After cruising through the NBA playoffs winning eight of their first nine games, the Miami Heat take a backseat in Indiana as the Pacers throttle them from the perimeter and at free throw line to take Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combine for 52 of the team's 96 points, and outside of Chris Anderson and Ray Allen hitting the double-digit mark and be efficient from the field, no one else showed up on the Heat. Nobody was able to hit from the perimeter, the team hitting a cold 6-of-23 including Chris Bosh's 0-for-5 and just 4-for-12 from the field overall.
While the Heat were making free throws, they just weren't getting there enough. The Pacers took 22 more attempts. That's an incredibly rare deficit for Miami considering their superstars generally get the bulk of the calls.
If Indiana ends up winning Game 2 of this series, you can bet that there's going to be a definite swing in momentum when it comes to fouls being called in Miami. There is no conspiracy in NBA game fixing -- at least, not that we know of -- but we all know that these foul calls will balance out.
There's simply no way the Pacers are going to waltz into Miami and attempt nearly 40 free throws in a game, and they have to go into the game knowing that.
What they can control is shooting, and three of their starters -- Lance Stephenson, Paul George, and David West -- combined for 23-of-36 on field goals, a whopping 63.8 percent. That and rebounds (+9 from Game 1) are something they can control, which is where they match up the best against Miami and why we all considered Indiana to be the Heat killers from opening tip of the season.
Ever since "Boat Trip," the Pacers seem to have righted the ship. Now we'll just see how far it goes and how they respond to adversity in the following games.
NHL: Blackhawks take Game 1 against the Kings
Chicago's defense tightened up in the third period, allowing just four shots on goal by Los Angeles as they cruise to the series-opening victory. Despite having six more shot attempts, only getting 15.3% of them in the final stretch down a goal isn't acceptable. Tyler Toffoli had his fourth goal in the postseason.
MLB: Giants avoid three-game skid against Marlins
San Francisco's Ryan Vogelsong shut down the all-of-a-sudden hot Miami offense, giving up only five hits and one walk. A 3-run jolt to start the game in the first inning along with Pablo Sandoval's solo shot in the fifth inning (extending his nine-game hitting streak) was all they needed to win, but things got a bit dicey in the eighth inning when the Marlins had runners in the corners.
However, the fish aren't the 2-out scorers like the Giants are, who scored eight of their 15 total runs on two outs and leads MLB with 86 2-out RBIs.
LAX: Johns Hopkins falls to Duke
The Blue Devils began the game with a 6-0 run and finished scoring seven of the last eight goals, holding their lead to head to the NCAA semifinals. They only scored three goals in the first 21 minutes of play in the first half, but the Blue Jays never felt like a threat on offense. Duke dominated ball control with a 37-19 advantage in ground balls and held JHU to just two shots in the final period. JHU going 3-3 in EMOs in the first half were the only thing that kept them in the game.
Today's Slate
(Central times listed)
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS - ROUND 3
Rangers at Canadiens (NYR 1-0) - 7:00 NBCS
NBA PLAYOFFS - CONF FINALS
Thunder at Spurs (Game 1) - 8:00 TNT
No comments:
Post a Comment