https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duKGWUmQMRQ

The Heat bring out the best in the Pacers. Maybe they have all along.

It took this matchup against their hated rivals to bring the Pacers back to reality. For the first time all Playoffs, the Pacers were the dominant defensive team, bullying their way into the paint and moving the ball with speed and purpose. They kept the Heat on the perimeter, despite seeing the pace picked up to a level the Heat probably liked.

All five Pacers starters scored in double figures. Paul George scored 24 points and dished out seven assists. Roy Hibbert and David West each had 19 points. They beat the Heat up inside. Indiana had 23 assists on 35 field goal attempts. The Pacers made 29 of 37 free throws, attacking and getting to the line against the Heat’s defense.

They also hit eight of 19 3-pointers.

The Heat seemed to have all the opposite problems. They settled for mid-range jumpers, were unable to get out on the break or crack the Pacers’ defense. They were passive and let Indiana dictate everything.

Sure LeBron James and Dwyane Wade got their numbers. James scored 25 points to go with 10 rebounds, shooting 11 for 18 from the floor. Wade had 27 points on 12-for-18 shooting. Miami even shot 51.3 percent from the floor. Chris Andersen even scored 14 points.

But Miami just never could get back into the game. The stops were never there. They brought Indiana’s double digit deficit to eight points once and it was all Pacers. Trading baskets was not going to be enough.

Indiana had the right motivation and the right energy to win one game. They need three more to accomplish their big goals from the whole season. It is still out there, despite it all.

The Clippers had their chance. They really did.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were struggling to put the ball in the basket and Los Angeles had control of the game and the pace, taking the lead. It was just never big enough. Durant and Westbrook are not going to stay down too long. An 8-12 point lead was not going to be enough with the eventuality Durant and Westbrook would make their shots.

The onslaught came, the Clippers could not stop it. And now they are headed home into the uncertainty of the offseason and their franchise situation.

There was bitter disappointment that things did not end better for the Clippers. For the Thunder, there was the confidence that Durant and Westbrook can save them from just about anything. That they can grind their way through a game until that point when their two stars can take over.

Durant recovered from a slow first quarter start to score 39 points. Russell Westbrook had 19 points on 4-for-13 shooting, but dished out 12 assists, helping keep the offense going even while he was struggling to make plays for himself.

Oklahoma City got big support from some role players too. Steven Adams was active around the basket and Reggie Jackson had his best game of the series off the bench.

The Clippers got great efforts from Chris Paul (25 points, 11 assists, 7 rebounds), Blake Griffin (22 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists) and J.J. Redick (16 points, 7/17 FGs). But they needed a bit more to keep distance from the Thunder. When their shots stopped falling, the Thunder came back and in a big way.

See you next year, L.A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2O6AAkLoRY

The Pacers are where they were supposed to be all along. In the Eastern Conference Finals, with homecourt advantage, against the Heat.

It was not easy. It was a long and winding road to get there. But here they are.

On the back of David West, a rock offensively this postseason who has found the big shots when his team needed a big offensive performance desperately. He scored 29 points as the Pacers used a 20-6 run to put the Wizards away and finish off their second round series with a 93-80 win at Verizon Center.

Washington rallied from a double-digit deficit and took the lead behind a Bradley Beal 3-pointer. John Wall used his blinding speed to get out in the open court as the Wizards were finally able to push the pace. Indiana lost control over the game.

West calmed the Pacers down. That is what he has done time and time again. He hit jumpers and got post ups to go around the basket.

The Wizards began pressing and the shots stopped falling. That momentary lead was gone in a hurry and the Pacers finished things off.

Lance Stephenson woke up from his season-long slumber to support West, scoring 17 points. That is just in time too with the Heat coming up.

Marcin Gortat scored 19 points as Wall and Beal struggled from the floor. Washington had the effort and nearly got it. But experience and poise won the day for Indiana. Now the Pacers get exactly what they have wanted all year.

In the end, this was not much of a game. Or a much of a series really.

Portland was not really in the same league as San Antonio. Not with the way the Spurs were able to focus in, choke off the Blazers’ potent offense and score at will. Or even not score at will. The Spurs had a stretch in their 104-82 series clincher where they could not get a field goal. And yet their lead was hardly threatened.

The Blazers scored 38 points in the second half, falling deeper into the pit of the Spurs trap.

Even with Tony Parker leaving the game in the second quarter with a strained hamstring. The Spurs insist he would have been ready had there been a Game Six. No need for that anymore.

Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green each had 22 points. Leonard went into his beast mode with a foray of fast break runs toward the rim and dunks. Patty Mills scored 18 points in Parker’s stead.

LaMarcus Aldridge completed a strong postseason with 21 points and Damian Lillard had 17 points. The Blazers though scored only eight points off the bench. A problem Portland will have to remedy this offseason.

The Spurs though can rest a bit before the Western Conference Finals begin next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Ip7QpnaHE

If anyone would know not to give Ray Allen space, it would have to be the Nets right? Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have seen Allen drain that corner three with less than two minutes, one minute, 30 seconds time and time again. It had so rarely happened to them.

Their last great shot at winning a championship may very well have ended that way. The Heat, trailing by around eight points for much of the second half and unable to get over the hump until they suddenly did.

Allen capped off that run with a corner 3-pointer, a tough one that had him backing up to get to the line. It gave the Heat a two-point lead. Miami needed two defensive stops to put the game away. The last came with LeBron James and Allen combining to force the ball out of Joe Johnson’s hands. Brooklyn did not even get off a shot as the team’s season ended with a 96-94 defeat.

Joe Johnson was the right guy to have the ball. He scored 34 points and carried Brooklyn offensively. He hit tough shot after tough shot over the defense. Just he could not get that shot to fall at the end. And the Nets threw the game away in many ways, unable to execute at the end.

LeBron James scored 29 points and got to the line 17 times, making 15. Dwyane Wade scored 20 of his 28 points in the first half.

And now the Heat are one step closer to a third championship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ774pnbUrY

On the glass, on the scoreboard, in Boggle. It did not matter what kind of game the Wizards were playing against the Pacers. Indiana did not show up. Well Indianapolis and the state of Indiana showed up hoping to see their team realize they were still on track and get to the Eastern Conference Finals, but the Pacers just did not show up in a 102-79 Wizards win to force a Game Six on Thursday.

Certainly not on the glass, where Washington held an incredible 62-23 advantage, including 18 offensive rebounds for Washington. Certainly not anywhere.

Marcin Gortat scored 17 of his 31 points in the first half and the Wizards just kept collecting their misses and putting them back in. The Pacers were lethargic and lackadaisical. They were getting beat to every loose ball and every rebound. The rebound stat really says it all for Indiana and the effort and urgency Washington put into this game. The Wizards were clearly the ones playing with elimination on the line.

The Pacers? It is hard to explain how something like this could happen?

Roy Hibbert had no rebounds. Paul George had just one rebound total. David West grabbed only six rebounds. These are the star players and they have to lead with their effort.

John Wall did that in awakening from his slump and scoring 27 points on 11-for-20 shooting. He took control of the third quarter as Washington turned a seven-point halftime lead into a 30-point lead on the road.

This inconsistency from the Pacers really has to stop if they want to continuing scraping and advancing. Maybe they are doing just what they have to do.