After watching Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers dominate the Indiana Pacers as if they were mere nuisances in the first two games of the NBA Finals, the Pacers actually came alive Sunday night.

There was a more active defense.

The offense got into the open floor with some easy baskets.

O'Neal scored a team-high 33, and the Lakers did play without Kobe Bryant, who is nursing his sprained left ankle. But the Pacers came out with an attitude that altered the entire tone of the game and resulted in an unlikely 100-91 victory -- the biggest win in franchise history.

"We're not a team that's going to be pushed around like a JV team," Pacers forward Jalen Rose said. "We've got to have an edge, and take it personal when we lose. I think we had to take it personal to win and that's what we did tonight."

And they did it in a lot of different ways. Rose had 21 points, but it was Reggie Miller's 33 that turned on the crowd and his teammates. He was active on both ends of the floor, coming up with loose balls, burying 3-pointers and his eight free throws in the fourth quarter sealed the outcome even though he has yet to convert a field goal in the fourth quarter of the first three games.

"I think our energy level was much higher tonight," Miller said.

That's for sure. They took 27 shots in the first quarter, and opened up a 15-point lead in the second quarter as the Lakers looked lost unless O'Neal had the ball. Only a 3-pointer by Glen Rice just before intermission allowed the Lakers to stay within nine by the end of the half.

When the Lakers pulled to within 55-50 just five minutes into the second half and center Rik Smits was saddled with his fourth foul, it was beginning to look like the Pacers had been lulled into a false sense of security.

But Miller and Rose took care of that, pronto. They went on a spectacular 14-2 run with six consecutive baskets to get it back up to 17. The Lakers ran at them again late, pulling to within four several times in the fourth quarter and 94-91 with just less than 15 seconds left. Only this time they couldn't get over the hump.

O'Neal's 3-of-13 on free throws was a killer, as the Lakers were 8-of-19 in the game. More important, they had 17 turnovers that turned into 25 points, giving the Pacers confidence. Not having Bryant was part of the problem, but there was more, including just 3-of-9 shooting and 7 points from Rice, the former All-Star.

"I wouldn't attribute that to Kobe's not being there," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "I would attribute that to the Pacers playing a little more intense defense, and Glen had a tough time getting good looks. Our decisions weren't all that great either."

The Pacers weren't about to get cocky about it, that's a certainty. The decision not to play Bryant came just 35 minutes before tipoff and he will unquestionably play in Game 4 on Wednesday. Even if Indiana wins 2 of the 3 games here, they know they'd still have to go to L.A. and win Games 6 and 7, so they've hardly played themselves back into contention. This was more a move just to prevent a sweep.

"It was big ... if we didn't win today, we were in a world of trouble," Pacers coach Larry Bird said. "We had to win a game just to get back in the series and we did. We're just taking it one game at a time."

Bird was cliché. He also was right. The Pacers had no choice but to take baby steps to get back into it after the way they were buried in the first two games. It isn't that they were blown out as much as they never seemed to be a serious threat to win. Even Sunday, they weren't out of the woods until the Pacers got the ball inbounds to Miller, who sank a pair of free throws to put them up by five with 13.2 seconds left.

"We really blew it," Lakers guard Ron Harper said. "We missed Kobe and they played better, but if we hadn't made bonehead plays -- especially in the first half -- we could have won this game. This isn't a change in the series. I don't see us making the same mistakes Wednesday night."

Reggie Miller (left) and Jalen Rose had plenty to celebrate after combining for 54 points.(AP)

They'll get a shot in the arm with Bryant back. They'll also have to respond to the Pacers, who were much sharper with their double-teams on O'Neal and active in general on both ends of the floor. Smits continued to be a non-entity at center, but Dale Davis, Sam Perkins and Derrick McKey provided different looks from fronting to trapping, allowing O'Neal only hooks in the middle of the lane.

"We just have to keep changing things up on Shaq because he's going to get it done in some way," Perkins said. "We had to figure out a way to make this a series, so we had to limit Shaq and get at the other guys too. Kobe not being in there hurt them, but we'll take anything we can get at this point."

Sunday night, they gained a lot. It was a boon to their confidence and created a crack in the veneer of the Lakers. To say this is a series now would be a stretch, but at least the potential of a sweep is over, and the Pacers have a shot at making things interesting if they can duplicate this effort Wednesday night.

"We hung in there and we made some spurts when we had to," Miller said. "Now we know that's not the same L.A. team without Kobe. Other guys stepped up for him, but I'm sure come Wednesday when Kobe's playing it will be a different-look team and it's going to be even more of a dogfight."

And the team with the biggest teeth will win.