WITNESS THIS!
-VS-
Game Time Start: 8:00 PM EST
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL
Officials: D. Stafford, J. Phillips, G. Willard, M. Smith
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Miami Notes
Television:
Local Radio: WIBC 93.1 FM
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Pacers None to report Heat Chris Bosh - Lower Abdominal Strain (out indefinitely) |
Jonathan Auping: By the Numbers The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers are tied at two games a piece. There are a lot of obvious things that anyone who has been watching the series will have noticed: Lebron and Wade did crazy things in Game 4, both teams’ defenses have put on the clamps, the shooting is down, Danny Granger will let any Heat player know when something rubs him the wrong way, and Roy Hibbert’s size and skills are a huge advantage for the Pacers (but his lack of speed is an advantage for the Heat). But a look at the total series statistics shows us a few surprising tidbits. Basketball is a game played 48 minutes at a time so we cannot look too much into these statistics, but we have four full games of evidence to analyze now and they do give us a good look at who is giving consistently good performances. 16 Rebounds (Chalmers) vs. 8 rebounds (Hansbrough) Four games into this series, Mario Chalmers has doubled Tyler Hansbrough up in rebounds grabbed. To be fair, Chalmers has played more than double the minutes of Tyler, but does that really remove all the shock? Eight rebounds in nearly 52 minutes over four games? Two rebounds per game? One rebound every six-and-a-half minutes? Hansbrough has yet to have the momentum-swinging impact on a game in this series that earned him the nickname Psycho-T. 20-for-57 FGs (Granger) Danny Granger has been aggressive at times and made some big buckets in this series. He has played with great effort and has had the task of guarding Lebron James on defense. Also, no one is going to question how much he wants to win this series and he has made 7 of his last 15 three-pointers. But the fact of the matter is that he is shooting 35% (eFG% of 42.1%) through four games and is certainly not making up for that with only 8 free throws attempted. (In the regular season, he shot 41.2% with an eFG% of 48.1% while averaging 4.7 free throws per game). This might be a troubling reminder of how dangerous it can be when your best player relies on low-percentage shots to score. 93 points (Granger + George) vs 210 points (Lebron + Wade) This one might not be so surprising. I don’t think anyone expected George and Granger to match the scoring of Wade and James. But has it really seemed that lopsided for the series? Didn’t it seem like Granger and George were playing nice defense on Wade and James while also providing a nice scoring punch of their own? Sure, Game Four’s 70 points from Wade and James might skew this a little, but keep in mind it also factors in a 5 point game from Wade in Game 3. 123 minutes (Hill) vs 73 minutes (Collison) Should it really be that one-sided? Collison was the starter for most of the season, does it make sense to minimize his role this much? I understand that you are rarely going to give two point guards equal minutes, but if you are going to be using the “stick with the hot hand” approach, wouldn’t Collison have more minutes in this series? Collison’s weakness in this series is that he can only guard Mario Chalmers due to his size. Since Chalmers starts wouldn’t it make sense to start Collison so that Hill could come in when the Heat bring in...CONTINUE READING AT 8p9s |
3-on-3 preview: Heat-Pacers, Game 4 In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat host the Pacers in Game 5 of the East semifinals. 1. Fact or Fiction: Rest of the series will be more like Game 4 than Game 3. Tom Haberstroh: Fiction. I'm not sure the Heat can duplicate Udonis Haslem's hot shooting display that rescued the supporting cast in Game 4. Also, I'm no doctor but I'm not completely sold that Dwyane Wade's knee will respond positively after Sunday. Oh, and LeBron going 40-18-9? Probably not happening again. Expect the Pacers to be more prepared. Michael Wallace: Fact. Not necessarily in terms of the outcome, but more along the lines of how closely the game was played throughout. I still don't feel comfortable predicting who will win this series. But I'd bank on close games with vicious momentum swings before I'd anticipate another 20-point blowout. Brian Windhorst: Fiction. If ever there was an outlier, it was Game 4. It is unrealistic to expect that kind of production from Wade and James every night. Also, the Pacers got very little from David West and Roy Hibbert. Probably the most important thing for the Heat to replicate is getting a contribution from Haslem. 