Re: 2013-14 Miami Heat Official Thread: Road to 3-peat
A lot on the line for Heat vs. Pacers, or is there?
Brian Spurlock,
USA TODAY Sports
If Heat guard LeBron James (6) can play, he'll battle Pacers forward Paul George (24) in Miami on Wednesday.
The Miami Heat can downplay the magnitude of Wednesday's game against the Indiana Pacers all they want.
The Pacers can hype it as much as they want. It's no secret they want home-court advantage in the playoffs.
In truth, the game isn't as insignificant as Miami believes and not as big as Indiana wants it to be.
It's just an important December game between the Eastern Conference's two best teams. That's good enough for now.
"It's not over or under (hyped)," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told news reporters. "Both teams are looking forward to playing the game, but anything else is really rhetoric, semantics."
One thing that is a big deal for Miami is the health of LeBron James. The star forward twisted his left ankle Monday in a win against the Utah Jazz and missed Tuesday's practice. He left the game briefly, returned and almost had a triple-double. It is expected he will play.
"A little sore. Get some treatment and play it by ear," James told reporters. "If it was a back-to-back, I wouldn't be playing for sure."
But as far as the series with Indiana, especially this early in the season, the Heat have taken a reasonable approach. They refuse to put an inordinate amount of importance on a regular-season game, and that works for them. At least, for now.
If they lose, they can call it just another game. That eliminates disproportionate disappointment. If they win, they can say the same, and they're not unnecessarily overjoyed.
It's a perfectly safe philosophy.
"It's a basketball game (with) two good teams. … It's not a big deal," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said. "It's not our championship, I'll tell you that."
That last comment from Wade was aimed directly at Pacers guard Lance Stephenson, who compared the first matchup Dec. 10 in Indianapolis to a championship-like game. The Pacers won that one 90-84.
"Everybody goes about it their own way," Wade said. "We're not the kind of team or kind of guys who talk about stuff. We just go do it. But they like to talk. If it works for them, it works for them. I really don't lose any sleep over talk. We just go out and play the game.
"They're a good team. There's no secret about it. They're one of our biggest challengers. … Hopefully it comes down to us and them to get to the Finals and the best team wins."
Doc Rivers, the Los Angeles Clippers coach, loves to say the champion is always the team to beat – regardless of record and seed – until another team defeats it in the playoffs. So that logic says the Heat remain the team to beat, even if the Pacers have the Eastern Conference's best record at 20-4, two games ahead of Miami.
The Heat know the importance of home-court advantage. They won Game 7 of the conference finals against the Pacers and won Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs at home last season.
So at some point this season, they need to defeat Indiana. After overall record, head-to-head is one of the tiebreakers used to determine seeding if teams have identical records.
The Pacers have not been shy about expressing that they want home court. They think their best chance to unseat Miami as Eastern Conference champs is -- if they were to get to a Game 7 in a playoff series -- to beat them at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
And while the Heat and Pacers were considered two of the best teams in the East before the season, there is little doubt – major injury aside – they will meet again the conference finals with the rest of the East crumbling around them.
The game features two MVP candidates in James – if he plays – and Pacers forward Paul George. James is averaging 25.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists and is shooting 59.8% from the field, 41.4% on three-pointers and 77.8% from the foul line – amazing numbers to go along with his top-notch defense. George is averaging 23.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists and is shooting 46% from the field, 40.9% on threes and 85.7% on free throws while also playing outstanding defense.
But the more important matchup will be Miami's offense against Indiana's defense. How will Miami attack Pacers center Roy Hibbert at the rim? The Pacers are third in points allowed in the paint per game (34.5) and allow a league-best 52.4% shooting on shots from less than 5 feet, according to NBA.com/stats.
Among big men who play more than 20 minutes a game, Hibbert is one of the best in the league at protecting the rim. Opponents shoot 41.7% at the rim with Hibbert defending, and he blocks three shots a game.
In one of the underplayed quotes during last season's conference finals, Pacers coach Frank Vogel said the Heat "had a more intelligent attack at the basket than New York did."
The goal is to draw Hibbert away from the basket as much as possible, opening the lane and creating open three-point shots. In the Dec. 10 game, the Heat scored 42 points in the paint against the Pacers but shot 4-for-21 on three-pointers. Miami needs its three-point shooters, in particular Shane Battier, who is struggling from that distance, to spread the floor, which in turn opens driving lanes.
"They're a very good defensive team so you have to expend a lot of energy to be able to get to the game we want," Spoelstra said. "That's a paint-attack game, to be able to get to the rim (and) get to the free throw line. Against that defense, you typically won't be able to do that on your initial try. But you have to work the offense, trust it and don't settle until you're able to loosen up the defense and break it down."
Kobe would try to drop 90 on him..
