Heat vs Pacers ECF

[Black Adam]

I picked the Pacers in 6 or 7. What I didnt understand, was the people that thought this was an easy matchup for the Heat. Big physical good defensive teams always gave the heat problems. I always said the Heat rather face the thunder than the Spurs, pacers or Grizzlies.

agreed. one of the worst things(as far as the overall playoff picture is concerned) was that the Thunder were knocked out. if not i think they might've possibly gotten to the finals and another Heat-Thunder finals imo would've gone the same way as the last one imo...

 

[Black Adam]

okay.. I am officially starting my game 7 pregame in a few minutes. I would like to pre-apologzie for my behavior tonight. I enjoy the banter back and forth and really do like you guys. I also assure you that I dont honestly mean some of the things I'm going to say about you guys, your team, and perhaps (if things go poorly) your kin. I hope we can all move past my unfortunate future comments.

LMFAO!!!! at least you're being REAL wit' it...

 

[RobToxin]

okay.. I am officially starting my game 7 pregame in a few minutes. I would like to pre-apologzie for my behavior tonight. I enjoy the banter back and forth and really do like you guys. I also assure you that I dont honestly mean some of the things I'm going to say about you guys, your team, and perhaps (if things go poorly) your kin. I hope we can all move past my unfortunate future comments.

At least you aren't as bad as that dumbfuck in Iran who beheaded his best friend because they rooted for different soccer teams.

 

[Flauge]

agreed. one of the worst things(as far as the overall playoff picture is concerned) was that the Thunder were knocked out. if not i think they might've possibly gotten to the finals and another Heat-Thunder finals imo would've gone the same way as the last one imo...

i completely agree. the heat are in the thunder head for whatever reason. i was really pulling for the thunder to win the west, as i think the heat would have had the easiest time against them. when westbrook went down with that injury, that was bad news for the heat.

 

[Flauge]

I personally think Roy Hibbert should be suspended for 1 game over his homophobic remarks. I think that's the only way he learns.

 

[RobToxin]

I personally think Roy Hibbert should be suspended for 1 game over his homophobic remarks. I think that's the only way he learns.

And that one game suspension should take place at the start of the NBA Finals.

 

[Black Adam]

I personally think Roy Hibbert should be suspended for 1 game over his homophobic remarks. I think that's the only way he learns.

maybe, maybe not. but it ain't happening TONIGHT...

unfortunately for the Heat...

 

[Black Adam]

interesting thoughts...


