Please check out my brand new article based on the turbulent 2014-2015 Miami Heat season. I had a great opportunity to write for my man @W4Y0FWD3 on his new website. Check out his account on Twitter!!!!!!
Photo Credit: Mike Ehrmann(bottom left), Photo Credit: Issac Baldizon(bottom right and top right) and Photo Credit: Miami Heat Official Instagram(top left)
(2) Miami Heat @ (1) Indiana Pacers
8:30PM
Miami, FL
American Airlines Arena
Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals
Coverage on ESPN
Miami Heat Starting Lineup: PG:Mario Chalmers SG:Dwyane Wade SF:LeBron James PF:Rashard Lewis C:Chris Bosh Heat Inactive List: Chris Andersen and Justin Hamilton Indiana Pacers Starting Lineup:PG:George Hill SG:Lance Stephenson SF:Paul George PF:David West C:Roy Hibbert Pacers Inactive List: Andrew Bynum and Solomon Hill Well tonight we may all witness something that is extremely rare to see throughout the history books of the NBA, as the Miami Heat come into tonights Game 5 with a 3-1 series lead over the Indiana Pacers, needing just one more win to advance to their fourth consecutive NBA Finals. Only two teams in the history of the National Basketball Association have ever went to four consecutive Nba finals, those teams are Larry Birds Boston Celtics from 1984 to 1987 and the much earlier era Boston Celtics from 1957-1966. The information above is truly unbelievable and many will forget or overlook this feat if the Heat accomplish it tonight, Friday, or even Sunday. Even though getting to four straight NBA finals is a great accomplishment that isn the accomplishment the Heat really want, they want to three-peat.Since 1987, three different teams the 1991-93 Chicago Bulls, 1996-98 Chicago Bulls and 2000-02Los Angeles Lakers have accomplished a three-peat. Even NBA greats Magic Johnson and Larry Bird never three-peated in their entire career, even though both of these players respected teams were dominated in the 1980's. Okay time to get into the nitty gritty of the 102-90 Game 4 Heat victory on Monday. The opening minutes of Game 4 on Monday felt and looked very different from the previous three games of the series. You may ask what in the world I'm talking about? It's actually quite simple, the Heat had a quick start to a game!!! Through the first 1:48 of the game the Heat went on an eight zip run to go up 8-0, that isn't even the most appealing and somewhat surprising thing that occured during that 1:48 stretch to begin the contest, Chris Bosh had all of those eight points for Miami. Those eight points came off two wide open threes and one midrange jump shot by Bosh. Miami's largest lead in the opening quarter was ten points 23-13, they finished the period up eight points 27-19, with Chris Bosh totaling 10 points while LeBron James added 8 points. The Heat not only maintained the lead in the opening quarter they had the lead from the start of the game until the final buzzer sounded. With 7:12 left in the game the Heat opened up an 23 point lead as they were up 94-71. A late flurry by the Pacers brought them within nine points 99-90 with 1:21 left in the game, however the Pacers were way to late to change the income of the game. Dwyane Wade dribbled out the last few seconds of Game 4 to seal the victory and seal the fact that the Heat were up 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. LeBron James finished the game with 32 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists; Chris Bosh finished the game with 25 points on 8-10 from the field including 3-5 from behind the three point arc, as well as recording 6 rebounds. For the Pacers, Paul George was their leading scorer with 23 points on 8-16 from the field, he also recorded 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Lance Stephenson had a mere 9 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists; meanwhile his teammate, starting center Roy Hibbert scored 0 points as he went 0-4 from the floor, and grabbed 5 rebounds , and swatted one shot for 1 single block.