NBA Playoffs: Pacers Cool Heat Late To Even Series, 78-75

The Heat simply were outplayed, really, as SB Nation’s experts will attest to -- both those on the Heat side as well as those in Indiana. Our friends over at Peninsula Is Mightier noted that James’ missed free-throws were a big deal, but not the biggest deal when it came down to it.

SB Nation’s Pacers blog, Indy Cornrows, also downplayed the missed free-throws as it instead focused on the defensive effort of the Pacers ... and all-around struggles from the Heat earlier in the game.

Even if he’s been underwhelming for most of his two years in Miami, Bosh is still enough of a threat to keep defenses from swarming Wade and James every time they drive the lane. He’s the linchpin that allows everything else to click, because he pulls defenders out of the lane and gives the other two stars room to work. The numbers bear this out, as Mike Prada noted Monday:

Meanwhile, with zero help from anyone else on the roster as Indiana swarmed the superstars, the Heat’s crunch-time offense became “LeBron or Wade careen into a lane full of bodies and hope for the best.”

It was Wade’s way of reminding the Pacers that they are the underdogs, which Wade felt the need to do even though the scoreboard doesn’t care which team was actually favored in the series. But that’s neither here nor there. If Wade wanted to blow off steam, I guess that’s his prerogative.

If that’s a form of celebration, I’d like to know what Wade thinks isn’t.

For more on the Pacers, head over to Indy Cornrows and SB Nation Indiana. For more on the Heat, check out Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay.

If the Heat find a way to win this game, it’ll be because LeBron James and Dwyane Wade enforced their will in every way. Both guys are attacking the offensive glass with a raging fury, as if they know their teammates won’t ever hit a shot. That’s why this is now just a three-point game.

Let’s be honest here: if Dwyane Wade was Devin Ebanks, he probably would have been ejected for shoving Darren Collison in the back here. This is probably a Flagrant 2 foul, but the referees said it was only a Flagrant 1. The Heat are lucky.

(via 30fps).

Steve Kerr has been harping on this, and he’s right: the Miami Heat aren’t really running any plays right now. The guards are dribbling aimlessly, and nobody is cutting.

Here, again, is where the absence of Chris Bosh is felt a lot. With Bosh in the lineup, the Heat can run a horns set, where two big men stand at the elbows and either LeBron James or Dwyane Wade cuts in from the baseline to take a dribble-handoff. Bosh is excellent at this because he has the ball skills to execute the hand-off and is enough of a threat to require attention after setting the screen. Nobody else on the Heat has a chance to execute this play.

It’s OK, champ. You’ll get them next time.

Now, Wade:

Hard to get to the basket when nobody else on your team can do anything.

It’s bad enough that the Heat don’t have Chris Bosh, but Udonis Haslem, one of his replacements, suddenly refuses to shoot anymore.

For more on the Pacers, head over to Indy Cornrows and SB Nation Indiana. For more on the Heat, check out Peninsula Is Mightier and SB Nation Tampa Bay.

Despite putting together another unbelievable defensive performance … the Heat are tied with the Pacers. Blame the absence of Chris Bosh. Without him to space the floor, the Pacers have been able to contain LeBron James and Dwyane Wade by having several help defenders veer off their men to plug the middle.

More fundamentally, though, the Pacers just need to pass more decisively. There are openings to lob the ball over the top, but if the Pacers aren’t ready to take advantage of them, they close quickly. Indiana’s guards need to trust themselves to put the ball in the right spot instead of playing not to commit a turnover.

The Heat go through stretches like this where they’ll rotate to you no matter what sets you run. Without an elite isolation scorer, Indiana doesn’t have much of a chance.

Getting easy buckets is not exactly a strength of Granger’s, but he does have a better shot-fake game than this. Here’s an idea: Instead of launching 3-pointers against Miami’s aggressive closeout defenders, why not use a shot fake and try to drive to the basket?

On this play, James drove the ball up the court, found Wade and received an incredible “punch” pass back from Wade for the score. There’s a reason that nickname exists.

After Chris Bosh’s injury in Game 1, you might have watched the Heat and Pacers Sunday and wondered why the bigger, badder Pacers weren’t dominating Miami’s big men inside. But it’s not that simple.

Ethan Strauss does a nice job explaining the problem at Hoops Speak today, and it all centers on the rule changes that legalized zone defense. It’s part of what allows Miami to be so dominant on defense (with or without Bosh), and part of why Roy Hibbert isn’t as dominant as you’d think.