Indiana Pacers hold Miami heat scoreless for the last 2:15 to square the Eastern Conference Semifinals series at one all
The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Heat in game 2 of their Eastern Conference Semi Final series to tie the series at 1 game apiece. The series will now move to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the next two games.
Miami Heat entered the home court without Chris Bosh who had strained an abdominal muscle during game 1 against the Pacers. Without him, the Heat did not have any inside presence and the scoring responsibility on LeBron James and
Dwyane Wade increased even more.
James had a game high 28 points, 9 rebounds, 6 steals and 5 assists while Dwyane Wade added 24 points and 6 rebounds, but the rest of the Miami roster combined to score only 23 points, shooting only 9 of 34 from the field.
The Pacers, on the other hand, had four players in double figures, led by David West with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
It was a low scoring game with no team shooting better than 40% from the field – Miami infact shot a season low 34.6 percent. The defense of both teams was intense as playoff basketball caught up with them. There were a few heated
instances in the game as well, with Wade picking up a flagrant 1 foul for pushing Darren Collison from behind while he was on the fast break. Wade was frustrated for not getting a foul on an earlier possession and took it out on Collison.
Miami led 38-33 at halftime, and seemed to be in control of the game till then. They led the Pacers for much of the 2nd period, extending their lead to 9 at one point. The Pacers, however, went on a 12-0 run in the 3rd
period to come from behind and take a 53-46 lead. The Pacers extended it into a 20-4 spurt and led by 61-52 at the close of the 3rd period.
Miami cut the Pacers lead down to 2 with a floating jump shot by Wade which capped a 14-4 run with 4:48 left in the game. Then after James split a pair from the stripe, Wade sunk a jump shot to give Miami a 72-71 lead, their first
since the 3rd quarter. David West scored a crucial layup to put Indiana up by three but Wade responded with a jump shot that had Miami trail the Pacers 75-76 with 2:41 left in the game.
From there on, only two more points were scored in the game, both by Indiana. Miami went scoreless in the last 2:41 minutes of the game, missing 6 field goal attempts and two free throws, both by James. The 6 missed shots also
came either from Wade or James. With Bosh out of the lineup, Miami kept relying on Wade and James, who scored 21 of the 23 fourth quarter points for the Miami Heat.
Paul George was fouled and went to the line to miss both free throws. On the next possession, James was fouled and he also missed both free throws that could have given Miami the lead. Roy Hibbert was then fouled and he made 1
of 2 to give Indiana a 77-75 lead. Wade missed a layup attempt on the next possession and Miami had to foul Indiana with 16 seconds left in the game. They sent George Hill to the free throw line, who also scored 1 of 2 to give the Pacers a 78-75 lead. With
the final possession of the game, Miami had a chance to tie but Mario Chalmers three point attempt failed, and Indiana won 78-75.
Expect James and Wade, no other Heat player made any impression offensively. For the Pacers, West led the scoring with 16 points. George Hill had 15 points, Paul George added 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Danny Granger had 11
points and 6 rebounds. Roy Hibbert added 8 points and 11 rebounds and Leandro Barbosa came off the bench to score 8 crucial points. It was an overall team effort for the Pacers.
The Pacers won the rebounding contest with Bosh out of the Heat lineup, as they had 50 rebounds compared to 40 for the Heat. Indiana shot 37.8% from the field while Miami shot 34.6%. The Heat were 1 of 16 from the distance and
20-29 from the foul line for the night. Pacers were 3 of 15 from beyond the arc and 19-27 from the foul line, better than the Heat.
Game 3 of this series will take place at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Thursday night.
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