Pacer guards Jamaal Tinsley and Fred Jones were both interviewed by a police detective at Conseco Fieldhouse Tuesday as part of a fraud investigation at a Northwestside store, writes Tom Spalding of the Indianapolis Star.

The players were seen with a man suspected of twice using an unauthorized credit card at a local Best Buy.  The suspect purchased $1,300 and $2,600 worth of stereo equipment during shopping trips and gave the players the impression he could get them discounts on equipment bought at the store, but the authorities know little more about the situation.

"It's unknown what their relationship was with the suspect," said Indianapolis Police Department Sgt. Russell Burns.

Neither player was named on the report of the theft.

Is anyone expecting a Spurs-Pacers NBA Finals?

If so, then the verbal war has already begun.  Spurs coach Greg Popovich blasted the Pacers on a San Antonio radio show for the way the team campaigned for Ron Artest to be named the Defensive Player of the Year, which he won.  Popovich claimed that Artest was not in the same league defensively as his player Bruce Bowen, Artest's teammate on the All-Defensive team.

"Bruce guards the best player on the other team almost every single night," Popovich said when comparing Bowen and Artest. "Artest doesn't do that. Artest just looks the part. He looks like a big, tough guy. He whacks and gets knocked out of the game once in awhile. But that's not the Defensive Player of the Year."

Artest wasn't appeciative of the comments made by Popavich, saying that if the championship coach had something negative to say about him he could say it to him personally instead of involving the media, thus tainting what he has earned.

"All he'd have to do is call the Pacers' office and ask for my phone number, and he could speak to me instead of going to the papers," Artest said. "It's taking a lot of positive away from it. He could talk to the Pacers and call me, and let me know that I didn't deserve it, so I don't have to hear it from you guys."

But Popovich wasn't done yet, criticizing the statistical data compiled by two Pacer officials that showed Artest allowing players he's guarding only 9.4 shots and 8.1 points per game.  

"What a bunch of baloney," Popovich said on the radio show. "Totally unsubstantiated stats put out by Indiana. The media bought it and then the NBA printed those stats. I am amazed by that . . . but the coaches know."

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle campaigned hard for Artest to win the award, asking two of his video guys to go through the tape from the season extracting out every defensive play Artest was involved in.  This took the two employees over a week to compile, and formed the basis of Carlisle's argument for Artest being the most deserving.

Bowen had finished fourth in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year behind Artest, Ben Wallace of the Pistons and Theo Ratliff of the Blazers.

"I understand where Pop is coming from," Carlisle said. "He has a strong belief in his player, and obviously, I have a strong belief in mine. I don't believe he'd have made some of those comments had he known they were going to show up the next day on the Internet (on the radio station's Web site).

"One thing I'll agree with Pop on is that the coaches' vote is the most important vote. And in the coaches' vote, Ron was clearly the highest vote getter. So it really should make any of the other arguments moot on who the best defensive player is."

Artest was supportive of Bowen's talents, even going as far as fantasizing what life would be like having Bowen as a teammate.  But then the competitive juices started flowing...

"If I had a defender on my team as good as Bruce, I would play nothing but offense, score more points, make first-team All-NBA and win the MVP trophy," Artest said before reconsidering. "Actually, I do have some guys like that on my team.

"I think what would be a good thing is to ask the other players around the league about me and Bruce. Ask the other players who they respect more. I'm not taking anything from Bruce. He's a great defensive player. But ask the guys we play. I do it both ways. Ask them who can guard you and then come back at you on the other end.

"I love the award. And I believe I deserve it. I worked hard."

And if there are still any doubts as to who is the true winner?

"We can play one-on-one," said Artest. "I'll play for the award. We can go one-on-one and see what happens."

Are the Indiana Pacers the best team left in the playoffs, both Eastern and Western teams included?

The Pacers are starting to make people believers, having grown from a team which was too young into a powerful unit with terrific leadership.  Donnie Walsh, the Pacers GM who built this team, believes this team is one which the people of Indianapolis can have high hopes for.

