League's Competitive Balance Tilts Away From the East

Of course the Pacers have to foul Shaquille O'Neal. What else are they going to do, see how many dunks he can make in a row before he gets tired?

There's no truth to the rumor David Stern was so horrified by the Game 2 free-throw shooting un-clinic that he convened a meeting of the competition committee to change the rules before today's Game 3.

However, Stern is unhappy about it and has promised to have the committee revisit intentional fouling over the summer, meaning the deal is done.

This was a good idea long before everyone started hacking Our Poor Shaq. No one goes to games to see players grabbed, not to mention knocked down, even if the rest of the country may get a kick out of seeing O'Neal at the line, sweating bullets and laying brick.

All they have to do is treat intentional fouls like flagrant fouls, two shots plus possession. Then everyone will just have to wait for the ball to go in to Shaq and make it look good. One way or the other, the big lug will still wind up shooting a lot of free throws.

Nevertheless, there's even more important work for the competition committee, such as finding some competition.

A year ago, Stern pooh-poohed the idea of re-seeding the final four, so that the best teams had a chance to meet in the finals, regardless of conference. Too hard, he said, these things are cyclic. Too bad for him. The Laker- Portland Game 7 was the highest- rated conference finals game ever.

The magic number for the league is six, which is how many games the finals have to go to have a chance at a respectable TV number. Last spring, San Antonio dropped the Knicks in five. The ratings, respectable until then, fell off a cliff and haven't hit bottom yet.

Nor has the cycle run its course. The Pacers could still drag this one out six games, but they'll need a rally.

When O'Neal was in Orlando, everyone in the East stocked up on big men. Now Patrick Ewing, 37 and taped like a mummy, is the second- best center in the conference, an honor he earned by besting such as Terry Mills, Ervin Johnson and Elden Campbell, just to name starters on three playoff teams.

Rik Smits, 33 and no gazelle when he was 23, is an hors d'oeuvre for O'Neal. Sam Perkins, who turns 39 Wednesday, was a small forward when he broke in, back before the flood.

So the Pacers began to double-team with exactly the results Larry Bird predicted, when he refused to do it against the Knicks in the Eastern finals.

Ron Harper who averaged 7.0 points during the season and 11 against the Trail Blazers when Scottie Pippen left him to double-team O'Neal, is up to 16.5 in this series. It's one thing for the rangy, athletic Pippen to cheat and get back. It's another when the slower, shorter Mark Jackson, who has trouble defending his own man, tries it.

The bad news for the East--and Stern--is there's no one coming up on the horizon, either.

The most promising young team, Toronto, is in mid-civil war, with plum free agent Tracy McGrady on his way out and Coach Butch Carter doomed, yet still in office, fighting a rear-guard action against Raptor veterans in an attempt to keep his job.

Miami and New York are old and have salary-cap problems. Philadelphia has a movable object, Larry Brown, and a resistible force, Allan Iverson, who are stuck with each other, much as each would prefer a divorce. Charlotte looks as though it will lose Eddie Jones but keep Derrick Coleman, Anthony Mason and Campbell. Detroit will do well to convince Grant Hill to give it one more season of going nowhere before he restarts his career.

Looks like a pretty entrenched cycle, but if Stern isn't worrying, why should you?

Not that last week was a total washout for Indiana. The Pacer Guy, whose name is Matt Asen, came in his trademark tuxedo with tails and sequined Pacer logo on the back and got his picture taken with two Laker Girls.

"Why not?" The Pacer Guy said. "They're nice looking."

In the East these days, they're grateful for small favors.

TAKING THE LAGGARDS OUT BACK AND SHOOTING THEM

Once it may have been possible for a good player on a runner-up to lose with honor, but not any more when the Great Player Police arrive to finish off the wounded.

Latest to feel their wrath is Reggie Miller, who had a nightmare Game 1 and a lame Game 2, prompting the police to strike him from their list of greats.

Miller is what he always was, an overqualified jump shooter who is now being monitored by the entire Laker defense, which sends Harper out to push up on him, taking away his outside shot and making him take the ball into the middle, where Shaq hungrily awaits.