I just don't want to watch the Spurs annihilate another team in the finals, and the pacers are literally that team.
The ref crew is the last one the Pacers wanted. A "let them play" crew that calls it loose so each Pacer starter logs 40+ minutes with no foul trouble was the preference.
Except that they did outrebound both the Celtics and the Thunder. So when it counted, they did. In this series it's been a totally different story vs. last year. Bosh's rebound average? 3.7.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/s...nutes-from-starters-to-close-gap-on-heat.html great read David vs Goliath! The Miami Heat won 66 regular-season games, six more than any other team in the N.B.A. They had the league’s most potent offense and were captained by LeBron James, the N.B.A. most valuable player and consensus best player in the world. Off the Dribble Keep up with the latest news, on the court and off, with The Times's basketball blog. Go to Off the Dribble N.B.A. Live Scoreboard Teams | Player Stats Knicks Schedule/Results Roster | Player Stats Nets Schedule/Results Roster | Player Stats W.N.B.A. Live Scoreboard Teams | Player Stats Liberty Schedule/Results Roster | Player Stats After what only they would consider a slow start, they finished the season with an incredible 38-3 blitz, outscoring their opponents by an average of more than 10 points a game. Many considered them the best team since Michael Jordan and the Bulls won 72 games in 1996, and rightfully so. The Heat were so dominant that most assumed they would waltz through the Eastern Conference playoffs before they faced their first real test. So, how are these Indiana Pacers, who won a comparatively modest 49 regular-season games, fighting this historically great team to a draw through six rugged playoff games? Where did these guys come from? The Pacers’ rise has been more like a slow rising tide rather than a flash flood. Unlike most teams still in contention this time of year, the Indiana Pacers were very much a work in progress two months into the season. They started 10-10, in large part because their two most important players, Paul George and Roy Hibbert, bore little resemblance to the confident and effective players they have been throughout the playoffs. Hibbert’s offensive game was in shambles for the first two months of the season. He picked up his scoring in a way that approximates the 22 points per game he has averaged against the Heat only in the last six weeks of the season. Because Hibbert was an All-Star the previous season, his early struggles can be viewed as a hiccup in an otherwise constant ascent. George, on the other hand, was unexpectedly thrust into a starring role when it was announced that small forward Danny Granger, the player who had carried the Pacers’ franchise for nearly five years, would be out for at least three months to start the season. Last season, Granger was the team’s best and most frequent shooter as well as a secondary ball handler, while George was a defensive specialist. Points from him were found money to the Pacers. Though the franchise always held high expectations for George, suddenly he had to deliver on his promising talent or his team would founder. George took more than a month to adjust before assuming an assertive demeanor on offense to complement his defensive attitude. Hibbert and George, like most of the Pacers, are young players on the rise. Unlike veteran-laden teams that are only hoping to stay healthy and gel throughout the year, the Pacers have a number of players on the cusp of their primes. George is at that exciting phase in a young player’s career when he starts to realize just how great he can be. In George, the Pacers may very well have landed that most valuable N.B.A. commodity: a two-way superstar. But during the season, the Pacers’ offense never eclipsed mediocre even with George and Hibbert firing on all cylinders. That was not the fault of the Pacers’ starters. In fact, if the Pacers’ starting unit could have played 48 minutes a game, it would have had the second best offense in the N.B.A. The problem was that the Pacers have one of the worst bench units in the N.B.A., and in the regular season, Frank Vogel simply could not afford to wear down his best talents by playing them long minutes. In the playoffs, however, the best players play more, and few teams benefit more from this dynamic than the Pacers. The Pacers’ bench players are so bad that if just one player in the lineup of George Hill, Lance Stephenson, Paul George, David West and Roy Hibbert is unavailable, it immediately and drastically weakens the team. San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich also tends to play his starters for less time than do many other coaches, but he has the luxury of an effective and offensively explosive bench. In part because his team can thrive without them, Popovich has been praised for his insistence on resting key players. Vogel took a similar, but less heralded, approach, playing Hibbert fewer than 30 minutes a game in the regular season even though Hibbert’s replacement could not approximate his impact. In the playoffs, Hibbert is up to nearly 40 minutes a game, an enormous, game-changing escalation from his regular-season output. Against no team could it be more important that Hibbert play 30 percent more than the Heat, because no one deters LeBron James