Roy Hibbert and David West don’t exactly light up the marquee like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade do. Casual NBA fans will pay attention to the Heat for as long as they’re playing. Casual NBA fans probably didn’t know Leandro Barbosa is even playing now plays for the Indiana Pacers. There’s currents of momentum pulling for the Miami Heat in this series as Game Two sets to tip, that’s not debatable.
There’s also no debating the fact that the Miami Heat did shoot ten more free throws than the Indiana Pacers did in their Game One loss either. They ended up winning by nine. Heading into Game Two tonight, the Pacers could walk in all thinking they’re about to get hosed and there’s nothing they can do about it. Or they could instead realize there’s more at their control right now than they might even realize.
Chris Bosh is out indefinitely and the Pacers are at full strength. Indiana didn’t play anything close to their best game either to open this series and they lost to arguably the League’s best team by single digits. If they do what they didn’t do then, later on tonight, who knows where this thing goes from here.
Bob Kravitz from the IndyStar noted earlier this week the mistakes that can’t be repeated tonight:
Danny Granger and Paul George were complete no-shows. When Granger, the leading scorer, makes 1-of-10 shots and scores seven points, and has one more turnover than shot made, you have no chance to beat a good team on the road.
“We are going to have to get him (Granger) better shots,” Frank Vogel said. “I don’t know if he’s going to have a huge offensive series, especially when he has to guard LeBron James for 38 minutes. That takes a lot out of your offensive game.”
Miami’s wing players, James and Wade, went for 61 points. Indiana’s wings, Granger and George, scored 13 on 2-of-15 combined shooting.
Is that officiating? No.
After Chris Bosh went out near the end of the first half, the Pacers allowed themselves to get eviscerated by the likes of Rony Turiaf and Joel Anthony. Really. Turiaf and Anthony.
Here was a magnificent chance to steal Game 1, and the Pacers threw it away with a shaky second half.
Complain all you want, but in the third quarter, the Pacers were outscored 18-4 in points in the paint and got beat 6-1 in second-chance points. Anthony, in particular, was a game-changer, spelling Bosh and scoring nine points with seven rebounds.
Is that officiating? No.
Kravitz is right too. If Danny Granger and Paul George show up tonight, the Pacers could prove to be a handful over the next couple weeks for the Miami Heat. That’s up to George and Granger respectively though. Chris Bosh won’t be showing up for his Miami Heat tonight to combat David West and company, and there’s nothing that he or his team can do about that at this point.
We’ll have more on this series on Wednesday following Tuesday night’s game.
