INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- This wasn't how Reggie Miller imagined his

farewell playoffs.

Miller scored 33 points Thursday night, his most in the

postseason in three years, and Indiana pulled away to a 99-76

victory over Boston and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven

first-round playoff series.

Game 4 will be here Saturday night, and the series will return

to Boston on Tuesday.

"I'm trying to be aggressive. ... I'm getting great picks from

our big guys," Miller said. "This is somewhat of an out-of-body

experience. I'm not supposed to be doing it."

Celtics coach Doc Rivers only wishes that were the case.

"I hate that guy," Rivers said, quickly adding, "No, Reggie's

been great. He really has.

"We've got to come up with a better answer for him than we

have."

Rivers said earlier this week that Miller, who had 25 points on

Monday night, may be getting "sympathy calls" from the officials

as he makes his final NBA tour before retiring. The 39-year-old

Pacers star had his usual flops, trying to draw fouls as he went up

for shots, but it wasn't his theatrics or the officials' kindly

treatment that doomed the Celtics.

"We just got our tails kicked," Rivers said. "They were more

physical, they were the aggressor. They competed hard, got all the

loose balls. This team has been here. If we try to play tit-for-tat

and try to think our way through the series, we're not going to do

too well. We have the advantage of youth and athleticism, and we

have to use that."

Miller hit his first two shots, a big 3-pointer that put Indiana

in control in the first quarter and another 3-pointer during a 17-3

run that broke the game open with less than six minutes to go.

"It's playoff basketball. Everyone's trying to one-up each

other," Miller said of the "sympathy" comment by Rivers. "I'm

just trying to play. Doc obviously has to say whatever he has to

say. I wasn't crying after Game 1 when I was 1-for-7. He's a great

coach and a great motivator, I understand that, but I'm just trying

to play the game."

Miller's second 3-pointer and then a dunk by Stephen Jackson,

playing on a painful knee from an injury in Monday night's victory

at Boston, gave the Pacers an 83-62 lead. Later, Miller came back

for another basket and hit a free throw after an irate Rivers was

called for a technical foul.

He also had seven rebounds and two assists and left the game

with 2:28 to go amid the familiar chants of "Reg-gie, Reg-gie."

"It's no accident he's gotten better and better over his

career," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "At one time, he was

strictly a catch-and-shoot player, and he's become a

multidimensional player. He's not the guy we go to every time, but

we do feature in him in some ways. He's a veteran and he has a

knack for getting the ball in the basket."

Jermaine O'Neal, playing with a sore right shoulder and taking a

pounding inside almost the whole game, had 21 points, 11 rebounds

and three blocked shots. Paul Pierce led Boston with 19 points,

Gary Payton finished with 15 and Antoine Walker added 14.

"It's over with," Payton said. "We have to come back and play

Saturday. We didn't do a lot of things. They outhustled us. That's

a team that's a little more hungry than us right now."

Walker was ejected with two technical fouls, both after hard

personals on O'Neal. The second time, with just over four minutes

to go, O'Neal also received a technical for shoving Walker, but

stayed in the game and hit two more free throws for an 88-65 lead.

"Things happen, people say things," O'Neal said. "I don't

take anything personally. You're going to do things that sometimes

doesn't sit well with other people. It's part of the game."

Boston tried to keep Indiana from getting easy baskets in

transition from the beginning, but the Pacers just kept passing

until they found an open player. Sixteen of Indiana's 20 baskets in

the first half came off assists, including a pair of left-handed

dunks by O'Neal and a fast-break layup by Miller after a steal and

feed by James Jones.

Miller was fouled on the play and made the free throw, giving

Indiana its first double-digit lead at 37-27.

A free throw by Walker was the only point for the Celtics during

a 13-1 Pacers run. A free throw by O'Neal, a steal by Jackson and

dunk by O'Neal, two free throws by Miller and another basket by

O'Neal pushed Indiana's lead to 44-28 with four minutes left in the

half.

Indiana led 55-38 at the break, and Boston cut the lead to seven

points before the first technical on Walker. Then Indiana pulled

away for good.Game notes
Miller (2,847 points) passed Robert Parish and Charles

Barkley for 20th in NBA playoff career scoring. ... Walker and

Jackson squared off -- no punches were thrown -- and received

technicals after Walker's first hard foul on O'Neal midway through

the third quarter. ... A 3-pointer by Indiana's Fred Jones late in

the first period was his first basket in the playoffs. He had shot

0-for-15 since the next-to-last regular-season game.