The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers have played a tough series in the Eastern conference finals and now things will come down to a Game 7 matchup between the two teams in South Florida on Monday night to advance to play the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
The Pacers forced a Game 7 matchup with a 91-77 win at home and the Heat looked utterly lost at times as LeBron James was left as the only option for Miami late in the game. James led the team in scoring with 29 points and six assists, while Joel Anthony added eight rebounds, but both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were shut down in the game, leaving James to do much of the work himself. Paul George led the way once again for the Pacers with 29 points, while David West had 14 rebounds and George Hill recorded six assists. The Heat dominated the third quarter in Game 5, but this time around it was all Pacers as Indiana outscored Miami 29-15. In the previous game James scored or assisted on 25 of 30 points as the Heat outscored the Pacers 30-13 in the quarter of that game.
The Heat now will have to win at home to get to their third straight NBA finals, while the Pacers have the chance to get there for the first time in years with a win on the road after forcing Game 7. The depth of the Pacers really stood out on Saturday night, as the Heat couldn't counter with much, although Mike Miller got hot at points during the game to cut things down to four at one points, but George and Roy Hibbert hit some big shots at the end to keep Miami from rallying to the lead.
Hibbert made some bad remarks after the game, but apart from that he was nearly flawless as he scored 24 points and added 11 rebounds and he may have had the most important play of the game when he forced LeBron James into an offensive foul that stunted any chance of a Miami rally. The Pacers now will have the chance to get back to the finals for the second time in NBA history after advancing to the conference finals for the first time since 2004 and even though Miami had a 3-2 lead in the series. the Pacers have all the momentum. The defending champions play better at home and only won one time in Indiana all season, but after the performance in Game 6 Miami will need to drastically improve its scoring and LeBron James will need some actual support from both Bosh and Wade.
James has played well in two Game 7 chances in his career and after Wade and Bosh made just four combined shots on Saturday night, they will need to greatly improve for the Heat to advance. Hibbert was dominant on Saturday night after dealing with some foul trouble in the previous game and he ended up playing 42 minutes in Game 6. George and Hibbert combined for 52 points in the game and if they do that again the Pacers will be hard to beat.
