that’s the way we want to do this. We’ ve got so many guys that step up in a major, major way. We’ve got guys that could be starters on other teams. It beneficial to our team when guys go out with injuries, guys can step in there and do it in a big way and that’s been our story the whole entire year and tonight was no different. We’re just preparing ourselves to finish the season up strong and obviously get into the playoffs and out of the first round and then after that our goal is to get to the NBA finals.”

While a trip to the finals looks to be "far-fetched" right now, it appeas to be quickly becoming quite a possibility, should the Pacers continue to dominate teams like they have been doing the past few weeks.

For the evening, the Pacers shot 51% on 38 of 75 shooting. Reggie Miller led the Pacers tonight with 18 points, his three pointers at the beginning and to start the second half, were the difference in the game. Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest each went 3-11 shooting tonght, scoring 8 and 10 points respectively, but tonight was an all around TEAM effort. Center Jeff Foster scored just 4 points, but was a beast on the boards, pulling down 8 rebounds to lead the team, while Jamaal Tinsley pitched in as well with 10 points this evening too.

The Pacers bench shinned tonight as Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender each scored 16 points, while back up point-guard Anthony Johnson scored 4 points and dished out 6 assists, even the slam dunk champion Fred Jones got into the act, scoring 9 points tonight.

Next up for the Pacers is a trip to Cleveland, where they face the suddenly hot Cavaliers, led by their rooke phenom LeBron James. Both teams are on long winning streaks, the Pacers' streak is at seven, while Cleveland has won five in a row. The game also is the final one this season between the two, barring a meeting in the playoffs, etc. The Pacers are looking to sweep the season series, having already won the first three meetings, two of which were decided by less than four points.

Game Time Sunday is at 3:00 PM (EST).