"I would say this: This is a team that's worth Indianapolis getting excited about now," said Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh. "I haven't said that all year because I know you've got to prove yourself. But I really feel that way about this team."

"We had to take those learning steps," Walsh said. "The first two years, we were an eight seed playing teams that went to the NBA Finals, and we were 22, 23 years old. Last year, we fell apart and we know that. So I think we got that behind us.

"But we've gotten great coaching from Rick (Carlisle). He brought in exactly at the right time what they needed, and that's structure and routine. They've bought into it, and we've got 15 guys who are really together."

The Pacers were so dominant against the Boston Celtics, the team which eliminated them in the opening round last year, that they became just the second time in NBA playoff history to complete a sweep and win every game by 10 or more points. The last time this happened was in 1980 when the Celtics beat the Rockets.

The Pacers, however, know that their job is not done yet.

"There's no champagne bottles popping in here," Jermaine O'Neal said. "I don't want to just go to the (NBA) Finals. I want to win in the Finals."

Boston rookie Brandon Hunter's bout with infamy ended after just one arm whip and six minutes of Game 1 action.

Hunter's takedown of Jermaine O'Neal during the second quarter of Game 1 was the altercation that brought Indiana Pacers All-Star forward Ron Artest off the bench, resulting in Artest being suspended for Tuesday night's Game 2.

But Hunter, like Artest, didn't play. Hunter was in uniform, while Artest, per NBA rules, was banned from the building.

Celtics captain Paul Pierce sounded off before the game on Hunter and Artest, who was replaced as the chief defender on Pierce by a committee of Pacers that included Al Harrington, Jonathan Bender, Reggie Miller, Fred Jones and even center Jeff Foster.

"He's a beast out there," Pierce said of Hunter. "I mean, shoot, sometimes (a situation like what happened in Game 1) can uplift a guy in the NBA. Look what happened to Dennis Rodman."

"I think every championship team has a guy like that."

The way things were going, Jermaine O'Neal felt like an intruder when he was called off the bench in the fourth quarter Tuesday.

How would it have looked if an All-Star ruined the frenzied work of the reserves?

"It was to the point I almost didn't want to go back in there," O'Neal said after the Indiana Pacers' 103-90 victory over Boston in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. "You don't want to mess up the chemistry. You don't want the opposing team to go on a run and you were the reason they came back and beat you."

It's unlikely Tatum O'Neal could have done much to disrupt the 38-point fourth-quarter blitz the Pacers laid on Boston at Conseco Fieldhouse. With a flying squadron of reserves putting on an aerial show, they not only didn't need Ron Artest, they barely needed the starting lineup.

Al Harrington, filling in for the suspended Artest, joined Fred Jones, Jonathan Bender, Austin Croshere and Anthony Johnson in mounting a 24-4 run that took the Pacers from a 69-61 deficit late in the third period to an 85-73 lead midway through the fourth.

"One of the most important stretches of basketball we've played this year," coach Rick Carlisle said.

The Celtics took a 16-point beating in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with the Pacers. Although the outlook was rather dim with Indiana leading by as many as 29 in the first contest, Paul Pierce insists the Celtics can advance.

``Yeah,'' he said. ``I believe it. I believe it because I'm an optimist and I believe anything's possible.

``We've just got to make this series into a war and, you know, see what happens.''

Chucky Atkins was equally militaristic. ``For us to be competitive in this series, we're going to have to turn it into just an all-out war,'' he said. ``If we just allow those guys to come out and just push us around and control where we go on the court, the series won't be very long. . . .

``We're letting guys get running starts to get rebounds. It's both the big guys' and perimeter guys' fault. We're not playing team defense. We've got to get out there and help the big guys get some rebounds, and the big guys have got to do a better job of boxing out.

``It all boils down to how well we're going to play defense,'' Atkins said.

With Defensive Player of the Year Ron Artest sidelined by a league-imposed suspension, Sixth Man of the Year candidate Al Harrington will step into the starting lineup for the Pacers tonight in Game 2. Indiana is 7-2 this season without Artest in the lineup.

