Bryant landed on Jalen Rose's left foot nine minutes into Friday night's game and didn't return, taking away the Lakers' No. 2 scoring option.

His absence helped make it a close game, but the Lakers hung on for a 111-104 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

"We had a golden opportunity that slipped through our fingers," said Reggie Miller, who again failed to produce any heroics in the fourth quarter. "I thought I had a couple of good looks, a couple of open 3s."

Miller, coming off a career playoff-low seven points in Wednesday's Game 1 loss, was held to two points in the fourth on two free throws that drew the Pacers within three with less than two minutes to play.

"The opportunity was there," coach Larry Bird said. "We had to make shots when we had to, we didn't do that. Our guys played hard, we played well at times and just made mistakes down the stretch."

Miller finished with 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting, far fewer shots than he said he wanted to take after Game 1. Rose scored 30 points and Austin Croshere added 24, including 12-of-12 free throws.

The Pacers hurt themselves with 37.5 percent field-goal shooting, then were forced to foul Shaquille O'Neal repeatedly in the final 12 minutes -- a strategy Bird said he wanted to avoid.

"When a game's that tight and you get down four or five, I think it's the best opportunity to get the ball back," Bird said. "He was struggling early. The more you put him at the line, the better he gets."

O'Neal, who set a record for most free throws attempted in an NBA game, hit just enough to keep the Lakers in front. He sank 18-of-39 foul shots and finished with 40 points and 24 rebounds.

"We played as hard as we could, but I just thought Shaq was better than he was the other night," Bird said. "He was dominating. He caused a lot of problems for us."

O'Neal went mostly unchallenged in the post against Dale Davis and Sam Perkins after Rik Smits picked up his fifth foul with 7:09 remaining in the third. Smits didn't return until the final minute and finished with four points in 16 minutes.

In keying their defense on O'Neal, the Pacers got burned by Ron Harper and Glen Rice, who had 21 points each.

"They're beating us with strength on the inside, and we're looking at the jumper," Bird said.

The series resumes Sunday in Indianapolis, and Bryant's status is day-to-day.

"We want to play better, get the ball inside more," Bird said. "It's up to us to make the adjustments and get some scoring on the inside so we can open up some shots from the outside."