NBA PLAYOFFS : Magic Clicking Inside and Out : East: O’Neal scores 39, three-point shots fall in 119-114 victory over Pacers for 2-0 edge.

Wanted: 7-foot, 305-pounder with 8% body fat and strength of rhino for impossible mission. Top pay and benefits. Contact L. Brown, Indiana Pacers, soonest.

Short of cloning Shaquille O’Neal, the Pacers have a problem and it walked all over them again Thursday night. O’Neal scored 39 points and the Magic held off the Pacers, 119-114, to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals.

He scored 17 of his points in the fourth quarter, overwhelming 7-4 Rik Smits and reducing 6-9 Antonio Davis, who often found himself one-on-one, to road kill.

“Any time you’re in that situation,” Davis said, “you look for help. If it isn’t there, what are you going to do?”

Duck?

Shaq is averaging 35.5 points in the series, shooting 70% from the floor and 70% from the free-throw line. He’s also tying up the Pacers’ defense, which finds itself double-teaming O’Neal--too late--or arriving just after one of his teammates has taken an open shot.

Dennis Scott made seven three-point shots Thursday and scored 25 points. To date, he’s averaging 22 points in this series, Penny Hardaway 19.5, Nick Anderson 16.5, Horace Grant 12 and the Magic 112.

The Pacers have the blues. Thursday they waged a brave uphill battle, coming from 12 points behind to take the lead with 2:32 left before O’Neal scored five points in the last 1:56 to steal the game back.

Shortly afterward, Reggie Miller, who scored 37 points, was asked what positive lessons he could find from this game and came up empty.

“We’ve got to go back and look at the tape and come up with a better game plan,” Miller said.

“Shaq might get 40. Dennis Scott and everybody might get 25. . . . We’ve got to take one or the other away, either the inside or the outside. They can’t have both. We’re going to have to come up with a better game plan.”

It’s not that the Pacers haven’t been trying.

After Game 1, Brown mounted a campaign, complaining about the injustices inflicted on Smits by a double standard of officiating. Miller said Smits might not be getting his proper respect, “because he doesn’t start fights or because he doesn’t do music videos.”

Since it was too late for Smits to start a riot or do a video, the Pacers seemed to be working on the next set of referees, but it turned out to be Jess Kersey, Bennett Salvatore and Paul Mahalik, who have about 2,000 years of combined experience and know this ploy from way back.

The Magic burst from the gate, launching three-point shots. Scott made three and Hardaway two--and that was only in the first quarter.

Scott made seven-of-10 three-point shots in the first three quarters, but the Pacers hung in as only they can. In the fourth quarter, Scott finally went cold and the Pacers’ rally was on.

With 2:32 left, Smits made a jump hook to put the Pacers up, 109-108.

At the other end, Scott missed a three-point shot, got the ball back and missed another.

The Pacers broke out three-on-two. Point guard Haywoode Workman, in the middle, pulled up at the foul line for an uncontested 15-footer and missed.

The Magic ran the other way and O’Neal made a layup to give the Magic the lead back, 110-109, with 1:56 left.

The Pacers ran a play that wound up with Workman shooting a wide-open three-point shot. He missed. That was as close as the Pacers got.

A year ago, the Pacers held O’Neal to 21 points a game in their three-game sweep, but obviously, things changed.

“I think he’s getting better,” Antonio Davis said. “I think he’s gotten a lot better but we’re getting worse. This game wasn’t as good as Game 1. He’s getting better, we’re getting worse and he’s got 70-something points in two games and we just can’t have that.”

Somewhere Larry Brown is working on that better game plan. Any good suggestions will be appreciated.