Same story, different year.

Just as in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Pistons and Pacers are tied after four games in their best-of-seven series. And just like last year, the 2-2 score belied the fact that the Pistons obviously had the upper hand.

After disappointing losses in Games 2 and 3,Detroit quickly reasserted its superiority in yesterday’s Game 4. The Pistons used a 19-1 first-quarter run to take control and never let the Pacers stagger back to their feet in a convincing 89-76 win at Conseco Fieldhouse. Detroit’s defense dominated during the crucial run, forcing Indiana into 14 straight misses at one point, and holding the Pacers to just one point during an eight-minute stretch.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Even in the games they have won, the Pacers have struggled mightily to score points: In the four games, they’ve shot 39.5%, 38.9%, 36.1%, and 37.5%.The reality for the Pacers is that yesterday’s problem wasn’t cold shooting – it was just another day at the office for a team that can’t score.

We knew this about Indiana even in the first round of the postseason. While they managed to outlast Boston in seven games, the Pacers’ offense had precious little to do with the triumph. Indiana didn’t shoot better than 47% in a single game the entire series and failed to even clear 36% in three of them. Yet despite their anemic output, the Pacers remain two wins away from a monumental upset. To pull it off, all they need to do is figure out how to breathe some life into their moribund offense.

While there’s no simple answer, coach Rick Carlisle could advance the cause by rethinking two key decisions he’s made with his frontcourt. Let’s start with Jermaine O’Neal. Indiana’s star forward injured his shoulder late in the season, then returned early from the injury so he could participate in the playoffs. Certainly, his return has been a welcome addition, especially at the defensive end – O’Neal has blocked at least one shot in every playoff game, including five in the Pacers’ 92-83 Game 2 win, and he’s averaging nearly three a game for the postseason.

O’Neal’s bum shoulder, however, has significantly curtailed his abundant scoring talents in the low post. O’Neal’s 34.3% postseason shooting clip is horrendous, and in the Detroit series he’s been even worse at 32.9%. Making matters worse, he’s rarely getting to the free-throw line. Despite all his offensive chances, he’s only taking four free throws a game in the Detroit series. Add it all up and his True Shooting Percentage (a tool I use that adjusts shooting percentage for 3-pointers and foul shots) is 38.8% – a staggering 14% below the league average this season.

Thus, running the offense through O’Neal is a terrible proposition for the Pacers. Considering the odds are so heavily stacked against them, you’d think the team would try to minimize O’Neal’s attempts. Yet the Pacers are doing the exact opposite. O’Neal is averaging over 18 field-goal attempts a game in the series, which leads the team by a wide margin. In other words, Indiana is designing its attack to get shots for the one player who is least likely to convert those shots into points.

You can understand Carlisle’s logic: O’Neal was their bread-and-butter guy during the season. Carlisle probably feels that soon enough O’Neal’s shoulder will feel better and he’ll start making all those shots. But it’s not happening – his shooting percentage has shown no improvement over three weeks of playoff games. Plus, his obvious reluctance to take the ball to the basket and subject the shoulder to more punishment has made him a different player: He’s depending on an erratic midrange jumper and isn’t drawing fouls the way he used to.

So Indiana’s strategy for O’Neal is fairly clear: Stop pretending he’s still The Man, because he isn’t. The Pacers need to look to other sources for points and use O’Neal only as a secondary option.

The second strategic decision Carlisle needs to revisit is his approach at the center spot. Throughout the postseason, the Pacers have started graybeard Dale Davis and brought human pogo stick Jeff Foster off the bench.

This maneuver never made much sense to me – Foster was the starter a year ago when Indiana rolled to the conference finals, and his rebound rates are consistently among the best in the league. After Games 2 and 3, however, it seemed downright batty. Foster grabbed a combined 32 rebounds in the two games and was all over the place on defense. Game 3 was his fourth straight playoff game in which he shot at least 50% and grabbed at least 12 rebounds.

But when Game 4 began yesterday, Foster was once again coming off the bench while the largely unproductive Davis remained the starter. Davis has scored in double figures once in the past month and can’t match Foster’s defensive agility or aggressiveness on the glass. Nonetheless, he saw 22 minutes of court time yesterday and contributed a typically inert performance – six points and five rebounds.

Meanwhile, Foster saw just 12 minutes off the bench. Admittedly, he didn’t star in his minutes – three points and one rebound – but his teammates weren’t exactly playing like All-Stars, either. Yet it was Foster who was benched for the entire second half.

Some might argue that Foster can’t contribute much to Indiana’s offense since he’s mostly a rebounder, but he was the best thing Indiana had going in Games 2 and 3.The Pacers shot their usual low percentage in both contests, but because Foster was there to retrieve so many of the misses, they were able to retain possession until one of the shots found the net. In fact, the Pacers’ poor shooting magnifies Foster’s value, since one can only grab a rebound if somebody first misses a shot.

Thus, while Detroit clearly has the advantage heading into Tuesday’s Game 5, this need not turn out as a carbon copy of last year’s series. Indiana needs to limit its reliance on O’Neal and spread more shots around to other scorers, and Carlisle should give Foster the majority of the minutes in the middle instead of Davis. If they make those two moves and can catch a break or two along the way, the Pacers still have a shot at a terrific upset.