Sweeping change

The best-of-seven series moves to Indianapolis tied, 1-1, with the Pacers having stolen home-court advantage. While Boston's 20-point blowout win in Game 1 was big, last night's loss was even bigger. The Celtics collapsed in the fourth quarter, shooting 25 percent and managing only 10 points on four field goals and a pair of free throws.

"Obviously, we're an up-tempo team," said Pierce, who led all scorers with 33 points. "We're young. We're athletic. We want to get out on the break and use our weapons to their full potential. We can play an up-tempo game. We can play half-court. But as long as we're in the half-court, we need to do a better job of moving the ball, finding the open man, and not forcing things.

"We obviously want to run at first, but if that doesn't happen, we've got to take our time on offense, keep our turnovers down and execute."

That did not happen after a free throw by Raef LaFrentz pushed the Celtics ahead, 76-70, with 4 minutes 30 seconds left. The Pacers started a decisive 12-3 run with a layup from Jermaine O'Neal. After James Jones came up with a big block on a layup attempt by Ricky Davis, Jackson scored on a driving dunk to tie the game, 78-78, with 1:41 remaining. On the other end, Antoine Walker missed two layups and Miller grabbed the rebound. Johnson promptly converted a driving layup to give the Pacers their first lead since the third quarter.

Pierce went to the line on the Celtics' next possession and made just one of two, leaving the Pacers with an 80-79 edge. It was time for Indiana to go to arguably the best clutch shooter in the game. Miller nailed a 17-foot running jump shot to push Indiana ahead, 82-79, with 37.1 seconds left. The Celtics called timeout. They had little choice but to go for a 3-pointer. Pierce could not convert.

"Give them credit," said coach Doc Rivers. "I thought they did a nice job defensively. I didn't think we did a nice job offensively. We went back to a little bit of who we were in the past. But at the end of the day, we had shots that we wanted down the stretch and we didn't make them.