Hardaway likes chances

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pacers look to stay alive: Hardaway likes chances

by Steve Bulpett
Thursday, May 1, 2003








It wasn't until the late moments of overtime Tuesday that those watching the
Celtics fall to the Pacers knew there would be a Game 6 at the FleetCenter
tonight.



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But one of those playing said he knew the itinerary beforehand.

``I knew we were going back to Boston,'' said Tim Hardaway, the veteran Isiah
Thomas dusted off in time to push Indiana away from elimination with 13 huge
points in the Pacers' 93-88 win at Conseco Fieldhouse. ``I had my wife bring
me a suit.''

Hardaway came out of the broadcast booth late this year to participate in his
14th NBA season. He hadn't played in two of the series' first four games
before making himself a factor during and even prior to Game 5, getting more
vocal in the dressing room.

Hardaway has seen it all and done most of it, and he believes he's got a
pretty good handle on the Celtics' feelings coming into their second chance to
end the set with Indiana.

``I think they're concerned because they understand it's hard to close
somebody out,'' Hardaway said. ``But they're probably confident. They're
saying, `(The Pacers) have to win three before we win one and all that type of
stuff.'

``We'll see.''

Seeing their goal of becoming the seventh team in NBA history to overcome a
3-1 series deficit is something the Pacers can do a little better today. The
mountain they need to climb isn't as daunting as it was before Tuesday.

``Well, you can kind of see the top of it a little bit,'' said Jermaine
O'Neal. ``But it's still kind of cloudy.

``We've just got to go out and get that same effort. I think overall we wanted
this game. We wanted it in the second half. Even when those guys made shots
and made their runs, we kept it close and we came down and took good shots.''

That's something the Celtics failed miserably to do. The C's stopped moving
the ball and began forcing their shots once the Pacers made their push. Even
when the game was even, the Celts went away from their stated plan.

It's something that was seen more often from Indiana in this best-of-seven
dance.

``It's kind of the tale of both teams in the series,'' said O'Neal. ``The team
that stays composed for the longest I think will win this series. Hopefully
it's us that's going to stay composed and get the win.''

As for the concept of pressure and exactly where it resides, there are
differing views.

``I think there's some pressure on those guys to try to close us out at their
place,'' said O'Neal, ``but personally I think we've got to win Game 6 to look
at it any differently.

``To me it's the same way. If we win Game 6, then it's a whole new series. We
either win or we go home. It's the same as this. Our back is still to the
wall.''

Celtic Walter McCarty voted for none of the above on the pressure issue.

``I don't think the pressure's on anybody,'' he said. ``Both teams have to
win. There's no pressure. We've been playing basketball all our lives. This is
not a do-or-die situation. We've just got to go out there and play - and play
hard.''

The only real danger here is if the Celtics lean too heavily on the fact they
are playing on the parquet and fail to do their own part.

``You always feel confident going home, but you're not guaranteed,'' said Paul
Pierce. ``You've got to go out there and play.

``We played well at home the two games we played them. You've got to feel
confident going home for the closeout game. The ball's in our court. We've
just got to take advantage of it now. We've got to just turn it into a war.
They're going to be fighting for their lives once again. But hopefully we'll
play better basketball at home.''

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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