from attacking the rim the way Hibbert does. Just as impressive, he has helped the Pacers unlock the Heat’s defensive scheme by exploiting mismatches when the Heat trap and rotate. As soon as his man leaves him, whether to help on a pick-and-roll or a driving Pacer, Hibbert rumbles toward the rim looking for the pass or, if his teammate shoots, to collect the offensive rebound. The Heat are disciplined on defense and usually send someone to Hibbert, but the Pacers center is so massive that only one or two Heat players on the court can really bother his shot. What the Heat would usually find an acceptable mismatch between, say, Shane Battier and the other team’s center becomes a damning disadvantage against Hibbert. The skill of the Pacers’ tall players creates problems for the Heat, and Vogel has done well to overcome the limitations of his ball handlers to keep Hibbert and West involved. There is a reason that, in the regular season, only five teams scored better against the Heat than did the Pacers. Of course, a healthy Dwyane Wade might render all the Pacers’ incremental increases in quality moot. But because of his knee issues, Wade, usually a basket-seeking missile, has torpedoed the Heat’s offense. He does not have the burst to escape one-on-one coverage, and he is nowhere near his usual high-flying, disruptive self on defense. Wade’s ineffectual play and poor 3-point shooting from key Heat role players have combined with extra minutes for the best Pacers to narrow the gap. And in closing what was a 17-win game spread in the regular season, the Pacers have created an opening to the N.B.A. finals.
Foster is the official who received 134 phone calls from disgraced referee Tim Donaghy between October 2006 and April 2007, as originally reported by FOX News. That was the same period during which Donaghy admitted to betting on NBA games. The report said that Donaghy called Foster more than 10 times more often than any other ref. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/06/...y-phone-calls-refereeing-celtics-heat-game-3/
This day will forever be called the Day of Game Seven. Decades from now we will stand proud and recall this day, offer up a toast, and recount the glory. None shall forget their names: Roy, David, Paul, Lance, George, and Frank the wise leader; all with overflowing cups will be forever praised. We shall tell the tale to sons and daughters. No game seven shall pass, from this day to the end of the world, without their feat remembered. The Pacer crew, a happy few, a band of brothers; unseated the false King and joined the list of honored greats. Those who did not watch, or worse, those that watched and yet refused to believe, shall curse the day they missed the chance to cheer on those brave Pacers who fought and won that Seventh Game.
pacertom...what are you going to do...with this inevitable loss tonight...sadly...it was a fun ride, but i think reality sets in...This is the NBA...and the Miami Heat are the NBA darlings for a reason...If the Pacers can do the unthinkable...kudos to you and pacer nation...Btw...regardless of who wins...there is a beast that is just sitting and waiting for the spoils...
Bosh's head is so messed up by being dominated over and over again that he seriously had to stand up and apologize to his teammates! http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/201...-apologizes-miami-heat-play-vs-indiana-pacers "It's hard, no homo," Bosh said, with a wink on the "no homo" part "I just need to do what I do and just let it all hang out, no homo (winks again)"
This game is really exciting -- hopefully it will live up to the hype -- certainly the single biggest game in the NBA (playoffs) for quite a long time.
This is why you try to get the home court advantage in the playoffs. Game 7 at home is a huge advantage. Miami should win.
I can't wait for this one to start. I have a feeling the Pacers are going to surprise and win it. Seventh games are sometimes real surprises. Not only a matter of who wins, but how. The seventh game with the Mavs a few years ago that was won by 40 points was a shocker. No one was expecting a blow out of the Rockets. The Rockets had a 2-0 lead in that series coming home! Up until now (on the Spurs bench) that was the best chance for TMac to advance.
To those of you who think the Heat will win tonight because of the rigged game that will happen, why bother watching? Many people will be happy to see the Heat lose. But remember guys, we'll still be back to our normal lives with our problems while Lebron will still be rich.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Prediction for tonight. Every call that doesn't go pacers way will be part of illuminati level conspiracy against Indiana.<a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23yawn">#yawn</a></p>— Colin Cowherd (@ESPN_Colin) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPN_Colin/status/341677560872177664">June 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ndiana-should-pull-for-lebron-james-in-game-7 All Hail King Lebron of the House James, the First of his Name, King of the Cavaliers and the Heat and the All-NBA, MVP of the Thirty Kingdoms and Star of the League (But seriously. Stuff like this is why I want the Heat to crash and burn.)
With so many rooting for the earlier underdog, it's starting to look like the Heat are the underdog :grin:
