One
day after the legendary Knick killer was elected to the Hall of Fame,
another slender Pacers sharpshooter put on a show reminiscent of
Miller's magic moments. Danny Granger scored 14 of his 27 points in
Tuesday’s fourth quarter, including a pair of dagger 3-pointers, as
Indiana wiped out a 15-point deficit to pull out a 112-104 victory that
had major ramifications for both teams.
"I look at the standings," Indiana Coach Frank Vogel said. "I don't know if that's what the coach is supposed to do, but I do."
He'll
like what he sees after Tuesday’s win. Orlando (32-22) lost its fourth
in a row, 102-95 at Detroit, so the Pacers moved past the Magic
into third place in the Eastern Conference. New York (27-27), on the
other hand, saw its lead over ninth-place Milwaukee cut to 1½ games and
failed to silence chatter that the Knicks may fall prey to a closing
schedule heavy on road games.
Vogel isn't obsessing over seedings but it's clear he considers No. 3 a goal worth pursuing.
"I
don't know if it really does matter that much," he said. "There are
certain matchups that you may prefer versus others but you have no
control over that. You may work your tail off to get to 3 and get
matched up with a team you might prefer not to be matched up with.
"I
don't think it really matters other than there's more confidence with
saying, 'You know what? We went through the same schedule everybody else
went through and we ended up third-best.' I think there's some
confidence you can carry into the playoffs having that versus being
maybe one or two games off and being the sixth seed."
The Pacers
are building that confidence on two factors: the resurgent play of
Granger and improved depth since the trade for Leandro Barbosa.
Struggling
for consistency much of the season, Granger has averaged 21.6 points in
the past 10 games, shooting 26 of 47 (.553) from beyond the 3-point
line. Though the Pacers are a more balanced team, they still lean
heavily on their veteran leader: They're 18-4 when he scores at least 20
points.
"He was dominant on both ends," Vogel said. "He was
bombing 3s, red-hot, and he really manned up and guarded Carmelo at a
very high level."
With Amar'e Stoudemire out at least two more
weeks with a bulging disk in his lower back and Jeremy Lin likely out
the rest of the regular season — at least — after undergoing knee
surgery, Knicks interim coach Mike Woodson has installed a small lineup
with Carmelo Anthony, who scored a season-high 39 on Tuesday, at power
forward in hopes of surviving a finishing stretch that brings seven of
12 on the road, where the Knicks are 9-17.
The lineup worked for
three quarters against Indiana but when Vogel assigned Granger to
Anthony, the Pacers became the aggressors and took control with a 27-4
run.
How can the shorthanded Knicks expect to hold off a Milwaukee
team that added the explosive scoring of Monta Ellis at the trade
deadline?
"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter who's in
uniform," Woodson said. "Whoever suits up, they've got to play at a high
level and do whatever it takes to help us win games. We've been getting
that from everybody. It's got to be a total team effort the rest of the
way out."
Indiana also has been bolstered by a midseason trade,
going 7-3 since acquiring Barbosa from Toronto. Adding another scoring
threat to the second unit allowed Vogel to shift George Hill to the
backup point guard role, stabilizing the rotations and strengthening
Indiana's depth. Barbosa added 12 points in 22 minutes Tuesday.
"This is a good Indiana team across the board,"
Woodson said. "I think (Barbosa) brings a whole different dimension to
their ballclub in terms of getting up and down the floor and putting a
lot of stress on defenses."
This game was indeed reminiscent of
those old Knicks-Pacers battles in the 1990s, the stage that launched
Miller to stardom. There were wild swings in momentum, plenty of hard
fouls (New York had two flagrants, including the late ejection of J.R.
Smith for wrestling Barbosa to the floor) and ultimately an otherworldly
shooting performance by Indiana's leading man.
"It was ironic he
was inducted into the Hall of Fame (Monday)," Granger said. "From one
shooter to another, my tribute to Reggie Miller."