INDIANAPOLIS -- We're doing it again, the same thing we did during the 2011 NBA Finals. We're focusing on the Miami Heat because they're magnetic in an infuriating and revolting way, like a really big bug splatter on your clean windshield. Try not to dwell on it. Really. Try.
Meanwhile the Indiana Pacers are still here, the team playing the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. You know. The other team. Them.
Reminds me of the 2011 NBA Finals when LeBron was shrinking and Dwyane Wade was mocking Dirk Nowitzki for being sick and nationally the story was: The Miami Heat are losing this series! And not not that the Dallas Mavericks were winning it.
Ken Berger Once-invincible Heat looking very beatable
Which brings me to this year, and these Eastern Conference finals, and the more laudable team, if not the more repulsively interesting team. This is not a prediction the Pacers will win Game 7 on Monday night. That's not what I meant by laudable, and anyway, I'm out of the prediction business. After my own bug splatter of a prediction about the Heat earlier this postseason, I predict this is my final prediction: I'm done predicting games, because I'm lousy at it.
I'm also lousy at taking my eyes off the Heat, because you know what? That bug splatter is gross. Look at it, all yellow and orange and giant, with Wade passive-aggressively blaming his struggles on LeBron and with Chris Bosh passive-aggressively blaming his struggles on his role and with Chris Andersen making like a high school punk and shoving Tyler Hansbrough and then mean-mugging him because this is hard, y'all, this right here is hard and you don't want none of it.
Gag me. And yet there I was on Saturday night after Game 6, writing about the losing team. Writing about the disappearance of Bosh and the petulance of Wade, while colleague Ken Berger was writing about LeBron James.
The Pacers won Game 6 and both of us wrote about the Heat. Because that bug splatter ... wow. Ever seen something so disgusting?
Meanwhile, the Pacers. The Pacers. They're coming, and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Again, that's not a prediction for Game 7. Maybe it's the final game of the season for the Pacers. Maybe not. Whatever the case, this is a franchise that will be better tomorrow than it is today, and today you might notice this franchise is about to play Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Wait until next year, when Danny Granger returns from the knee injury that sidelined him for most of the season. You remember Granger, right? The Pacers' best player?
Zach Harper Pacers know how to win ugly
He's not anymore. Even when he returns and gets back into full Danny Granger mode, he won't be better than Pacers wing Paul George, who has emerged this postseason -- alongside the Warriors' Stephen Curry -- as the next NBA superstar. George is 6-foot-8 and skilled, able to average 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists while making at least 100 3-pointers. Only two other NBA players reached those benchmarks this season: LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Add George's 1.8 steals per game, and exactly one player in the NBA reached those benchmarks: Paul George.
Best player in the league? No, of course not. But he's one of them, and here's something Roy Hibbert said after Game 6, something smart that got lost amid all the stupid stuff he said after Game 6:
"He's the future," Hibbert said of George. "I mean, I think he has a chance to be MVP of this league next year."
Could be. George's points, rebounds and assists have gone up each year. So have his 3-pointers made. He's 23 years old. You think the Paul George we're seeing now, the one playing LeBron James as well as humanly possible, has reached his peak? Not even close.
Same goes for Roy Hibbert, by the way. He's a little older than George -- Hibbert is 26 -- but he's maturing at a different speed, at a slower pace, than most players. That's because of his size. When he was a freshman at Georgetown, the 7-2 Hibbert was difficult to watch because he was so uncoordinated. Now he is more fluid and more confident, and while that press conference Saturday night was a regrettable aftershock of his growing confidence, the fact is Roy Hibbert has only recently realized how good he can be. He's close to his ceiling, but he's not there yet.
And what about Lance Stephenson? Does anybody have any idea how good this guy can be? Remember, he played just one season of college at Cincinnati, where coach Mick Cronin scraped off some of the residual entitlement from Stephenson's days as a schoolboy legend in New York City. The Pacers appear to have filed away the rest of it, and what's left is a 6-5, 210-pound raw talent who asks to defend LeBron James and who has giant hands and explosion and a game that has improved as much as anyone's in the last two years. A year ago Stephenson was 4 for 30 on 3-point shots (13.3 percent). This season he has gone 62 for 188 (33 percent). What does he shoot next season?
When he's 23 years old?
Assuming the Pacers can squeeze all four under the salary cap next season, nobody in the NBA would have a better core of four young players than Hibbert, Granger, George and Stephenson. And don't forget pending free agent David West, who has several years left at age 32 and is likely to spend them with the Pacers, and improving point guard George Hill, whose 14.2 ppg and 4.9 apg were career highs. He's 26. You think his best basketball is behind him?
The Pacers are coming, man. They're coming, and once they fully arrive they'll be here for years. That bug splatter? It wipes off easily enough. It'll be gone before you know it.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

interesting thoughts...


