What Home Advantage? Knicks Lose Their Edge

NEW YORK — It never fails. Every so often in the playoffs, Madison Square Garden haunts the home team, opens an unsuspecting trap door and sends the New York Knicks and their high hopes tumbling.

When Charles Smith missed those four layups, when Patrick Ewing’s finger-roll caught the back rim, when an unlikely passer named Dennis Rodman found an open man and when Reggie Miller dropped in eight points in 8.9 crazy seconds, it happened right in a place the Knicks call cozy.

With the Knicks leading Indiana by three Sunday, the lore grew when heartbreak picked another bad time to pay another strange visit.

Indiana Pacers center Rik Smits missed a shot the Knicks, in hindsight, now wish he had made. Ewing didn’t grab the rebound, he tapped it out. Chris Mullin, with the foot speed of a tortoise, beat John Starks to the ball. Mullin passed to Mark Jackson, who spotted Miller, of all people, wide open and lonely beyond the three-point line.

Sure, the busted play that may decide this series was two parts luck. But it was also one part clutch, because of the moment, the pressure and most of all, the player who never passes up a chance to strangle the Knicks.

“I think they were pretty stunned when I hit the three,” Miller said.

Miller hurt the Knicks from everywhere on the floor: inside the three-point line, beyond it, and from the free-throw line. He cracked the 30-point barrier for the seventh time in the playoffs against the Knicks with 38, none bigger than the three with 5.1 seconds left that turned the series.

“I was really surprised I was that wide open,” Miller said. “Those are the scariest ones to shoot. I’d rather shoot with someone running out on me.”

One basket left Game 4 tied at the end of regulation and sucked the life from the Knicks in overtime. It put the Pacers one victory away from snatching the series and arguably nudged Miller past Michael Jordan as the Knicks’ all-time playoff tormenter at the Garden.

The setting, the electricity and the hostility he gets seems to energize Miller at the Garden, who lives for the chance to turn a menacing glare in Spike Lee’s direction.

“He’s unbelievable,” Pacers Coach Larry Bird said. “He’s hit big shots before.”

Four years ago, he had a 25-point quarter. Three years ago, he hit a three-pointer, then another after an inbounds steal, then a basket after two missed Knicks free throws, all in less than nine seconds.

“I’m sure this one ranks right up there,” Miller said. “I think every big moment I’ve had in the Garden, we’ve won.”

Sunday’s game hardly began glamorously for Miller, who tasted a wicked Starks elbow that should’ve gotten the Knicks guard ejected in the first quarter. In fact, referee Terry Durham gave the signal but was overruled by senior official Dick Bavetta. Lucky for the Knicks; Starks escaped with a flagrant foul. Better still for the Pacers, Miller escaped with a full set of teeth, a straight nose and a sense of determination.

He mostly ran circles around the players sent his way by Knicks Coach Jeff Van Gundy, posting up Chris Childs and drawing contact from Allan Houston. The Knicks managed to lock up Miller on the Pacers’ final play of regulation, which forced Miller to go inside to Smits. But when his shot missed, the ball boomeranged back to the designated Knicks-killer.

The final moments provided the contrast in this series between Miller and Houston, the much-anticipated contest to see who’s the second-best two-guard in the East. In a game with major consequences for both teams, Miller gave his team the victory while Houston was helpless in defeat. After a strong opening quarter, Houston turned to vapor, which made it even more surprising that Van Gundy called his number on the Knicks’ final play of regulation.

Houston’s running shot wasn’t even close, and misery followed him into OT, where he threw a pair of bad passes and didn’t score.

This has been a mild season for Miller compared to years past. He’s more of a complementary player than ever before in his career. Blessed with a shooting big man in Smits, another shooter in Mullin and a rejuvenated Jalen Rose, the Pacers have options.

“This isn’t the same Pacer team where I had to do much more,” Miller said. “I don’t have to carry this team like I used to. I don’t have to come out and try to score 30 points for this team to win. I didn’t have to have this type of game.”

But this was the playoffs, these were the Knicks and he was in the Garden, with his fingers wrapped around the Knicks’ wind pipe. It was a situation and setting very familiar to Miller, who seized the opportunity to grab another Garden moment.

A Knicks victory Wednesday isn’t out of the question, and they could force a sixth game.

That would bring the series back to the Garden, a place that wouldn’t haunt Miller, but maybe the Knicks, once again.