Saturday, April 24, 2004
Top-seeded Indiana is one game from sweeping Boston in their playoff series.
BOSTON (AP) -- The Indiana Pacers are so dominant that they keep beating the Boston Celtics with their backups.
The Pacers won 108-85 Friday night, the biggest margin in a lopsided series, to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven matchup with a chance to complete the sweep Sunday on Boston's court.
Indiana did it with 58 points off its reserves, compared to 54 by Boston's starters. Substitutes Al Harrington and Jonathan Bender led the Pacers with 19 points each. Three days earlier, Indiana won 103-90 behind a 43-11 advantage from its backups.
"We have to remain humble and go out and do the job Sunday," Harrington said.
One-sided
The Pacers' 27-14 road record tied Minnesota for the NBA's best, so remaining humble could be tough after they beat Boston by 16, 13 and 23 points.
It didn't help the eighth-seeded Celtics to return home and even they acknowledge they're seriously overmatched by the top-seeded Pacers, who went 61-21 in the regular season while Boston went 36-46.
"They're a much more talented team than us," said Paul Pierce, who scored his playoff career low of nine points on 4-for-17 shooting. "We've got to somehow, some way, show some pride to come back on Sunday."
Indiana played outstanding team defense, and outrebounded Boston for the third straight game.
"Their bench just makes you marvel," Boston coach John Carroll said.
Despite the Pacers' domination, Jermaine O'Neal said they weren't toying with the Celtics.
"We're just going out and playing our style of basketball," he said. "Being 3-0 is a great opportunity for us but, toying with a professional team is hard to say."
It was the worst home playoff loss in the Celtics' history, a span of 261 postseason games since 1948.
Balanced attack
Ron Artest, who returned from a one-game suspension for leaving the bench when Boston's Brandon Hunter threw O'Neal to the floor in the opener, scored 15 points and played outstanding defense on Pierce, who is 16-for-53 with 56 points in the series.
"As much as I'd like to think that we're preventing him from making shots, we've been fortunate that he's missed a lot of ones that he normally makes," Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.
Ricky Davis led Boston with 16 points as part of a bench that scored 31.
"Whatever we seem to do, they seem to do better," Boston's Chucky Atkins said.
The Celtics did have plenty of outstanding players at the game. Unfortunately for Boston, they retired years ago and sat in the stands.
During a timeout with 2:22 left in the third quarter and Indiana leading 74-63, Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" was played over the sound system as the midcourt scoreboard showed Celtics broadcasters Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn and Cedric Maxwell and former stars JoJo White, Robert Parish and Larry Bird.
"There is no way the Boston Celtics should be ever getting swept," Pierce said. "This is one of the best franchises in all of basketball."
Boston, which won the last of its 16 NBA titles with Bird and Parish in 1986, also was swept by New Jersey in the second round last year.
Bird, Indiana's president of basketball operations, stood up to a loud ovation while Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciappara and Pacers president Donnie Walsh sat on each side of him.
The Boston Red Sox also got a loud ovation when the score of their game at Yankees Stadium, 6-0 in the fourth inning moments after Bill Mueller's three-run homer, was shown on the scoreboard.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.