WITNESS THIS!
-VS-
Game Time Start: 8:30 PM ET
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL
Officials: D. Crawford, J. Capers, M. Davis, S. Corbin
Television:
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM / WAXY 790 AM, WRTO 98.3 FM / ESPN Radio
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Miami Notes
NBA Feeds: NBA Audio League Pass (available free to NBA All-Access members)
REMINDER: Per PD policy, please do not share a link to, describe how to search for, request a link to, or request a PM about streaming video of a NBA game that is not coming directly through the NBA. Not even in a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what-I-mean" round-about sort of way. Thank you
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PACERS Danny Granger - left knee surgery (out) HEAT None to report |
Team Rebound: Pacers Own the Glass Against the Heat in Game 4 Someone finally made the Miami Heat pay for going small. The Indiana Pacers’ offensive rebounding was the key to their crunch-time domination of the Heat as well as a lynchpin of another efficient offensive night. For the game, the Pacers had 15 offensive rebounds to a mere 18 defensive rebounds for Miami. In the 4th quarter, the carnage was even worse: The Pacers had 6 offensive boards while the Heat secured a mere 2 defensive rebounds the entire quarter.* The desultory effort was present throughout the Heat lineup, as no Heat player exceeded 2 defensive rebounds aside from Ray Allen, who somehow had 6. *The remainder of the Heat’s defensive rebounds were team rebounds, in which no player actually secures the defensive board and it goes out of bounds or a foul occurs. But only one of even these suboptimal rebounds occurred off a normal missed shot rather than a block or loose ball foul. So what is the adjustment for Eric Spolestra? Well, getting his team to try would be a good start. The Heat got off to a terrible start defensive rebounding in the 4th quarter on this late- clock David West heave. Shane Battier displays his veteran leadership* in what has to be one of the least heady plays of his career. Battier should know West is about to shoot when he receives the ball with 1 second on the shot clock, but makes absolutely no move to either box out Mahinmi or move towards the basket for the rebound even as the shot goes up. LeBron James also makes no effort to jump for the ball, and Mahinmi has an easy tip-in. *Literally. Many Heat players would follow his lead of standing around on defensive rebounds in the 4th. Here, no Heat player even jumps for the rebound. Bosh is the primary culprit. Roy Hibbert pushes his way into the lane, but Bosh never even attempts to turn and get a boxout with his rear, much less succeed in pushing Hibbert away from the hoop.* *Face guarding, i.e. facing the offensive player going for the rebound and boxing him out like you are playing defense, is a legitimate, if desperate, tactic against only the greatest high-energy offensive rebounders like Kenneth Faried or Dennis Rodman. Against a behemoth like Hibbert, who is just trying to push his way as close to the basket as possible, the proper play is to turn and get your backside low to keep him out. Bosh then compounds the error with a ridiculous flop. If he stays upright, he could still prevent the rebound from hitting Hibbert in the chest, or at least contest Hibbert’s follow-up shot. As it is, Hibbert doesn’t even have to jump for the ball and lays it in utterly unmolested. But Bosh’s is not the only error on the play. LeBron James never enters the paint until it’s too late, simply walking towards the lane as the shot goes up. This is an especially egregious sin because his man, David West, has him beat into prime rebounding position, a circumstance which should have inspired some alacrity by James. Had he hustled back immediately and Bosh stayed upright, James could have gotten the rebound, especially since Mario Chalmers did a nice job helping out on West. Dwyane Wade, too nonchalantly, make his way back to the basket, failing to box out Lance Stephenson or make a real attempt at the rebound. These bad efforts from James and Wade cannot be excused by fatigue either, as this possession was preceded by a lengthy timeout. The Pacers’ next possession...CONTINUE READING AT 8p9s |
Michael Wallace: Heat falter after uncharacteristic miscues With the Spurs having already advanced to the NBA Finals, coach Erik Spoelstra scoffed when asked at Tuesday morning's shootaround if the Miami Heat had any extra incentive to hurry up and finish off the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. Expressing his displeasure with the line of questioning, Spoelstra pointed out the fact that the Heat had their hands full enough trying to finish off games against the Pacers. “We had a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter in our building and lost Game 2,” Spoelstra reminded reporters. “We're in an absolute dogfight of a series right now.” Spoelstra's message was clear Tuesday morning: If anyone had preliminary thoughts of a potential Heat-Spurs matchup, their minds were completely in the wrong place. A few hours later Tuesday night, the Pacers went out and proved why the race to represent the East is far from over. After answering multiple runs the Pacers made from the outset, the Heat sputtered down the stretch amid foul trouble and a late offensive drought in a 99-92 loss that tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2 entering Game 5 on Thursday. The setback ended a five-game road playoff win streak this postseason for Miami, which had won 23 of its previous 24 contests away from AmericanAirlines Arena. But the Heat faltered after a handful of uncharacteristic problems and breakdowns in addition to stiff defense from the Pacers. LeBron James was disqualified on an offensive foul with 54 seconds left after picking up four of his six fouls in the final seven minutes of the game. And Dwyane Wade was whistled for a rare traveling violation the next possession. It was the culmination of a stretch in which the Heat were outscored 13-3 over the final five minutes of the game. “You would like to be out there on the floor … be there for my teammates, especially in the closing minutes when we have a chance to win,” said James, who fouled out of a game for the first time since Game 4 of last year's conference finals against Boston. “I wasn't able to do that.” James seemed to be affected...CONTINUE READING AT HEAT INDEX |
