The Pacers used 29 points from Danny Granger and 25 from Dahntay Jones to run away from the Celtics, 113-104, at Conseco Fieldhouse last night.

Boston’s 9-point halftime lead over Indiana was gone by the end of the third quarter and the Celtics spent the fourth quarter screaming at official Joey Crawford and watching their status as an NBA elite team shrink further.

Boston, playing its third game in four nights, wore down in the second half, a byproduct of four 30-something players, including one - Paul Pierce - with a gimpy left knee. Pierce finished with 15 points on 4-for-10 shooting and it was obvious he was not completely healthy.

“I was able to make it through the game, but I obviously hurt us tonight,’’ he said. “Especially on the defensive end. I was a step slow pretty much all night and it really hurt us. I pretty much told the fellas, I really take a lot of the blame. Dahntay Jones goes out and has one of his best nights, with me guarding him most of the night. I am really going to take that one on the chin right there.’’

Indiana sealed the game with a 14-4 run that became emotionally charged when the Celtics were reminded what happens when you annoy Crawford. He called two technicals in 21 seconds in a critical fourth-quarter stretch. The first was on Kendrick Perkins for keeping his hands raised high after being whistled for a foul on Granger.

Crawford struck again with 6:45 left when he called one on Celtics coach Doc Rivers for waving his hand in disgust following a Kevin Garnett offensive foul. Indiana was in the bonus with six minutes left in the period and cruised to its fourth straight win.

Rasheed Wallace, who drew a technical in the first half, tried to contain his anger.

“I ain’t got no comment on it because I’m going to [expletive] around and get fined some more,’’ he said. “You saw it for yourself, I am glad I am almost done with this [expletive] man. This is bad for my blood pressure.’’

The free-throw flurry gave Indiana a 96-92 lead, forcing the Celtics to rally unsuccessfully for the second straight night.

A conventional Pierce 3-point play drew the Celtics to within 98-95 with 6:02 left, but Jones’s 12 fourth-quarter points ensured a fourth straight Indiana win.

Jones said he was inspired by some first-half trash talk from Garnett and Pierce regarding his erratic shooting.

Jones has some history with the Celtics, and has played with Pierce and Garnett, albeit briefly. He was a 2003 first-round Celtics pick out of Duke, and shipped to Memphis in a prearranged draft deal that netted Perkins. He came back a free agent in the fall of 2007, made the preseason Italy trip with new Big Three, and was released in less than a month.

Last night he missed 5 of 6 shots in the first but finished 7 for 15. Rivers screamed at his team on the sideline to respect the Pacers players not named Granger. His pleas were ignored.

“I thought we were awful defensively, give them credit, they ran an awful lot of nice stuff,’’ Rivers said. “We were awful. I don’t think we respected some of their guys and some of their guys made shots. I thought it was more us than our legs.’’

A team that prides itself defensively was embarrassed for a second consecutive night. The Pacers (4-3) shot nearly 61 percent in the second half, just 18 of those points in the paint, meaning they relied primarily on outside shots. But most NBA players can hit outside shots when they are open, and on countless occasions, the Pacers shuttled the ball and found the open man, whether it was Jones, Earl Watson, Granger, or even Luther Head.

The Celtics were beaten - soundly - by a team missing three major contributors - Mike Dunleavy, Jeff Foster, and Troy Murphy. Not even a Granger insurance of victory could motivate them.

And Garnett was assigned Granger, a smooth swingman forced to play power forward because of Indiana’s injuries.

It was the first time since March 8 and 11 that the Celtics dropped back-to-back games.

The question for the Celtics is whether they can digest that message and react before their next game against Golden State Wednesday.