(2) Miami Heat @ (1) Indiana Pacers Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals

Photo Credit: Ron Hoskins and Nathaniel S. Butler

(2) Miami Heat @ (1) Indiana Pacers

Indianapolis, Indiana

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

8:30PM

Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals

Coverage on ESPN

Miami Heat Starting Lineup:
PG:Mario Chalmers
SG:Dwyane Wade
SF:LeBron James
PF:Udonis Haslem
C:Chris Bosh

Heat Inactive List:
Justin Hamilton and Greg Oden

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

The Miami Heat come into tonight's game down 0-1 in the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals series, after losing Game 1 in Indiana on Sunday by a score of 107-96. Indiana was ready to compete with their rival Miami Heat, from the opening tip to the final buzzer, as they lead throughout the entire contest. To be a hundred percent honest the Heat defense was just flat out terrible throughout the entire game. It seemed that every single time the Pacers scored the Heat had some sort of collapse on defense. Miami's struggles on the defensive end was most apparent when they were defending the pick and roll. Defending the pick and roll well is something that the Heat usually hang their hats at. Slow rotations and helping too much on defense resulted in Heat players, especially Lebron James to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Heat players were caught looking more at the ball when on defense than keeping an eye on their man. Another big contribution to Miami's struggles was the fact that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra surprisingly inserted Shane Battier in the starting lineup in favor of Udonis Haslem. Many media members surrounding the Heat and Pacers all thought Haslem, who defended Roy Hibbert very well in the regular season was going to get the starting job against the problematic big men. Battier starting over Haslem may seem like a little factor, but it resulted in some matchups the Heat really didn't what, such as a slower Battier guarding a quicker and younger Paul George, and LeBron James guarding the taller and stronger David West down in the post. I get why Spoelstra started Battier in hopes of spreading out the floor, but the Pacers perimeter defense was pretty good and the Heat also flat out missed a lot of outside shots from behind the three point arc. Miami made 6 out of their 23 three pointers a mere 26.1% from that distance for the entire game, while Indiana made 8 out of 19 on 42.1 % shooting from beyond the arc for the game. In fact the Pacers started out making 6 out of 9 three pointers a mark of 66.7% in the first half while the Heat went 2 for 11 from three a mark of 18.2% in the second half. One positive thing the Heat achieved in the game was the fact that they were able to get into the paint frequently in the contest, as they finished the game with 52 total points in the painted area. Another big factor of the eleven point defeat the Indiana Pacers handed to the Heat was the huge free throw attempt differential between the two teams. Miami got to the free throw line only 15 times in the game knocking down 10 of them to give them a free throw percentage of 66.7%, while the Pacers attempted 37 free throws knocking down 29 of them which resulted in a free throw percentage of 78.4%. This huge difference is a little hard to believe, because the Heat scored 54 points in the paint, maybe it was due to the home Pacers getting more of the calls.  I think the big difference was actually due to the fact that the Heat were certainly not as aggressive, as they should be when on the road in a playoff game. Lackluster defense was defiantly the most obviously factor behind the 107-96 loss the Heat suffered on Sunday afternoon, because the Heat played fairly well on offense, as they were able to score 96 points on the usually tight defense of Indiana.
The defending champs surely need to bump up the energy they play with and tighten up their defense mightily to tie this series 1-1 tonight in Game 2 heading back to Miami for Game 3 on Saturday night, tip-off at 8:30PM/EST inside the American Airlines Arena. As expected Udonis Haslem's name has been scribbled into Erik Spoelstra's startng lineup in place of Shane Battier who started in Game 1, due to the fact that the Heat did not matchup well at all on defense.
Lastly, I can surely guarantee that the Indiana Pacers are not going to shoot the ball as well as they did during Game 1, again in this much anticipated Eastern Conference Finals series between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers.

                                                                    Game 1 Boxscore and Video

Miami Heat
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Shane Battier, SF	16	1-1	1-1	0-0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	3	+2	3
LeBron James, SF	41	11-18	1-5	2-2	1	9	10	5	3	0	4	3	-13	25
Chris Bosh, C	32	4-12	0-5	1-2	0	2	2	4	0	0	1	4	-16	9
Mario Chalmers, PG	37	2-9	1-4	1-2	0	2	2	5	1	2	0	4	-15	6
Dwyane Wade, SG	39	12-18	1-1	2-3	0	1	1	4	0	0	3	3	-9	27
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Udonis Haslem, PF	11	0-1	0-0	0-2	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	2	-8	0
Chris Andersen, PF	19	6-7	0-0	2-2	2	2	4	0	1	2	2	4	+3	14
James Jones, SF	4	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-1	0
Toney Douglas, PG	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Norris Cole, PG	13	0-3	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	1	2	0	0	1	-2	0
Ray Allen, SG	30	4-8	2-6	2-2	0	5	5	4	0	0	1	2	+4	12
Rashard Lewis, PF	DNP COACH'S DECISION
Michael Beasley, SF	DNP COACH'S DECISION
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		40-78	6-23	10-15	4	25	29	23	7	4	11	26		96
		51.3%	26.1%	66.7%
Fast break points:   21 Points in the paint:   54 Total Team Turnovers (Points off turnovers):   11 (13) +/- denotes team's net points while the player is on the court.
Indiana Pacers
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
David West, PF	34	8-11	0-0	3-4	1	6	7	3	0	0	2	2	+13	19
Paul George, SF	39	7-13	3-6	7-8	0	4	4	7	1	0	3	5	+11	24
Roy Hibbert, C	39	5-13	0-0	9-13	3	6	9	3	0	1	1	3	+19	19
George Hill, PG	36	3-9	3-7	6-6	1	1	2	0	1	1	1	1	+11	15
Lance Stephenson, SG	41	8-12	1-2	0-0	0	4	4	8	1	0	2	3	+12	17
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	+/-	PTS
Luis Scola, PF	14	1-3	0-0	0-0	0	5	5	1	0	0	0	0	-2	2
Lavoy Allen, PF	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chris Copeland, SF	1	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Solomon Hill, SF	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ian Mahinmi, C	9	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	-8	0
C.J. Watson, PG	18	3-4	1-2	4-6	0	4	4	1	1	0	2	0	-2	11
Donald Sloan, PG	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rasual Butler, SG	9	0-1	0-1	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	+1	0
TOTALS		FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF		PTS
		35-68	8-19	29-37	7	31	38	23	4	3	12	15		107
		51.5%	42.1%	78.4%
Fast break points:   6 Points in the paint:   38 Total Team Turnovers (Points off turnovers):   12 (15) +/- denotes team's net points while the player is on the court.

 Flagrant Fouls: 1 MIAMI ( Chalmers 1 )
 Technical Fouls: PLAYERS: None - TEAMS: MIAMI (1) - COACHES: None
 Officials: Bill Kennedy, Bill Spooner, Scott Foster
 Attendance: 18,165
 Time of Game: 2:33

                                                    http://youtu.be/OPo5wY_E970