Pacers and Heat to meet in Game 7 of NBA Eastern finals

Indiana held Miami to a season-low 77 points in winning Game 6 Saturday night. Game 7 of their NBA Eastern Conference final is Monday night in Miami.

|
Brent Smith/REUTERS
Indiana Pacers' Roy Hibbert (c.) looks to pass past Miami Heat's Mike Miller (l.) and Joel Anthony in Game 6 of their NBA Eastern Conference Final basketball playoff series in Indianapolis, Indiana June 1, 2013.

On Saturday night, LeBron James was forced into what was largely a one-man offense against the Indiana Pacers, and the result was that Miami scored a season low in points while losing to the Pacers, 91-77 in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference final. The teams now play Game 7 Monday night in Miami, with the winner advancing to the NBA Finals.

The Pacers took it to the Heat all night long. They outscored Miami in the paint, 44-20, and at the eight minute mark of the second quarter, had 10 fast break points (they finished with 14). By contrast, they had 4 fast break points in all of Game 5.

The Heat couldn’t get anything going on the inside, with Indiana out-rebounding them by 20 (53-33), and though Miami hit 10 of 18 3-pointers, they only hit 36% - 26 of a whopping 72 field goal attempts – all night. In the critical third quarter, when Indiana went on a 14-2 run, Miami’s perimeter game all but collapsed as they went only 1-for-11 in the same stretch.

The Pacers effectively neutralized Game 5’s surprise standout, the Heat’s Udonis Haslem, who had no points in 16 minutes. And although LeBron James was his steady self, with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, he got no help from the other two members of Miami’s “Big Three”: Dwyane Wade was held to only 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting, and Chris Bosh had only 5 points on 1-of-8 from the field. Ray Allen has also continued his poor three-point shooting off the bench, hitting only 1 of 4 from downtown.

In the post, the Heat were greatly missing the contributions of Chris “Birdman” Andersen, who was suspended for Game 6 after the flagrant-1 foul he committed in Game 5 against the Pacers’ Tyler Hansbrough was changed to a flagrant-2. The tattoos on Andersen’s neck, which read “Free” on one side and “Bird” on the other comprised an appeal that wasn’t to be heard or answered by the NBA for this game.

The Heat’s inside woes were punctuated midway through the fourth quarter when James, after charging the lane, was called for an offensive foul against the Pacers’ Roy Hibbert. James sprinted up the court and into the crowd under the opposing hoop, and was hit with a technical foul – as was the Heat’s assistant coach David Fizdale. Interestingly, James may have had a point in his unorthodox protest as Hibbert was at the time standing in the restricted “halo” area under the net. But it was a watershed moment for the Heat, as it resulted in two free-throws for Indiana’s George Hill, and a Hibbert layup on the next possession – a four-point swing – after which the Heat never again threatened.

As opposed to the Heat’s mediocre offensive performance, the Pacers continued to get strong offense from Paul George, who had 28 points (including 3 3-pointers) and 8 rebounds and Hibbert, who amassed 24 points and 11 rebounds. But the truly inspiring performance of the evening came from David West, who after being sent home from practice earlier in the day with a respiratory infection, fought through it to collect a double-double, with 11 points while grabbing a mammoth 14 rebounds off the glass.

Miami will certainly be happy to be returning to South Beach on Monday, because they are not at all comfortable with Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where they are 1-4 on the season. And the Pacers were one of only two teams in the NBA that had a winning record against Miami. And after getting hit with a $5,000 fine from the NBA earlier in the day for “flopping,” James and his teammates were serenaded with chants of “Heat are floppers” by the Pacers faithful.

But humor aside, the Heat have some really critical questions about their offense going into Game 7, where James this year overtook Michael Jordan as the all-time highest scorer in NBA playoff Game 7s (with 34.4 per game). James has performed in a solo offensive act before with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but it was never enough by itself to get the Cavs to the finals. These Pacers are a particularly punishing, youthful and athletic team, and James will need material assistance from Wade and Bosh, and maybe from supporting players like Haslem, Mario Chalmers, or Joel Anthony. Someone – anyone – needs to give James a helping hand. The Heat will require that if they want to advance to their third straight NBA Finals.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Pacers and Heat to meet in Game 7 of NBA Eastern finals
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Sports/2013/0603/Pacers-and-Heat-to-meet-in-Game-7-of-NBA-Eastern-finals
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe