End of an era: Miller's 18-year career concludes

Miller was up to his old tricks, all right. He made the Pistons pay for closing out too quickly on him at the 3-point arc, whisking past defenders Tayshaun Prince and Hamilton for an array of running jumpers. He lost them in a sea of screens under the basket. And he created room for his shot, one time ripping away from Hamilton with such force that, while the crowd was cheering Miller's basket, Hamilton was checking his forearm for skin.

No hard feelings. After the game Miller and Hamilton embraced for almost a minute. Hamilton thanked Miller. Here is what Miller said in return, according to Hamilton:

"Carry the torch. Everything I was trying to be, I look at you and you play the same way. You are the truth, carry this torch and go win a championship."

With Miller gone, Hamilton becomes the NBA's preeminent old-school scoring guard. Both play with economy and passion, prolific scorers playing mostly below the rim. Miller scored 27 points, but Hamilton one-upped him with 28. The memory Hamilton will carry from Thursday night? The standing ovation given to Miller afterward.

"I don't think I've ever seen that, in college or the NBA," Hamilton said. "A team's about to move on, and the other team is cheering? That just shows you what he's done for this game of basketball. He's shown guys like me how to move off the ball, how to create a shot with one or two dribbles.

"For a guy his age, he was unbelievable. He was killing me with those shots, but guys were saying, 'Man, that's just Reggie.' A guy hasn't lit me up like that in a long time. I took it personally. I told Chauncey (Billups), 'Get me the ball.'"

Hamilton scored 21 of his 28 points in the second half, when Detroit reeled in the Pacers after trailing for most of the game. The final outcome was no surprise. The inevitability of Detroit's victory, and Miller's retirement, had hung in the air throughout the game.

The final seconds of that final outcome? Big surprise. As the Pacers, Pistons and fans applauded Miller, the giant screen on the scoreboard zoomed in on him. His face was dripping, not all of it sweat.

There was more emotion waiting for Miller in the locker room.

"The first thing all of us did after the game was thank him -- for everything," Carlisle said. "For being unusually great in so many ways, for setting a standard of excellence that is going to be tough for us to maintain here. It's really hard to quantify how much easier he made the job that everything in this franchise did for the last 18 years. We're going to find out ... now that he's gone."