INDIANAPOLIS -- We're doing it again, the same thing we did during the 2011 NBA Finals. We're focusing on the Miami Heat because they're magnetic in an infuriating and revolting way, like a really big bug splatter on your clean windshield. Try not to dwell on it. Really. Try.
Meanwhile the Indiana Pacers are still here, the team playing the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. You know. The other team. Them.
Reminds me of the 2011 NBA Finals when LeBron was shrinking and Dwyane Wade was mocking Dirk Nowitzki for being sick and nationally the story was: The Miami Heat are losing this series! And not not that the Dallas Mavericks were winning it.
Ken Berger Once-invincible Heat looking very beatable
Which brings me to this year, and these Eastern Conference finals, and the more laudable team, if not the more repulsively interesting team. This is not a prediction the Pacers will win Game 7 on Monday night. That's not what I meant by laudable, and anyway, I'm out of the prediction business. After my own bug splatter of a prediction about the Heat earlier this postseason, I predict this is my final prediction: I'm done predicting games, because I'm lousy at it.
I'm also lousy at taking my eyes off the Heat, because you know what? That bug splatter is gross. Look at it, all yellow and orange and giant, with Wade passive-aggressively blaming his struggles on LeBron and with Chris Bosh passive-aggressively blaming his struggles on his role and with Chris Andersen making like a high school punk and shoving Tyler Hansbrough and then mean-mugging him because this is hard, y'all, this right here is hard and you don't want none of it.
Gag me. And yet there I was on Saturday night after Game 6, writing about the losing team. Writing about the disappearance of Bosh and the petulance of Wade, while colleague Ken Berger was writing about LeBron James.
The Pacers won Game 6 and both of us wrote about the Heat. Because that bug splatter ... wow. Ever seen something so disgusting?
Meanwhile, the Pacers. The Pacers. They're coming, and there's not a damn thing anyone can do about it. Again, that's not a prediction for Game 7. Maybe it's the final game of the season for the Pacers. Maybe not. Whatever the case, this is a franchise that will be better tomorrow than it is today, and today you might notice this franchise is about to play Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Wait until next year, when Danny Granger returns from the knee injury that sidelined him for most of the season. You remember Granger, right? The Pacers' best player?
Zach Harper Pacers know how to win ugly
He's not anymore. Even when he returns and gets back into full Danny Granger mode, he won't be better than Pacers wing Paul George, who has emerged this postseason -- alongside the Warriors' Stephen Curry -- as the next NBA superstar. George is 6-foot-8 and skilled, able to average 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists while making at least 100 3-pointers. Only two other NBA players reached those benchmarks this season: LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Add George's 1.8 steals per game, and exactly one player in the NBA reached those benchmarks: Paul George.
Best player in the league? No, of course not. But he's one of them, and here's something Roy Hibbert said after Game 6, something smart that got lost amid all the stupid stuff he said after Game 6:
"He's the future," Hibbert said of George. "I mean, I think he has a chance to be MVP of this league next year."
Could be. George's points, rebounds and assists have gone up each year. So have his 3-pointers made. He's 23 years old. You think the Paul George we're seeing now, the one playing LeBron James as well as humanly possible, has reached his peak? Not even close.
Same goes for Roy Hibbert, by the way. He's a little older than George -- Hibbert is 26 -- but he's maturing at a different speed, at a slower pace, than most players. That's because of his size. When he was a freshman at Georgetown, the 7-2 Hibbert was difficult to watch because he was so uncoordinated. Now he is more fluid and more confident, and while that press conference Saturday night was a regrettable aftershock of his growing confidence, the fact is Roy Hibbert has only recently realized how good he can be. He's close to his ceiling, but he's not there yet.
And what about Lance Stephenson? Does anybody have any idea how good this guy can be? Remember, he played just one season of college at Cincinnati, where coach Mick Cronin scraped off some of the residual entitlement from Stephenson's days as a schoolboy legend in New York City. The Pacers appear to have filed away the rest of it, and what's left is a 6-5, 210-pound raw talent who asks to defend LeBron James and who has giant hands and explosion and a game that has improved as much as anyone's in the last two years. A year ago Stephenson was 4 for 30 on 3-point shots (13.3 percent). This season he has gone 62 for 188 (33 percent). What does he shoot next season?
When he's 23 years old?
Assuming the Pacers can squeeze all four under the salary cap next season, nobody in the NBA would have a better core of four young players than Hibbert, Granger, George and Stephenson. And don't forget pending free agent David West, who has several years left at age 32 and is likely to spend them with the Pacers, and improving point guard George Hill, whose 14.2 ppg and 4.9 apg were career highs. He's 26. You think his best basketball is behind him?
The Pacers are coming, man. They're coming, and once they fully arrive they'll be here for years. That bug splatter? It wipes off easily enough. It'll be gone before you know it.

Alot of copy/pastes out of you the last couple days. Fine. No biggie.
But why all the pom pom Pacer waving on one hand and then predicting a potential Heat blowout on the other?

