INDIANAPOLIS — There is one good thing about facing the top-seeded Pacers in Indiana so soon after getting humbled by the Lakers. A Knicks’ victory tonight at Conseco Field House will perhaps erase the purple pain inflicted by Phil Jackson’s crew Sunday afternoon at the Garden. “[A bad loss] can’t linger for long in the NBA,” Chris
Childs said. “We have to bounce back right away. We have to go to Indiana and take it out on them.”
There is no time for a Shaq hangover and there is no tougher exacta in the NBA than the Lakers followed by Indiana in its new retro gym, where the Pacers are an amazing 30-3. The Knicks failed the first part of the two-pronged test, shooting 40 percent against the Lakers and letting Shaquille O’Neal tear them apart for 43 points in the 92-85 drubbing.
“You look at the league, they’ve got to be the favorites to win the championship,” said Knicks GM Scott Layden, who traveled with the club yesterday to Indianapolis, a sure sign of the game’s importance.
“When you lose, it’s always disappointing but we hung in there and we didn’t get any breaks. They’re on a roll right now. They may have had their winning streak broken but what have they won — 21 of their last 22?”
“We’ll see how we bounce back,” Layden said. “We’ve met adversity before and we’ve always found a way to fight through it.”
If the Knicks are to return to the Finals and face the Lakers in June, they know all roads go through this midwestern city.
“If we can bounce back against a good Indiana team, that would say a lot about the character of our team,” Latrell Sprewell said.
“We lost a game but we have to shake it off and get ready for Indiana,” Marcus Camby said. “We see those guys [the Lakers] in a couple of weeks but our focus has to be on Indiana. We just have to move on. We have another crucial game coming up and they’re going to be waiting for us. We beat them the last time. The show must go on.”
The season series is tied at 1 with two more meetings on tap. The Pacers lead the Knicks for top seed in the East by five games. Unless the Knicks sweep their next two games vs. Indiana, they have virtually no chance of passing Indiana.
Considering their dominance at Conseco, earning top seed is a huge deal for the Pacers, who would get to play a potential Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals here.
The Pacers have been a different team on the road. In the last meeting vs. the Knicks, at the Garden Feb. 19, the Pacers probably played one of their worst games of the season and the Knicks rolled 87-73.
In that contest, the Knicks had neither Camby nor Charlie Ward. The Knicks started the Big Backcourt and it was hugely successful as it allowed Larry Johnson to slide from power forward to his natural position of small forward. LJ got to defend the Pacers’ newest best player, Jalen Rose, who was held to 12 quiet points.
In his last three games, Rose has scored 32, 35 and 22 points. While Jeff Van Gundy has vowed to start Ward the remainder of the season, this is one game where going big is the right thing to do and the Knicks probably will use that alignment at times tonight.
Tonight’s game also marks the return of Kurt Thomas to the scene of his Conseco crime on Christmas night. Thomas etched himself into Knicks-Pacers lore Dec. 25 when he ambushed Rose at halfcourt in the third quarter with a forearm and jab.
Both players got ejected — Rose wrongly. Thomas received a two-game suspension, mostly because the game was on NBC and the violence occurred on Christmas.
“That doesn’t bother me at all,” said Thomas, who likely will be treated unkindly by the Conseco throng. “I’m going to have fun. Of course, they’re going to cheer for their team. That’s what I expect. It doesn’t matter to me.”
So the Laker hangover should be gone by tonight.
“We’re coming up with another tough game, probably a more important game,” Allan Houston said. “That’s what’s great about the challenge we have in front of us. We’re still a great team when we play the way we are capable.”
