Pacers Even Series With Heat at 2-2
Roy Hibbert and David West have the size. Do they have what it takes to stop the Heat?
The Indiana Pacers have one weapon the Miami Heat cannot seem to stop. That is Roy Hibbert. In Game Four of the Eastern Conference Finals , Hibbert owned the glass in the last 2:00 minutes, snatching several offensive rebounds and putting them back in for Pacers buckets. If the Pacers are smart enough to leave Hibbert on the floor and get him the ball, they could actually pull this upset off.
The Pacers, who played an entirely too soft game in Game Three, came out and got physical in Game Four. They owned the paint, outscoring the Heat 50-32 inside and out-rebounding them 49-30. The game saw many fouls called which resulted in Lebron James fouling out and Dwayne Wade being saddled with his fifth foul with around 4:00 left to play. With the Heat stars unable to play defense down the stretch, Hibbert had free reign in the paint. He ended up with 23 points and 12 rebounds on the night.
The scene shifts to Miami for Game Five, but don’t think that automatically means a Heat win. The Pacers gained a split in the first two games in Miami and nearly won them both, losing Game One in overtime. The Pacers made the adjustments after the heat whipped them in Game Three. Now it is up to the Heat to do the same. They will try to get Chris “Bird Man” Anderson back into the mix, he never attempted a shot in Game Four. And they will need to get production again from the other role players as they did in Game Three, such as Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers and Ray Allen. The Heat also needs something from Shane Battier who has made only two field goals in this series.
Paul George and David West are becoming stars in this series. But in Game Four they got a lot of help from Lance Stephenson with 20 points and George Hill with 19 points. West added a double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The team really loving the outcome of Game Four is the San Antonio Spurs. The Pacers and Heat will now go at least to six games which means the winner will have played at least three times while the Spurs were at home resting after their four game sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies. If it goes to seven games then make that four games while the Spurs rest. So the Spurs may not care who wins, but what they want is a split in the next two. The way the series has gone so far, that looks like a done deal.
We still hate to count the Heat out, they are the defending champs for a reason. But if they can’t find an answer for Hibbert, they could be in trouble.
