Pacers

INDIANA AT MIAMI 3 p.m. PDT Sunday. TV: None. Winners of 17 consecutive games, Miami is wiping away some of its smudges from earlier in the season while it cleans up on the rest of the NBA. Last week, the Heat posted a resounding comeback victory against New York after previously suffering a pair of 20-point defeats against the Knicks. Now the Heat looks to improve on its 0-2 record against Indiana, widely perceived as the only realistic challenger to the defending NBA champions in the Eastern Conference.

Eastern Conference semifinals No. 2 Knicks vs. No. 3 Pacers Season series: Tied, 2-2. Key stat: Indiana held Atlanta to 89.3 points per game in the first round, limiting the Hawks to 33% shooting in the final two games. Outlook: It may seem like old times with these teams rekindling a playoff rivalry that saw them go head to head six times from 1993 to 2000, but about the only reminder of the Pacers of Reggie Miller and the Knicks of Patrick Ewing could be Spike Lee watching the action at Madison Square Garden.

Lakers 99 - Pacers 93 (Final) The Lakers muscled out arguably their best win of the season, defeating the Pacers in Indiana, 99-93. Kobe Bryant got through a quarter on a severely sprained ankle he suffered Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, but couldn't play after 12 scoreless minutes. His teammates came through with contributions from some unlikely sources. Steve Blake (18 points) and Antawn Jamison (17) contributed 35 off the bench, both hitting crucial shots against a tough Indiana squad.

Double trouble Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert , tweeting about the State Farm commercial depicting Clippers star Chris Paul being separated at birth from his fictional twin brother, Cliff Paul: "Wouldn't Chris Paul's mom realize that 1 of her identical twins is missing? What r the chances his last name is Paul as well? #StateFarmprobs. " Relax, everybody New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony , on breathless media speculation about Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose's return from a knee injury: "I wish y'all would stop rushing Derrick back.

The Indiana Pacers need to find a long-term replacement for Danny Granger. Team officials announced Wednesday that the one-time All-Star forward is expected to miss up to three months after receiving an injection in his left knee to treat patellar tendinosis. Losing Granger for an extended period is a big blow for a team that entered this season hoping to contend for an Eastern Conference title. He was the Pacers' top scorer last season (18.7 points) and is typically their first option in late-game situations too. Granger originally hurt the knee during May's playoff run. Coach Frank Vogel said the soreness dissipated for a while, then returned while Granger was working out during the off-season.

As if declaring their annoying Hoosierness would be enough to defeat the Lakers, the Pacers trotted out all the weapons of the breed Sunday, from David Letterman imploring "Make Daddy Proud" to Gene Hackman's hackneyed pregame movie speech to the scoreboard boasting "in the other 49 states, it's just basketball, but this is Indiana." So thoroughly disgraced is Bobby Knight that the Head Hoosier of the Heartland was ignored altogether, there apparently being little inspiration in zero tolerance.

Meanwhile, in the consolation bracket . . . The Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks are competing for the honor of being the underdog in the finals, which is the Eastern Conference's fate in a day when the best teams are in the West, along with the entire All-NBA first team (figure Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd). Of course, it's still entertaining, now that the annual Knick-Heat Mud-Wrestling Tournament is out of the way.

When: 4 PDT. Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 980, 1220. Records: Clippers 26-18, Pacers 25-18. Record vs. Clippers (2010-11): 1-1. Update: The Clippers have split the two-game season series the last five seasons with the Pacers. Blake Griffin scored a career-high 47 points against the Pacers last season during his rookie campaign. Randy Foye's career high also is against the Pacers, 36 points, in 2009.

Double trouble Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert , tweeting about the State Farm commercial depicting Clippers star Chris Paul being separated at birth from his fictional twin brother, Cliff Paul: "Wouldn't Chris Paul's mom realize that 1 of her identical twins is missing? What r the chances his last name is Paul as well? #StateFarmprobs. " Relax, everybody New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony , on breathless media speculation about Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose's return from a knee injury: "I wish y'all would stop rushing Derrick back.

Brotherly love gets you only so far in the NBA. Justin Holiday turned 24 Friday, four days after signing with Philadelphia and moving into the home of his younger sibling Jrue, the 76ers' All-Star point guard. What did Jrue get Justin for his birthday? "Some nice bed sheets and a pillow and a blanket," Jrue joked. Sleeping arrangements also were recently worked out between Marcus and Markieff Morris. The Phoenix Suns' identical twin forwards played a series of video games to decide who would get the only master bedroom in their new house.

Right now, the Clippers are a bad basketball team. They are playing their worst basketball of the season at the time of the season they least can afford it. Their 109-106 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Monday night was just another sign of how poorly the Clippers have been playing. And no matter that the Clippers cut a 24-point, third-quarter deficit to one point late in the fourth quarter, they have still lost four of their last five games. Sure, the Clippers can point to the fourth-quarter bench play of Jamal Crawford (25 points)

When: 7:30. Where: Staples Center. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 980, 1330. Records: Clippers 49-25, Pacers 47-27. Record vs. Pacers: 1-0. Update: The Clippers have lost three of their last four games. The Pacers hold opponents to a league-best 89.7 points per game and lead the NBA in rebounds per game, averaging 46.4. They average 13 offensive rebounds, fourth-best in the league.

Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers, who has played in only five games, will miss the remainder of the season after opting to have surgery on his injured left knee. The All-Star small forward, who has averaged 18.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists a game in his eight-year career, missed the start of the season after having surgery in October for patellar tendinosis. Granger returned to action as a reserve on Feb. 25 but played an average of 14.8 minutes in five games before soreness prevented him from making a full comeback.

What's more boring than watching one of the better teams in the NBA blowing out one of the worst? Having to cover it on TV. That's just the situation the viewers and analysts on NBA-TV were in Tuesday night as the Indiana Pacers held a 42-29 halftime lead over the Orlando Magic. But just when the situation seemed about as bleak as it could get, a new hero emerged to save the day: Ice Cream Guy! So-called highlights from the first half of the game were broken up with clips of a bearded male fan, likely in his 20s, trying to enjoy a giant mint chocolate chip ice cream cone while watching the game.

INDIANAPOLIS - Steve Blake had one thing on his mind. "Duhon!" he yelled through a giddy Lakers locker room, craning his neck. "Where's Duhon?" College ties were still binding Blake, a Maryland grad who wanted to rub it in that his Terrapins beat Chris Duhon's Duke in the ACC tournament Friday. Other people in the locker room wanted to know about a different game. The one Blake just played. He had a season-high 18 points and added seven assists in the Lakers' 99-93 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

The Lakers (34-32) visit the Indiana Pacers (40-24) on Friday night. The Pacers are the second-best team in the Eastern Conference. Defensively, Indiana is a bear, holding teams to just 89.7 points a game. The Lakers score 102.4 points nightly, but can they get close to that with Kobe Bryant on the shelf with a severely sprained ankle? Earl Clark, still starting for the injured Pau Gasol (foot), also sprained an ankle Wednesday but is expected to be available in Indiana. The Lakers lost a close one at Staples Center to the Pacers in late November on a last-second layup from point guard George Hill.

Lakers 99 - Pacers 93 (Final) The Lakers muscled out arguably their best win of the season, defeating the Pacers in Indiana, 99-93. Kobe Bryant got through a quarter on a severely sprained ankle he suffered Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks, but couldn't play after 12 scoreless minutes. His teammates came through with contributions from some unlikely sources. Steve Blake (18 points) and Antawn Jamison (17) contributed 35 off the bench, both hitting crucial shots against a tough Indiana squad.