Rebuttal, Pacers.

The back-and-forth lobbying for favor with the refs while calling the opponents a big old bunch of nasty rotten meanies continued yesterday with the constituency from the state of Indiana offering views on the position taken by the Knicks and Jeff Van Gundy, which was in response to positions taken by the Pacers and Larry Bird which was …

Get the idea?

“That’s something I expected from Phil Jackson not Jeff Van Gundy,” Mark Jackson said, referring to the former Bulls coach who became the patron saint of playoff moaning.

“He’s trying to work the officials, which is good,” Bird said of his Knick counterpart. “It’s all part of the game and we just say how we feel. Obviously, he’s not too happy with it.”

So the series thus far has seen guarantees of victory by Jackson (Mark, not Phil), Van Gundy bemoaning the state of playoff basketball, Bird saying the officiating went “haywire,” Chris Childs calling the Pacers babies and women, the Pacers griping about cheap shots plus assorted and sundry Knicks labeling the Pacers floppers, whiners, thugs, bullies…

“Everything but the bully part,” Bird interrupted. “We’re not bullies. We’re not that tough. We’ve got some tough guys on this team but we’re not a physical team.”

Could have fooled the Knicks, who already have suggested the Pacers are playing like guillotine specialists and have tried decapitation tactics throughout the series. And that brought a smile and a dose of very heavy sarcasm from Reggie Miller yesterday after the Pacers completed their final workout at Market Square Arena before flying to New York for Game 3.

“Let’s play basketball and stop crying. I can’t believe, New York, of all cities, is crying. Terrible, terrible,” Miller said with a mischievous smile. “That’s a sad, sad day when the Knicks are crying about fouls.

“There’s no whining on our part,” Miller continued, growing a bit more serious. “I think everything is coming from their team. If they’re going to call Rod Thorn and beg for calls, they need to look at themselves in the mirror. They’re the ones doing all the hitting and the holding. We’re just trying to play basketball. It’s too late in the season for that. They have the advantage. They came in here and won. The good thing about it is we’ll play Saturday night and everything will resolve itself.”