Pacers-Heat Preview

By MATT BECKER
Posted Mar 09 2012 7:27PM

Using a late rally to narrowly beat a good team their last time out, the Miami Heat feel like surviving that challenge will help them in the long run.

They received no such test in either of their first two games against the Indiana Pacers.

The Heat, seeking a 12th consecutive home win, try to build on an encouraging victory and beat the Pacers for a fifth straight time Saturday night.

After cruising to a 108-78 win over New Jersey on Tuesday to avoid a three-game losing streak, the Heat (30-9) had some trouble getting past Atlanta the following night. They were down 65-55 with four minutes to go in the third quarter and still trailed with less than two minutes left in the fourth, but Dwyane Wade put Miami up for good with a 12-foot jumper en route to an 89-86 victory.

"We stuck with it until we eventually got the lead," said Wade, who started after sitting out the second half Tuesday with a sore right ankle. "And we were able to hold on and get a good win."

While Wade was held under 20 points for a season-high third straight game but had nine rebounds with six assists, LeBron James finished with 31 points and 11 boards for his fourth double-double in five games.

The Heat, riding their longest home winning streak since a 14-game run from Jan. 22-March 16, 2007, had lost a couple of close games to Utah and the Los Angeles Lakers in the past week. Their previous 11 victories before Wednesday had all been by at least 12 points.

"We needed one of these games," said James, third in the league in scoring at 27.7 per game. "It's about time we had one of these games where we had to fight for every minute, all the way down the stretch. ... It was good for us to close this game out."

While the Heat used a late run to beat the Hawks, they essentially had Indiana (23-14) beaten by halftime in the first two meetings.

Miami, playing without Wade, defeated the Pacers 118-83 on Jan. 4 behind James' 33 points, then won 105-90 in Indiana on Feb. 14. The Heat led by at least 35 points in each game and completely shut down Danny Granger, limiting Indiana's leading scorer to nine total points on 3-of-17 shooting.

"We've just got to understand you're going to have bad nights in the NBA and we happened to have two bad nights the two times we played Miami," coach Frank Vogel told the Pacers' official website. "We know we're a very good team right now. We're trying to become a great team and it starts with the challenges in front of us. We've got to improve and we've got to put together a better basketball game against Miami than we have the first two times. It's that simple."

The Heat have won four straight and eight of nine in this series, but they haven't been the only playoff contender to give Indiana trouble.

The Pacers lost 92-72 to Chicago on Monday and 101-96 to Atlanta the following night in their past two games. They've dropped six straight to teams with records currently over .500.

Those two defeats came after the Pacers had won six in a row with all of the victories coming against sub-.500 teams, including two apiece over the worst in each conference - New Orleans and Charlotte.

The Pacers are one of the league's top rebounding teams at 43.9 per game, but they were outrebounded 105-69 by the Bulls and Hawks this week.

"I don't think we were ourselves the last two games," Vogel said.

Against Atlanta, David West had a season-high 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting, but the rest of Indiana's starters combined to shoot 34.1 percent (14 of 41).

Wade beats buzzer, Heat top Pacers 93-91 in OT

By TIM REYNOLDS
Posted Mar 11 2012 12:34AM

MIAMI (AP) LeBron James took over at the end of regulation. Chris Bosh tied the game in overtime. And Dwyane Wade provided the exclamation point, moments before the power was knocked out at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Miami's "Big Three" was big time.

And the Heat needed every one of their clutch plays.

Wade's jumper with 0.1 seconds left gave the Heat a 93-91 win against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, a game where James scored his team's last eight points of regulation to lead a wild comeback and that omnipresent question - "So who takes the big shots for Miami at crunch time?" - had three answers.

"Who's going to take the last shot? Whoever's open," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "And that's the point. We have a lot of weapons. We're at our best when you're not necessarily sure where that shot is coming from."

Wade scored 28 points, James added 27 and Bosh had 13 for the Heat, who extended their home-court winning streak to 12 games and remained tied in the loss column with Chicago and Oklahoma City in the race for the NBA's best record.

Over the final 18:18 of play, Miami led for just 12.2 seconds.

"We should have won the game," said Danny Granger, who led the Pacers with 19 points. "The game should have never gotten to overtime. We had them beat."

Almost did, anyway.

Miami trailed by three late in regulation and the Heat had missed 20 of their last 21 3-point attempts over parts of its last three games. Undeterred, James hit one from the corner to tie it, then took over on the defensive end, swarming Darren Collison so much that the Pacers' guard couldn't even get a pass off, much less a potential winning shot.

To overtime they went, and it seemed as if Miami's end-of-regulation effort would be wasted.

Granger's runner with 2:01 left in the extra session gave Indiana a 91-86 lead. The Pacers - who were blown out in their first two matchups with Miami this season - didn't score again.

James made another 3-pointer to start Miami's OT rally, Bosh tied it with a jumper with 1:03 left to play, and an offensive rebound off a missed 3 by James gave Miami the ball and a chance to take the last shot of the extra period.

"Tie game, we're either going to go another overtime or we're going to win this game," Wade said.

He went with Option B.

Udonis Haslem got the rebound of the missed 3, passed to James, who waved his fingers toward Wade. James handed the ball off, spread his arms wide and walked to the corner near the Heat bench, almost making sure he had a great view of what was coming.

