Miami Heat play hosts to the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 - NBA Playoffs 2012: Preview
On Tuesday night at the American Airlines Arena, the Miami Heat will play hosts to the Indiana Pacers in the fifth game of their Eastern Conference Semi-Final series. The first four games of this series have
been split up 2-2 much in the same way, they split the four games of the regular season.
The game one went to Miami, Indiana took the second at the South Beach and the teams again split the two games at Indianapolis.
The highlight game of the series from a Miami point of view may have been their 101-93 win in Game 4 which saw their star duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade put together a combined total of 70 points, 27 rebounds
and 15 assists in the ball game.
However the crucial scoring came from a player who has been under the radar for most part of his Miami career. Udonis Haslem chipped in 14 points with 8 of them coming in the final quarter of the contest.
Performances like these do remind as to why James is the best basketball player of his generation, but heading into the game 5, the big question is whether he will be able to sustain this level of performance
against a physically tough Indiana team, which has made it a point to hound him.
The game was also a stand out game for Wade who racked up 30 points on the night after putting up a 5 point performance in the previous game – the worst playoff output of his career.
However the question yet remains, are the Heat ready to past this huge hurdle of the Pacers standing in their way and making it to the Conference finals, let alone win a championship.
One thing that needs to change for this unit is the performances of role players like Ronny Turiaf, Joel Anthony and Mario Chalmers. Chalmers racked up his playoff best of 25 points in the Game 3 loss and that
has only been the highlight for him in this post season.
Norris Cole, in his rookie year, had shown much promise during the regular season but has disappeared in the post season. The lack of productivity from the rest of the Miami team has been the focal point of their
demise and Indiana Head Coach, Frank Vogel is well aware of the fact.
However at the moment he has got his hands full while trying to find a way to contain two of the most feared scorers in the league.
"It comes down to this: yes, you can get the ball out of their hands and make other guys make plays but you get the ball out of one of those guys' hands and it finds its way to the other guy. It's not just like
one superhero and a bunch of role players. You've got to worry about the other guy." – Frank Vogel
One thing that is in Indiana`s favour before the start of this game that putting up numbers like that cannot be sustained on a consistent level and the Big two of Heat are bound to slow down. And when they do
the Pacers will be looking to pounce at the first chance given to them.
The key to winning for the Pacers will lie with their defensive capabilities because they do not have to worry about scoring, with several different options at their disposal.
It would also be interesting to see how Danny Granger would approach this game as he has been involved in a couple of heated confrontations with several Miami players.
Pacers will have to dominate the game from the inside as well and it would be interesting to see how the duo of Roy Hibbert and David West perform in an away atmosphere with the series in its crucial stages.
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