 

[Flauge]

Keep doubting Miami. I remember Miami wasnt going to beat the Pacers down 2-1 and without Bosh. Then Miami wasnt going to walk into Boston and win game 6 after losing the previous 3. Then Durant was every bit as good as Lebron and Westbrook would eat Chalmers alive. I remember all the sportsnation polls... with only two states supporting Miami.. Florida and Washington (thank you sonic fans). Keep posting this bullshit from greg doyle. Keep it coming. That light Indiana and the Heat haters see at the end of the tunnel isnt the death of the Heat and a return to whatever the fuck version of basketball you believed to be so pure before 2011.. it's a freight train. And Indiana is standing on the tracks.

 

[RedRum]

^^^

 

[RedRum]

okay.. I am officially starting my game 7 pregame in a few minutes. I would like to pre-apologzie for my behavior tonight. I enjoy the banter back and forth and really do like you guys. I also assure you that I dont honestly mean some of the things I'm going to say about you guys, your team, and perhaps (if things go poorly) your kin. I hope we can all move past my unfortunate future comments.

 

[lakersrule]

I think Indiana's chances tonight fall on players such as Hill and Stephenson. If the Pacers can get similar production out of them like they got in the game 2 win in Miami, I like their chances. Hibbert needs to continue to dominate the inside as well. Another larger rebounding differential could spell doom for Miami.

 

[Black Adam]

I think Indiana's chances tonight fall on players such as Hill and Stephenson. If the Pacers can get similar production out of them like they got in the game 2 win in Miami, I like their chances. Hibbert needs to continue to dominate the inside as well. Another larger rebounding differential could spell doom for Miami.

BINGO...!!!


and also i can tell you THIS. if the Heat are once again out-rebounded BADLY they are in ALL KINDS of trouble...

 

[Black Adam]

BUT, to be fair on the Pacers end it's ALSO about keeping the mistakes by the guards TO's down. if the Heat can force a lot of TO's(and they have been for the most part) it could be THEM who are in trouble...

 

[RedRum]

BINGO...!!!


and also i can tell you THIS. if the Heat are once again out-rebounded BADLY they are in ALL KINDS of trouble...

Music to my ears....we may be breaking a bottle of bubbly soon CL.

 

[Flauge]

Indiana isnt ready for primetime

 

[Flauge]

Dan Le Batard: Oh, how we love the Heat insanity



The Miami Heat play the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on June 1, 2013.
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This Miami Heat team is so great.
So very, very great.
I’m not talking about how the Heat is playing at the moment, which is decidedly less than great.
I’m talking about all the delightful, terrifying crazy they’ve given us for three years now.
Everything somehow keeps escalating, which seems impossible given the dizzying, difficult-to-breathe heights we’ve already experienced. One victory ago, it felt like everything was coming together; one loss later, it feels like everything is falling apart. Perspective? It gets swallowed whole by emotion now, like a T-Rex eating a Teacup Maltese.
Game 7 tonight. Best thing in sports. In a building that will bounce and sway with the odd combination of joy and terror. In the world of fun and games, things don’t get any BIGGER than this.
This feels awful. This feels wonderful. Wonder-awful? Never mind finding this anywhere else in entertainment. There isn’t very much in life that feels quite like this yo-yoing of feelings from day to day, not unless you are in a passionate relationship with a crazy person, and you swing wildly from the fights to the making up. It is hard to live here, in the extremes, for extended periods. It is exhausting, no matter the result you get. You can’t sleep because you are wired from a triumph. You can’t sleep because you toss and turn with haunting after a loss. Your work suffers. You suffer. Isn’t it great?
And the Heat haven’t even trailed in this best-of-seven series; they’ve only been tied or ahead. Up 1-0. Up 2-1. Up 3-2. And yet you still feel terror, right? Imagine if you’d been behind. You’d spend the game penguin-walking to the bathroom to avoid the dirty pants. The first time the Heat will be behind can be at the end of tonight, at which point the season would end with a thudding finality that would send South Florida into depression and allow the rest of Sports America to mock and laugh at us again.
That crown on the head of LeBron James shut everyone up for one full year. But it can be knocked off tonight by 7-2 Roy Hibbert and his army of muscle, and the silence would suddenly be replaced by a laughter that felt like it had been killed in these parts. In other words, the stakes tonight have been ratcheted right back up to that wonder-awful place where South Florida spent the last two seasons. This is only insane. Lose tonight, just one time, and the blueprint goes right from success to disappointment as soon as that clock hits zero.
For three years, we’ve poured emotion and interest and money and time into this relationship with the Miami Heat, and now we’ve followed them right to the edge of a cliff. Look down there. So far to fall from here. So very far. Are you afraid of dying? Or do you feel so much more alive? Champion athletes rise to these moments, play in them, live for them, the challenge heightened for challenge-aholics. Shane Battier talked recently about how you need to be punched in the nose to feel more alive. He said this after Game 2 of this insanity. And he has since been benched.
You need the fear to have the fun, odd as that is to say. And the doubt has to grow before the appreciation can. That four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round didn’t give South Florida much of anything that resembled exhilaration or pain. If the Heat win tonight, you will feel joy and relief, and that feeling will be profound. If they lose, you’ll crawl to work in the morning on your hands and knees, and that feeling will be profound. But you need that nausea in your stomach, like the first time you jump out of a plane, to feel like you’ve done something when you land. There is always more fulfillment when one of the things being conquered is your fear.


