Even for the Miami Heat, this game was an outlier.
They scored 70 points on 63 percent shooting with one turnover in the first half. Udonis Haslem hit 8-of-9 to lead Heat players outside the “big three” shooting 55 percent. Haslem’s shooting eventually pulled Roy Hibbert away from the paint and opened everything inside. LeBron James did damage in the post, Dwyane Wade hit 8-of-14 and pretty much anything the Heat did went right.
Come Game 4 Tuesday night it is unlikely the Heat will put together that amazing an effort.
But the fact they can once or twice in a seven game series — that for one game they can be so dominant that the best defense in the NBA looks helpless — is part of why it is so hard to beat them four out of seven. Miami just took one game off the board, saying to the Pacers “in a tightly contested series now you have to beat us four out of six, we’re just going to own this one.”
It stacks the deck against the team in the other uniform, whether it be yellow pinstripes or any other color.
“If you are not perfect guarding them they will do what they did to us tonight,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said after the game. “Sometimes when you are perfect with your coverages they find ways to make baskets.”
Haslem jumped in the hot tub time machine back to 2005 and was the key for Miami. There was a time years ago when Haslem was automatic from 15 feet out along the baseline, he was that guy again Sunday night.
It put Hibbert in an impossible position. In Game 2 Indiana was able to park Hibbert near the paint and let him alter drives and grab rebounds because neither Haslem nor anyone else made him pay. Sunday, Haslem made him pay. By the second half Hibbert had to step out of the paint to respect that shot and things opened up for LeBron James to post up on the left block. Indiana left Paul George on an island with him one-on-one on the block and, as great a defender as George is, that was not going to work.
It was more than that. It was an up-tempo first half that played to Miami’s strengths. It was Dwyane Wade driving the lane and breaking down the Pacers defense in the first half (six assists before the break). It was Miami getting 32 points in the paint in the first half. To quote Dawes, it was a little bit of everything.
Miami overwhelms even good teams teams sometimes. It happens.
It doesn’t mean Game 4 will look like that — I expect it will not. Indiana’s defense will be sharper and they will have some adjustments. In Game 3 the Pacers continued to have good offensive success against the Heat’s defense.
I expect Game 4 will be close, more like games one and two. Indiana may or may not get the win.
But you can’t beat the Heat in a series playing them to a tie most nights then occasionally getting blown out. Game 3 does not define this series. But it makes it a whole lot harder for Indiana to win it.
