Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Quick Thoughts on Heat-Pacers First of 10 Meetings


A lot of basketball fans start to tune in to the NBA Regular Season starting Christmas Day, the day with delicious marquee match-ups. From that day forward, the NBA becomes more apparent on TV schedules, and everyone gets ready for the postseason. Because of this, it is rare that an early season match-up attracts the attention of the causal fans, but last night's Heat-Pacers battle certainly drew the attention of the entire NBA community. 

This game was a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Finals, and everyone assumes (rightfully so) that these two teams will meet again in this year's Eastern Conference Finals. The high profile match-up brought a great deal of intensity, and it is clear both teams were interested in sending a message before the rest of their contests for the year. Because of the importance of this regular season game, we thought it deserved a blog post providing you with some quick thoughts on what happening.

- A lot is going to be made about Paul George's improvement in the second half over the first, and he is clearly a great player, but by my count, George was held scoreless from the field with LeBron covering him. LeBron picked up his third foul covering George, and immediately switched defensive assignments with Dwyane Wade. Much of George's second half points came with Wade or Ray Allen on him. In a playoff series, George is going to have to be able to get buckets with LeBron on him.

- George also faced a lot of double teams in the game. He's made some great strides to super stardom this year, but he has to find the open man a bit quicker in order to keep the Pacers' offense moving.

- Pacers have to be smarter with the ball, especially David West. In a crunch time playoff setting, Heat are going to continue being the favorites until Pacers either beat them in a series, or show that the game is slowing down for them, and they are able to make the correct pass. Indiana threw the ball to the Heat on multiple occasions, and West even threw a pass directly into Roy Hibbert's face.

- Hibbert dominated the game per usual against the Heat. It seems like Roy is at his best against Miami, but last night was absolutely a physical game for him. It looks like Miami is going to try to beat him up a little bit inside, to make up for a lack of height.

- Rashard Lewis and Chris Anderson were definitely agitators last night. They were trying to get under the Pacers' skin, especially West. They were able to entice West and company into a couple fouls throughout the game. Those can be important in a playoff series. I could see a future match-up in the regular season getting real chippy.

- LeBron contributed to the game in a lot of positive ways, despite not taking over the game at any point. This is obviously what makes him the league's best player. The broadcast did a good job of pointing out how good he is at getting down the court both on offense and defense, but I thought his box outs on free-throws also showed an attention to detail and fundamentals that nobody in the league can match.

- The Heat are still the defending champs, and thus the team to beat, but I think we might see them add one or two guys throughout the season. They missed Michael Beasley off the bench, but they still feel like they are too reliant on Wade, Chris Bosh, and James.

- Lance Stephenson has a ridiculous first step, and he used it to create some turnovers. Lance with a full head of steam is a frightening sight.

- Frank Vogel is great, and I'm a big fan of what he's done with a solid collection of talent. I can't find a good reason on why they'd run George/Luis Scola pick'n'rolls while Wade was covering George and James was on Scola. They ran it a handful of times, and it was quite unsuccessful. I question the strategy of essentially gifting a Wade/LeBron double team to the Heat defense. If I am a coach in the NBA, I'm doing everything in my power to make sure that I'm keeping LeBron (the best defensive presence in the league) away from my pick'n'rolls when he's covering a talent like Scola. Scola just doesn't have the athleticism to make them pay.

The Pacers came away from this one victorious, but it did not  feel like a statement win. The impending playoff series between these two teams is clearly going to go seven games, as they still seem very evenly matched. All we can hope for as NBA fans is that injuries will stay away from these two teams. 

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