Miami Meltdown: Tempers Flare As Pacers Hammer Heat

Shortly thereafter, however, contrary words spread like wildfire on Twitter regarding Miami’s Friday practice schedule.

It makes sense that the Heat would rather not meet with the media following that loss -- and the questions they’d be asked regarding Dwyane Wade’s meltdown and sideline spat with Spoelstra -- but it’s awfully random that the team would randomly schedule -- and then cancel-- a practice within just a few hours on a Friday morning.

That has led to a lot of doom and gloom from fans of the Heat, as one might expect. In fact, the experts over at SB Nation’s Peninsula is Mightier have taken it one step further, opining that it might be time to try and blow up the Big Three if LeBron and D-Wade are unable to advance past the Pacers.

That would seem to be a bit of a rash idea, but considering the supposed-to-be-unstoppable Heat just underwent a 19-point drubbing, it’s probably a reaction that isn’t all that rare among the Miami fans heading into the weekend.

As usual, Larry Bird just can’t contain himself.

“Dude, I think he’s doing the dice thing too much”

“That’s really all he’s got”

It’s a good question, and I’m not entirely sure of the answer. The Heat went away from the high pick and roll game that worked for LeBron James in the first half, perhaps in an attempt to get Dwyane Wade going. Perhaps James could have demanded to have the ball in those spots, but with Wade already yelling at Erik Spoelstra, I can understand James’s desire to not want to make things worse.

In any event, I don’t think James can be blamed too much for what happened in this game.

Roy Hibbert really isn’t doing anything fancy, and that’s why he has 16 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks. The Pacers aren’t running anything special for him, but he’s moving, getting inside position on the glass and finding points for himself. This is how he has to succeed as long as Miami’s aggressive fronting of the post continues.

Great, great sign for the Pacers.

If I told you a Heat player not named LeBron James had 23 points on 12 shots with four assists, how many guesses would it take for you to say Mario Chalmers? One? Two? More?

But do not do this. The “this” is making a choking symbol to taunt the Heat. It’s Game 3. Now is not the time to pull this, especially when it’ll get passed around.

At the same time, kind of have to admire his dedication to bringing the taunting. It’s just that it could backfire. So on one hand: BAD BAD BAD. On the other hand, this is SPORTS and taunting is fun and interesting.

The Heat forward is now 0-6 from three-point range in this game and 1-9 in the series. This is what happens when Chris Bosh gets hurt and Battier has to bang with David West in the post.

This altercation began when James stole the ball from Granger. Granger grabbed James’s jersey as James was going to retrieve the ball -- an easy foul. Then, James stuck his elbow out, and Granger took exception, flying right back into James’s face to yell at him before the referee drove Granger back 15 feet.

Was James intentionally trying to elbow Granger? He very well could have. Was this the absolute wrong time for Granger to get upset like this, given that his team was up 11 points and had all the momentum? Without question.

Armed with a 13-point lead and heading into another timeout, Roy Hibbert and Danny Granger may have actually gotten a little too excited here.

If only Dwyane Wade was interested in making them pay.

I don’t think I’ve seen Dwyane Wade play this passively in a long time. He often takes bad shots, but they’re usually bad shots out of aggression. In this game, he’s almost playing scared.

The last sequence was telling. Wade got a great kick-out pass from LeBron James at the top of the key. He was wide open. He didn’t shoot, though, looking at the rim, then putting it on the floor. Worse, instead of driving by Paul George, he tried taking a stepback jumper on him that fell way short.

There are three options.

1. He’s flopping.

Everyone get out of Ronny’s way.

Play 4: Pittman commits an obvious defensive foul.

Play 5: Pittman is taken out after 3 1/2 minutes.

This doesn’t change the horrible use of the word “swagger” on the T-shirts, but I have to admit: The Indiana Pacers’ gold-out does look pretty cool.

That’s it. That’s the joke. It’s also not a joke.