Heat prepare to zoom past Pacers into NBA Finals, sooner rather than later

By Ethan Brisby

@ethanbrisby 

The Miami Heat have a chance to do tonight what so many basketball fans thought they would not do until June 1, eliminate the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers looked abysmal in the First Round of the NBA Playoff tournament against Atlanta. They were mediocre-at-best in defeating the Washington Wizards in Round 2. Yet, fans, mostly Heat dissenters assumed they could somehow pick up the pace to run and gun with the 2-time defending champion Miami Heat. There almost certainly will be no Game 7 as many anticipated, and there may not even be a Game 6 if Indiana cannot muster up the strength to win Game 5 tonight at home.

Many of the fans I talk to on a weekly basis who went out on a limb to pick Indiana in this series did so simply because Indiana challenged the Champions last year. They came close, I’ll admit, but where I am from, close still only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. In professional sports, you do not get any credit for almost doing anything.

So here we have the Pacers who for all intents and purposes, had a better regular season record this year than last, and even beat Miami late in the regular season. Yet, they have looked nowhere near the team that pushed Miami to the brink of elimination last season. The Pacers started feeling themselves. They began believing the hype that they may just be able to dethrone Miami, break up the dynasty and make the Midwest relevant. Well, we have Johnny Manziel in Cleveland for that, and from the looks of things, Lebron and crew will be hanging around to make good on their promise of not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven championship.

While it’s a little early to know if they’ll pull off a UCLA like domination in this NBA, this season, they certainly appear to be the best team. They just have not been beat down the way every other team has to this point. Miami can win on anyone’s home court, the feed off the snooty yet emphatic fan support they get in South Beach, and they have three of the top 15 or 20 players in their primes; not to mention Jesus Shuttlesworth aka Ray Allen for 911 rescues.  

As for Indiana, Lance Stephenson is a free agent this off season, and he will almost certainly want to play somewhere he can be the number one option. At 23, I do not blame him, but I certainly would advise him to go somewhere where he can win. He is not ready to be THE man on a team, I do not believe. So he might want to get locked into a system with young talented players that will defer to him.

For now, let’s hope he’s learned his lesson about talking smack to people like Lebron James. We know you are from New York, Lance, but championships are won inside TV screens not with eye-opening newspaper quotes. The Pacers have learned that the hard way. Better luck next time.