NBA Playoffs: Pacers, Spurs move within win of advancing

And when the Pacers win, you know what that means -- PACERSBOT CELEBRATE.

• Ziller: Don’t blame Kevin Durant

Smith’s trigger finger has been getting looser as the season has gone on. Excepting an explosion over a few games early in the season, Smith is now shooting more than he has all year. His efficiency indicates that he should probably consider dialing it back significantly.

Here’s a chart!

The Spurs scored 44 points in the paint and scored 23 points off 14 Warriors turnovers, 11 of which came in the dominant second half. They scored 12 fast break points and converted on 5-of-5 looks in transition. They won the offensive rebounding battle, 8-7.

San Antonio won this game by making things easy on themselves, taking care of the basketball and converting on high-percentage shots. Their shot chart shows it:

• Ziller: Don’t blame Kevin Durant

• The Bulls were historically unenjoyable

It was with an uninspiring line to be sure -- zero points, two rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot -- that he finished the game. But for a player who will go down as one of the greatest scorers of his era, it was a significant career achievement.

The seven-time All-Star signed with the Spurs for the remainder of the season on April 16. With the team on the brink of advancing to the Western Conference Finals and potentially the NBA Finals, he could be in store for a few more career milestones before he hangs up his sneakers.

The Pacers never trailed, jumping out to a seven-point lead after the first quarter and never looking back. That lead ballooned to 14 at halftime and was rarely below double-digits in the second half, as the Knicks were just never able to string enough buckets and stops together.

The Spurs’ offense was in high gear from the start, scoring 37 points in the first quarter. After a brief hiccup in the second quarter, San Antonio regained form in the second half to pull away from Golden State.

SB Nation’s Rodger Sherman broke things down before the action began and looked at some keys to the game. Here’s a look at them after 24 minutes of action:

Thanks to head coach Mark Jackson, the Bay Area’s dynamic duo now has to live up to the “best backcourt in NBA history” moniker. So far, it’s been rough going for the young guards who have struggled to find their shot early on, shooting just 4-for-16 from the field combined.

After struggling through the first three games of the series, Hill put up a postseason-high 26 points to power Indiana’s attack. The guard hit 9 of 14 shots (64 percent) on the night, a major improvement from his 30 percent shooting percentage in the first three games of the series.

The beginning of the game gave a strong indication of what was to come for New York. The Knicks missed 11 of their first 12 shots, looking very much like a team overwhelmed by the intensity of Indiana’s defense and raucous crowd.

Needing a victory to tie up the series heading back to New York for Game 5, the Knicks have come out utterly flat in a pivotal road game. Continuing what’s becoming a theme of the series, the Pacers’ stifling defense has brought the Knicks’ perimeter-oriented attack to a halt.

In nearly every aspect of the game beyond turnovers, Indiana has the advantage. As they’ve done all series, the Pacers have a major advantage on the boards (30-18), and they’re also shooting a better percentage from the field as well -- 45 percent to New York’s 33 percent.

Dr. Answorth Allen, the surgeon who operated on Shumpert’s ACL last year, was flown to Indianapolis to inspect the knee and took an MRI for Tuesday leading into the 7 p.m. ET tip for Game 4.

• Ziller: Don’t blame Kevin Durant

It’s only 2-1 in Indiana’s favor, but it seems worse for the Knicks. The Pacers, the league’s best defense efficiency-wise, in the regular season, has twice made New York look completely out of sorts. It culminated in an 82-71 performance in Game 3, an effort that would have been the Knicks’ lowest scoring output of the regular season.

The problem here is bigger than bad outcomes for New York: what they do has been fundamentally changed by Indiana. From Joe Flynn of Posting and Toasting, in a piece entitled “Who are you guys, and what have you done with the New York Knicks?“

If the Knicks are going to send the series back to MSG all tied up, they’ll need to start hitting more shots from practically everywhere. Usually a prolific team from beyond the arc, New York is 20 of 60 (33 percent) in the first three games of the series, which puts pressure on the team’s post scorers to make up the difference.

As a result, the Knicks’ offense has come to a borderline halt, with bickering beginning between players as the struggles pile up. For Indiana, this is exactly what the team wanted: media pressure mounting on a Knicks team searching for offensive identity going into a pivotal game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.