INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Pacers without Jermaine O'Neal were better than the Los Angeles Lakers minus Shaquille O'Neal.
Ron Artest had 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Al Harrington added 16 points to lead the Pacers to a 85-72 win over the Lakers on Monday night.
Shaquille O'Neal was suspended for one game without pay by the NBA earlier Monday, one day after using obscene language and publicly criticizing officials during a television interview following the Lakers' win over Toronto.
Jermaine O'Neal missed the game after straining his neck in Saturday's win over Boston.
The Lakers were also without injured stars Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone. That, essentially, left Gary Payton to take on the team with the most wins in the NBA.
He wasn't up to the task. Payton went 1-for-8 in the first half and the Lakers went 7:18 without a field goal in the second quarter to fall behind 41-26 at half.
Payton finished with 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting. Stanislav Medvedenko, who had 14 points, was the only other Laker in double figures.
The Pacers countered with four players in double figures, a balance that was too much for the Lakers to overcome.
During the morning shootaround, Los Angeles planned to take advantage of Jermaine O'Neal's absence by going down low to Shaquille O'Neal early and often. But Lakers coach Phil Jackson was notified less than two hours before tipoff that his star center would not be available.
Without him, the Lakers turned in one of their worst offensive performances of the season. Their 72 points, 34.7 percent shooting and 26 first-half points were all easily season lows.
An almost equally uninspired performance by the Pacers allowed the Lakers to hang around.
The Pacers were just 7-for-15 from the free throw line and, despite their point totals, Artest and Harrington combined to shoot 16-for-45 from the field.
The Lakers used an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter to pull within 69-60, but Austin Croshere hit a 3-pointer and Harrington's jumper pushed the lead back to 76-62 with just under seven minutes to play.
Los Angeles never got any closer and Croshere, who scored 12 points, sealed the Pacers' third straight win with a nifty reverse layup.
Notes
Pacers' G Reggie Miller's layup in the first quarter gave him 24,001 points for his career. ... Jackson said F Rick Fox would have started against the Pacers were it not for Shaquille O'Neal's suspension. ... Pacers G Fred Jones got a technical for taunting in the second quarter after dunking on Medvedenko and staring him down.
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