Wade dribbled slowly at Paul George, head-faked him into the air, drew contact and then released a shot that dropped with almost no time left. He ran to the other end of the court in celebration, pointing to the floor and saying, "This is my house."

"That's his patented move," James said. "He got the guy up in the air with some contact, but he stayed with the shot. And that was a big-time shot."

Moments later, the power went off in the arena.

"He shot the lights out," Bosh said afterward.

David West finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for Indiana, which got 14 points from Collison and 12 from George.

"The OT was a wrap-up and summary of what this whole game was," George said. "We started off the aggressive team and we gave up the lead."

Miami lost reserve swingman Mike Miller with 5:05 left in the first half. He jumped to contest a pass by Collison, his left leg landing on the back of Bosh's foot. Miller fell to the court, and when he got up he immediately hopped up the tunnel that leads to the Heat locker room, not stopping at the bench or putting any weight on his left leg.

Miller was diagnosed with a sprained ankle. X-rays showed no break, and he did not return.

This season's first two Miami-Indiana meetings were over at halftime, with the Heat leading 62-39 in Miami on Jan. 4, then 68-39 in Indianapolis on Feb. 14 when they completed their three-wins-in-three-nights road stretch.

Someone had 39 at halftime again in this one, and it wasn't Indiana.

The Pacers led by as many as 14 in the first half, taking a 44-39 edge. Miami was 0 for 7 from the floor with four consecutive turnovers during one stretch, scoring only three points in 8 minutes.

Wade was 8 for 11 for 22 points for Miami, the third time he's scored that many in a first half this season. The rest of the Heat went 7 for 24 in the half, combining for 17 points. James had six at the break, matching his third-lowest-scoring regular-season first half since joining Miami.

All that was long forgotten by the end.

"We have to understand that we're a good basketball team," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "We proved that we could play with these guys. We should have pulled out this game. I feel like we gave the game away. But give credit to Miami. LeBron made superior plays and Dwyane made superior plays when the game was on the line."

The Heat were without assistant coach Bob McAdoo, the Hall of Fame player who missed the game with deep vein thrombosis, or blood clots that form deep in leg veins. Assistant coach Keith Askins, typically one row behind the Heat bench during games, sat in McAdoo's usual spot.

NOTES: World No. 1 golfer Rory McIlroy sat opposite the Heat bench. ... Granger missed about 3 minutes of the fourth quarter after banging his right hand while charging into Haslem. ... Referee Tre Maddox took a tumble over some courtside photographers in the first quarter, then made a call before getting to his feet.

Notebook: Heat 93, Pacers 91

Posted Sunday March 11, 2012 12:18AM

By Shandel Richardson, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Guard Dwyane Wade hit a 19-foot jumper with one-tenths of a second remaining to give the Miami Heat a 93-91 overtime victory against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Wade basket came after Heat forward LeBron James missed a potential game-winner. The shot was rebounded by Udonis Haslem, who quickly passed the ball to James. James then gave the ball to Wade for the final shot.

Wade, who finished with a game-high 28 points, hit the winner over Pacers guard Paul George. It was the Heat's 12th straight victory at home. James finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

It was James who was responsible for forcing overtime. He made a 3-pointer from the corner with 10.2 seconds left to tie it at 85.

The Pacers, who led by as many as 14 in the first half, were led by Danny Granger's 19 points and seven rebounds.

QUOTABLE: "It's a little different on the road when you make a big shot. It quiets the crowd. At home, it's a little different. You see so many people cheering and you kind of want to enjoy it with them. It was just a great moment in (AmericanAirlines Arena) to enjoy a gutsy win by our team."
-- Wade

THE STAT: The Heat shot 64 percent from the free throw line and 23 percent on 3-pointers, yet still were able to find a way to win on a night where they struggled offensively.

TURNING POINT: With the lead changing 13 times and 15 ties, this one was close throughout. The momentum never swayed until Wade's winning basket in the closing seconds.

QUOTABLE II: "We had this game won. We know we can compete with this team, if not beat this team. This was our game to win."
-- Pacers guard Darren Collison

HOT: Wade scored 22 of his points in the first half, setting the tone early. After a scoreless third quarter, he once again closed strong.

NOT: The Heat were once again cold from the 3-point line, going 3-for-13. This comes three days after shooting 0-for-10 against the Atlanta Hawks.

GOOD MOVE: For the past two years, it's been about which Heat player takes the last shot. After James got them to overtime, he then deferred to Wade in the closing moments.

BAD MOVE: The Pacers had a chance to close out the Heat when they led by five in overtime. Instead, they allowed the Heat to hang around, largely because of James' play.

NOTABLE: Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo was not in attendance because of a blood clot in his leg.

UP NEXT: For the Heat, Tuesday @ Orlando, Wednesday @ Chicago, Friday @ Philadelphia. For the Pacers, Sunday @ Orlando, Tuesday @ Portland, Wednesday @ Philadelphia.

• Pacers: --
• Heat: Harris

• Pacers: Vogel
• Heat: --

• Lead Changes: 13
• Times Tied: 15

• Arena: American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL
• Officials: #27 Dick Bavetta, #47 Bennie Adams, #73 Tre Maddox
• Attendance: 20154
• Duration: 2:41