Jackson, O’Neal fuel Pacers to easy win over Wizards

Jermaine O’Neal added 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who ended a two-game slide and won for just the second time in five outings. O’Neal and Jackson combined to shoot 25-of-36 for Indiana, which shot a blistering 59 percent from the floor for the game.

Gilbert Arenas had 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Wizards, who have dropped eight of their last 11 games. Antawn Jamison tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds for Washington, which scored just 57 points over the final three quarters.

Washington led 30-18 after one quarter, but things started to fall apart on the Wizards in the second. Ahead 42-28 nearly four minutes into the second, the Wizards were outscored 22-9 the rest of the period and held a slim 51-50 advantage going into the locker room.

Indiana never held a lead in the first half, but went ahead for the first time early in the third quarter. After taking their first advantage at 52-51 on an O’Neal bucket in the opening seconds of the half, the game was tied at 55-55 when the club went up for good.

A Sarunas Jasikevicius basket started a 10-2 burst that gave the Pacers a 65-57 advantage following a Jackson three-point play with eight minutes left in the stanza.

Washington managed to draw within 65-60 after a Jarvis Hayes three-pointer, but that would be as close as the Wizards would get the rest of the way.

Indiana scored 22 of the final 33 points of the quarter to go into the fourth with a commanding 87-71 cushion.

The Pacers were never threatened over the final 12 minutes and coasted to the victory.

Jasikevicius ended with 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Indiana, which played without the injured Ron Artest.

Game Notes

Artest missed the game with a wrist injury...Caron Butler had 14 points off the bench for the Wizards...Hayes, Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas had 10 points apiece for Washington...The Wizards fell to 3-6 on the road this season...Indiana improved to 6-3 at home...Fred Jones had 17 points and Anthony Johnson had 10 points and nine assists for Indiana...Washington shot just 34.1 percent for the game...The Wizards also hit just 4-of-20 three- pointers.