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Sweating in Miami
Remember game 2 of the series between the Pacers & Heat? The Pacers managed to get out of Miami stealing a win on the Heat's homecourt & they were amped about it. The Heat players were none too pleased by Indiana's reaction to the win & thought their celebration was too over the top. So you gotta bet that the next game, the Heat would be ready to embarrass the Pacers for such a thing, the motivation had to be through the roof. Uhh...I guess not. The Pacers gave the Heat the biggest beat down they've seen all year long & it was in the biggest game (until the next game) of the year.
The game started off according to script. Another low scoring game with some physicality. The Pacers came out red hot to open the game as Roy Hibbert managed to completely embarrass Erik Spoelstra's new starting center, Dexter Pittman. The Pacers went on an 11-2 run to open the game in front of their golden crowd & were flying high. Unfortunately for them, LeBron James led the Chris Bosh-less Heat on an impressive run of their own, managing to outscore the Pacers 24-6 to end the quarter & take a 26-17 lead at the end of 1. The first quarter was a tale of 2 runs, the Pacers made theirs while the Heat did as well. James was playing fantastic & carrying his team along with, not Dwyane Wade, but rather, Mario Chalmers. Wade struggled mightily from the field. The 2nd quarter was the same story, but played by opposite roles. The Heat watched their 9 point lead diminish as Indiana went ahead & outscored them 26-17 in the 2nd to lead to a 43-43 tie at halftime. The Heat had to feel okay, considering they were on the road, LeBron had played great with 16 first half points & despite Wade having an atrocious game so far, they were still very much in it.
It seemed as though, once the 3rd quarter began, the Pacers decided to stop messing around with the Heat. Indiana dominated the 3rd quarter in every aspect, their defense holding Miami's electric offense to a measly 12 points. Wade continued to struggle as LeBron stopped dominating. The Heat's best player on the floor was Mario Chalmers, which doesn't bode well for them. The Pacers spread the ball around, the major standout being their 7'2 center, Roy Hibbert who finished the game with 19 points, 18 rebounds, & 5 blocks. There is not a soul on this Miami team that can dream of stopping him, Roy is setting himself for quite a hefty contract whenever these playoffs end for him. The loss of Chris Bosh is such a crushing blow for Miami, not only for his ability to be the best 3rd option in the NBA, something that would have been vital for this team in game 3, seeing as how much Wade struggled, but also for his ability to at least be a big body down low. No Bosh means LeBron has to play out of position as a power forward & you can tell it is exhausting LeBron. He just doesn't have as much energy in this series as he normally does. Danny Granger, whose main objective this series is to guard LeBron (which he did & got in his face for the 3rd consecutive game) got hot, he finished with 17 points & David West, their emotional leader on the floor who got face to face with Mario Chalmers at one point, finished with 14 points. Their starting PG, someone Larry Bird brought over from San Antonio in the offseason, George Hill, was the one who really shut the door on any idea of a Heat comeback in the 2nd half. He finished with a team leading 20 points, including 3-4 from 3 point land. The Pacers bullied the Heat in the 2nd half & were clearly the better team, walking away celebrating a 94-75 victory.
LeBron had a very pedestrian game, finishing with 22 points (only 6 in the 2nd half), 6 rebounds, & 3 assists. Dwyane Wade had his worst game, possibly ever, with 5 points & only 1 assist, compared to 5 turnovers. The boiling point came in the 3rd quarter after another missed Wade shot led to an Indiana fast break and easy bucket. Wade didn't hustle back on defense & coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout & basically told Wade to sit his ass on the bench. Well, Dwyane being the emotional prima donna that he is, did not approve of his coach telling him what to do (even though that's his job) and could be seen verbally sparing with Spoelstra. He had to be calmed down by Udonis Haslem & Juwan Howard. I know what you're thinking; yes, Juwan is still in the league. Wade was 2-13 from the field & had a whopping -25 rating. Mario Chalmers seemed to be the only one who really wanted to play the entire game, because he ended up with a game high 25 points with 6 rebounds & 5 assists.
So what's next? Game 4 takes place on Indiana's floor, so no party atmosphere for Miami to lift them. When there's two minutes left in the quarter, they won't hear the ear cringingly annoying "2 MINUTES...DOS!!!!" Indiana is a basketball crowd, not a party waiting to happen that just so happens to catch a couple moments of the game in front of them. The Heat need to come out and prove that they are the better team that every single expert chose to win, including ESPN analyst & former NBA player, Jon Barry, who even said the Heat would sweep. I swear, I look at some of these predictions & think to myself how it would be so awesome to be a sports columnist. You make awful predictions, you're basically the weather man, you can suck at your job but somehow continue to keep doing it. Seems nice.