This entire season, excellent though it was, didn’t feel anything like the first two of this experiment. Miami winning was a droning excellence, the championship a foregone conclusion, an expectation. There weren’t surprises or confusions or doubts or fears. But tonight we go right back to the us-against-the-world that made the Heat, for the last three years, the most interesting and rallied around team in the history of South Florida sports. The critics, quiet all year, hiding, are perched and ready to pounce, buzzards waiting for someone else to take care of the kill so they can dine. They crowed in Year 1; they fled in Year 2. At about midnight tonight, they will either be spooked by South Florida’s roar, or they will feed with gluttonous delight.
Such a funny thing, expectations. Indiana has already exceeded them. The Pacers season is already a success, no matter what happens from here. They will be saluted for their valiance, for making Miami fight, even if they lose. But the Heat? No. Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade have never in their professional lives looked so frail. Wade put this entire thing together, and benching him or reducing his minutes doesn’t even seem like a blasphemy. Indiana’s defense is uniquely qualified, with advantages of size and strength, to bother Miami. If we took the uniforms and reputations off these teams, the Pacers are the ones playing the kind of playoff basketball that usually wins — rebounding, defense, and efficient offense near the rim. Miami is playing too far away from the basket, something that must change tonight.
Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra has been talking recently about “burning the boats.” This goes back to a story legend architect Pat Riley told his team once before a game like this. Riley is a basketball lifer. He has seen and felt and fought through nearly half a century of Game 7s. He loves them, win or lose, because he appreciates the heightened state of existence. And Spoelstra has been around the organization long enough to have heard the “burning the boats” story a few times at moments like these.
Seems an army spent years building boats in preparation for a war. Upon arrival on the shores, the general turned around and demanded that his troops burn the boats they’d spent years building.
“But why?” his soldiers asked. “We will have no escape if things get bad.”
“Exactly,” the general replied. “You win or you die.”
The boats are burning behind LeBron James. He feels the strength of the heat behind him, and he feels the weakened Heat behind him.
My God, this is going to be some kind of fight.

Read more here: Dan Le Batard: Oh, how we love the Heat insanity - Dan Le Batard - MiamiHerald.com​

 

[Black Adam]

Indiana isnt ready for primetime

i dunno, Flauge. i'll try to put out a fair question here. when is a team actually deemed "ready"? isn't that something a team gives themselves...?

 

[lakersrule]

All fair points.
The Heat found small ball success last year by accident (Bosh injury).
Until that point, everyone thought/knew the Heat needed to improve their center position players.

Teams have had a year to adjust to us basically just try todo the same thing.
Most aren't talented enough to do a damn thing about it, but the Pacers are.

Win or lose, I don't think Riley will start next season trying to win the same way.

So you do understand the value of a dominant big man. We heard a lot all season long about how the league is changing. Small ball rules now seeing as the Heat just won a title that way.

Turns out the game of basketball is still the same. Having a dominant interior game is still a method for success. Small ball may work against many teams, but when faced with a dominant interior opponent the flaws are exposed.

Win or lose, what do you think Riley does? There have been Greg Oden rumors. Good luck with that brittle big man. Remember now that the Heat have very little flexibility this summer. I think finding anything good for an affordable price will be difficult. I don't put anything past Riley though.