2. Fact or Fiction: Wade's knee is more worrisome than LeBron's fatigue. Haberstroh: Fiction. I'd say it's equally concerning. The minutes and responsibilities are piling up for LeBron, even with Shane Battier as a much-needed battery in tow. The Chris Bosh injury ruined whatever hopes that LeBron would stay fresh in the playoff run. He admitted he was gassed in Game 4. Even though Wade had his knee drained, I wonder how much longer LeBron can stay in fifth gear. Wallace: Fact. Wade won't discuss the knee, but it certainly is an issue that could affect the outcome of the series if the problems flare up again. No one knows if he will need to have it drained again. What we do know is he overcame physical limitations and emotional outbursts to bounce back from one of his worst postseason performances with one of his best. Meanwhile, LeBron has been a beast all season. He'll play through fatigue. Windhorst: Fact. It may not be a serious injury; Wade can still play, after all. But the past week showed how much the knee can effect Wade's play. As he said, he feels differently on different days. Without Bosh, the Heat badly need Wade's knee to stay healthy. 3. Fact or Fiction: Frank Vogel has won the chess match so far. Haberstroh: Fiction. After starting Dexter Pittman in Game 3, Erik Spoelstra got showered with nation-wide blame, but I don't even think that was all that egregious. That disaster lasted all but three minutes. Vogel has been impressive with his defensive strategies, but the Pacers have been absolutely dreadful when he goes to the bench. Making Hibbert and West ride the pine during crucial situations in Game 4 is on Vogel. Wallace: Fiction. Both coaches still have their power pieces on the table and in play. Tonight's outcome will determine the first real "check" position of this series, when one team pushes the other to the brink of elimination. Spoelstra's Game 3 adjustments were awful. But Vogel also produced a major head-scratcher in Game 4 when he chose to leave Hibbert and West on the bench with four fouls a bit too long. Windhorst: Fiction. Vogel has made some excellent moves and assembled a game plan that's been very effective. But he made some questionable moves in Games 1 and 4. On Sunday, it seemed like he got stuck watching the show instead of making adjustments when the Pacers started getting run over. |
Ethan Sherwood Strauss: What was Roy Hibbert thinking? Much attention was paid to what followed this Roy Hibbert foul. Dwyane Wade didn’t like it. Danny Granger got in Wade’s face. A technical was called. Hubie admonished Danny. A rich debate over Granger’s faketoughguyness was held in the Twitter high court. But I was more fixated on the foul itself than on the ensuing drama. Wade blew past Hibbert, and the center reacted by intentionally hacking. The idea was to not cede an easy bucket, to make Wade “earn it at the line.” Dwyane did miss one of two, so mission accomplished, right? Not so fast. To quote Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated: “Simultaneous foul trouble to power forward David West and center Roy Hibbert made the Pacers easier to guard on offense and far less intimidating on defense. Those foul issues also forced coach Frank Vogel to deal with several rotation-related dilemmas at once, including how long to sit his big men and whether/when he should use a small lineup with only one of the Tyler Hansbrough/Lou Amundson backup duo that has been shaky all season.” Before that hack, Roy Hibbert had gone nearly a whole half while accruing only one foul. The Heat had and have no answer for him. So long as he stays on the court, Miami appears at a disadvantage. So is getting 1/6 of the way fouled out worth the chance that Dwyane Wade misses a free throw? Hibbert picked up a quick two fouls in the third quarter, which sent him to the bench. When Hibbert finally came back in the fourth quarter, he appeared tentative on plays at the rim, perhaps fearing ignominious disqualification. What if he had been playing with three fouls instead of four? Beckley showed you Gregg Popovich’s mundane genius for fouling when appropriate. The other side of this is that the Spurs are among the least fouling teams, year after year. Fouling is usually bad. It can take your players out of the game, it can put you closer to a penalty situation wherein the other team marches to the free throw line. If your average free throw shooter went to the line, every possession, his team’s offense would crush it...CONTINUE READING AT HOOPSPEAK |
Pacers Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows Ian Levy @HickoryHigh |
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