Harrington made a quick recovery from lower back spasms to record a double double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in Game 1 off the bench. Now the most pressing question does not regard his back (much better, thank you) but rather his ability to stop Paul Pierce.

"Obviously, I'm going to have to step up, play more minutes, and be a little bit more aggressive on the offensive end," said Harrington. "And I've got a tough assignment guarding PP. I think the whole team is ready. We've been here before, and everybody's got to step up. I already know [my role]. I've been through it all season. I started 14 games for various reasons. I know what I've got to do. [Coach Rick Carlisle] knows what he's going to get from me."

The war of words between the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics has been more compelling than the basketball action on the court thus far.

The fire was lit during a second-quarter arm-wrestling and shouting match between Pacers All-Star Jermaine O'Neal and Boston reserves Brandon Hunter and Ricky Davis.  It continued with the suspension of Ron Artest  - after Boston coach John Carroll pointed the finger at and his boss Danny Ainge calling the league office to protest Artest leaving the bench.

Long before that telephone call was made, however, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle had lobbed a verbal volley, suggesting Hunter had been sent into the game to antagonize O'Neal.  The allegation was quickly and strongly denied by Carroll.

"I would never, ever, ever ruin the integrity of the game to be able to win a game," Carroll told the Boston Herald. "I would never send anybody in to hurt anybody on purpose. And so I guess the only word I would use is I'm terribly disappointed that anybody -- forget Rick Carlisle alone -- would ever say something of that nature."

Davis' profanity-laced message to the crowd after making a free throw after that Game 1 skirmish won't help things, either.

And the lingering ill feelings from last year's playoff series -- in which the No. 6-seeded Celtics upset the No. 3 Pacers -- add another twist.

"It's not some situation where we're out there hating them or they're hating us," Pacers forward Al Harrington said. "This is about us taking care of our business, staying focused and doing whatever it is we need to do to get the job done.

"It's work. Simple as that."

The Detroit Pistons didn't really need any additional motivation for their playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks but they received some anyway Monday when Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers was named the National Basketball Association's defensive player of the year over Pistons center Ben Wallace.

"I definitely felt that trophy had my name on it once again," Wallace said after the team's practice Monday.

Wallace's teammates seemed to think that getting bypassed for the defensive player award would only make Wallace play harder in the playoffs. And that cannot be good news for the Bucks.

"I know he's our defensive player of the year here in Detroit," guard Mike James said. "Without him, the games would be changed. It would be totally different. So he's our most valuable player and that's all that matters right now. He's going to prove to everyone that he deserves everything everyone gives him. He's an all-star, defensive player of the year. . . . He deserves it all because he works that hard."

Said guard Rip Hamilton: "It's hard to give a guy an award three years in a row, so I guess they have to give it to someone else. I think we have the best defensive player in the league. But it makes it better for us now because you've got a guy like (Wallace), he wants it even more now. It makes you want to go out there and prove something even more."

What bothered the Pistons was not just that Artest got the award, but how he got it. Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, the Pistons' coach last season, undertook an extensive telephone campaign by calling reporters who vote for the award, asking their consideration for Artest for defensive player of the year, along with Indiana's Al Harrington for the sixth-man award and Jermaine O'Neal for most valuable player and first team all-NBA.

"Things happen," Wallace said. "Indiana put on a great campaign to get Ron Artest that trophy. Congratulations to the dude and I'll get mine another way, I guess.

"(Carlisle) has got to keep the guys happy that, you know, in this league they say got your job in their hands. So that's the right thing to do, but what I'm saying is you can put on all the campaign you want, but if they do like they're supposed to do and look at the numbers they'll see who should have won defensive player of the year. But that's all right, I've always got next year. I've got bigger fish to fry right now."

On what seems to be Ron Artest day on the Wiretap; today he was named the Defensive Player of the Year. He recieved 476 out of 605 votes. 2 time winner Ben Wallace came in 2nd place followed by Theo Ratliff.

"Artest, however, will miss the Pacers' next game after he was suspended for one game by the NBA on Monday for leaving the bench during a confrontation in the team's win Saturday over Boston in the opening game of the first-round playoff series. The Pacers won the game 104-88"