By Ian Browne
SportsLine Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- So much for the theory that the Indiana Pacers were just pacing themselves.

All along, this team of confident -- sometimes overly so -- veterans seemed to think everything would be just fine.

The team that took the Chicago Bulls to seven games in last year's Eastern Conference Finals would suddenly reappear just when they needed to.

Only that team never resurfaced.

In fact, it was a shell of that team that went up in flames Friday night, 90-82 losers to the eighth-seeded New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

SO DEDICATED WERE THE PACERS to finally winning a title, they practiced together informally during the lockout while the rest of the league got out of shape waiting for a resolution.

Perhaps the Pacers worked too hard. For in the end, it seemed they had nothing left.

They couldn't keep up with Latrell Sprewell's constant energy. Or Marcus Camby's overwhelming athleticism.

They couldn't take advantage of a team that didn't have its future Hall of Fame center for the final four games of the series. And they couldn't capitalize even when the Knicks' other co-captain -- Larry Johnson -- left midway through Game 6 with a sprained right knee.

The faces were all the same in the latest fruitless championship run, and maybe that's the problem. For the fourth time since 1994, the Pacers got to the conference finals and couldn't get any further.

DOESN'T MATTER WHICH LARRY was the coach. Brown or Bird. The Pacers were always lacking that final something it took to get to the biggest stage.

But this was probably the worst showing yet. This was an aging team that looked like it was on its last legs.

Reggie Miller, the team's money player all these years, hit iron so much more than he hit net. In the series finale, he was an abysmal 3-for-18 and missed two big 3-pointers that could have sent the game down to a wild finish.

Rik Smits finally broke out of a horrendous scoring drought, scoring 20 points. But once again, he fouled out and was of no use to his team when it needed him most.

Most unfathomable, Patrick Ewing, who played just two games in the series, and is done for the season, probably influenced the series outcome more than his dunking Dutchman counterpart. At least Ewing played big in crunch time of Game 1. That's more than Smits could say for any game in the series.

AND EWING -- FOUR VICTORIES AWAY from his first championship -- also revved up the crowd more than once Friday night by raising the roof, so to speak, with his hands, which are far more effective than his legs these days.

Bird -- judging by his body language and tone of voice the last few days -- sensed this was coming. He knows what a champion's heart looks like, and he seemed to sense that his team didn't have it.

But the players seemed almost numb when the dream went for naught yet again.

"I just felt we had something special in this team and we worked hard enough," said forward Antonio Davis. "But obviously we didn't get the job done. We have nobody to blame but ourselves."

Toward the end of the series, Larry Bird seemed to sense his team didn't have what it takes to be champions. (AP)

Bird -- never a particularly good loser -- wasn't about to disagree.

"Obviously I'm very disappointed in the way we played in this series," said Bird, who wouldn't commit to coming back next season, though most insiders suspect he will. "It seemed like we always had three guys who played well each game. We never got the five guys we needed to win the ballgame. We had one good game here."

THE SAME HELD TRUE FOR MILLER, who was virtually useless save for a 30-point outburst in Game 5.

The man with arguably the best shooting touch in the league has earned much of his reputation on torching the Knicks in this building. But not in this series.

"I lost this game for us, the franchise and our state," said a standup Miller. "You know, I've got to accept the blame."

That wouldn't be fair. Too many other Pacers collapsed right along with him.