Paul Flannery: Heat vs. Pacers, Game 4 - The night Indiana grew up With ample opportunity to flinch, the Pacers instead stared the Heat in the face and survived. Indiana is not bluffing. The Pacers are not scared. That much we know after four games of the conference finals that have seen them get the better of the defending champs twice and play practically to a draw in another. They weren't frightened after the buzzkill of blowing Game 1 and they apparently weren't worried after getting crushed in Game 3 on their home floor. There were many times in Game 4 when the Pacers could have caved. Whether it was a handful of bad calls or a pair of killer LeBron James threes, the Pacers could have collectively shrugged their shoulders, decided it wasn't their time yet and begun planning their summer vacations. Hey, it's been a great run regardless of how this thing turns out. Instead, not only did they refuse to surrender, they continued hammering away down low. That was the important part on Tuesday, because while Paul George was battling foul trouble and Lance Stephenson was going batshit crazy (in a good way), the Pacers didn't deviate from their gameplan. Under the most extreme pressure, they continued to press their advantage down low and on the boards. Put another way: this was the night the Pacers grew up. It's one thing to play up to your potential and beat lesser or evenly matched teams in the lower rounds. It's quite another to look the champs in the eye on this stage and not blink. George has received the majority of attention this series and it's all been deserved, but Roy Hibbert is the player who makes them legitimate. His defense has been a given, but he's shown a versatile, albeit occasionally awkward, offensive game that even his biggest admirers didn't know he had. With hook shots and soft-touch putbacks, Hibbert has abandoned his still developing mid- range game and parked his big self under the basket. He's too massive for Miami to move him out of there and when Chris Bosh turned his ankle, the Heat lost the one post defender who could at least bother the big fella. Hibbert had 23 points and 12 rebounds, and along with David West's dozen boards, they completely controlled the glass (49-30) and outscored the Heat by 18 points in the paint. We've learned quite a bit about Indiana this series, but perhaps more importantly, the Pacers have exposed the Heat for their LeBron-dependence. When James fouled out late in the game after banging home yet another long three, it was all over. Miami didn't just lose its best player, it lost its entire equilibrium...CONTINUE READING AT SB NATION |
Tom Ziller: Heat defense experiencing total failure against the Pacers Miami is scoring just fine on Indiana's top-ranked defense, but it can't slow the Pacers at all. That's why this series is tied at two games apiece. Here's something far more stunning than the Pacers tying the Eastern Conference Finals at two on Tuesday: Indiana is doing it with offense. The Pacers boasted the league's No. 1 defense in the regular season, but it's not doing a whole lot to slow the Heat's onslaught. Miami scored 1.15 points per possession in Game 4; the No. 1 offense in the league averaged 1.12 this season. But the Pacers have managed to knot the series in spite of this because their offense is also not living up to its ranking. In this case, that's a good thing: Indiana was No. 20 in offense this season. In the regular season, the Pacers averaged 1.04 points per possession; in the East finals, Indiana has scored 394 points in 334 possessions, or 1.17 points per possession. (Possession data is from Basketball-Reference.) If Indiana were scoring at its regular-season rate, it'd have 347 points over four games. Miami has 402, so the Pacers would be at a minus-14 per game. Instead, they are at minus-2 per game, which is mostly explained by a Game 3 blowout loss. The unsurprising part of this turn of events is that Miami had a good but underperforming defense all season, struggling especially defending the post and rebounding defensively. Those are the two items that are just killing the Heat right now. Indiana grabbed 15 of 33 offensive rebounding opportunities (46 percent) and Roy Hibbert is averaging 23 points per game on 54 percent shooting. (He also has 25 made free throws in four games, or six more than LeBron James.) What are the solutions for Miami? Are there solutions for Miami? Hibbert gave the Heat trouble last spring, too, and Miami got the series victory with an overpowering offense. The Heat's offense is hot against the NBA's toughest defense. And it's a 2-2 series...CONTINUE READING AT SB NATION |
PACERS Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows Ian Levy @HickoryHigh Miss Bumptious @missbumptious |
HEAT Brian Windhorst @windhorstESPN Tom Haberstroh @tomhaberstroh Ira Winderman @iraheatbeat Ethan J. Skolnick @EthanJSkolnick Surya Fernandez @SuryaHeatNBA Joseph Goodman @JoeGoodmanJr |
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