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.