The Indiana Pacers may have struggled late in the regular season, but they were built with the specific intent of beating this Miami Heat team. And they’ve been largely up to that challenge, including in Game 3, where the combination of the league’s top defense and a size advantage on the offensive end bullied Miami in the early going, with the Pacers looking every bit like legitimate contenders in building a 15-point lead that held late into the second quarter.
But the Heat adjusted, and didn’t just mount a comeback — they exploited every advantage possible. Behind efficient performances from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, along with a devastating fourth quarter from Ray Allen, Miami cruised to a 99-87 victory that gave the team a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
In the first half, it was David West, Roy Hibbert and Luis Scola punishing the Heat inside. The trio combined for 27 of Indiana’s 42 points, 24 of which were scored in the paint as the Pacers shot better than 53 percent over the game’s first 24 minutes. Miami, meanwhile, couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, scoring just five points in the first nine and a half minutes, while turning the ball over seven times during that span.
In the second half, however, the Heat stabilized. They implemented a full-court press that forced the issue for an offensively-challenged Pacers team, and were able to get rolling offensively thanks to Wade’s 10 points in the third, and Allen’s 13 points in the fourth.
That was largely the difference. Indiana can defend for only so long, before the matchups begin to fail and the Heat find ways to work them to their advantage. David West was assigned to Allen for much of the final period, and you just can’t have one of the game’s most historically deadly shooters being left open on rotations if you expect to compete with the defending champs. Allen was 4-of-4 from three-point distance in the fourth, and those shots were all back-breakers that helped push the Heat’s advantage to an insurmountable margin.
Wade continued his extremely efficient series in finishing with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, and Chris Bosh continued to be largely ineffective while finishing with just nine points and four rebounds, on just 4-of-12 shooting in only 23 minutes of action.
The Pacers were constructed properly, and undoubtedly have the talent and the personnel to compete with this Heat team. But they’ll need to execute at maximum levels on both ends of the floor for more than half the game in order to have a chance in this series. And right now, after two consecutive comeback wins, Miami seems to be gaining all kinds of confidence in realizing it has simply too much for Indiana to deal with for extended stretches.
