Paul George Pushes Pacers Past Heat to Avoid Elimination

Indiana Pacers' collective backs were up against the well. They faced elimination last night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse as Miami Heat could have ended the trilogy between the two teams with an emphatic whimper. But Pacers would not be deny as they won 93-90 with a strong second half from Paul George, propelling the team for a return to South Beach and try to force an inexplicable Game 7.  There was much to go over from this game ranging from the favorable whistle, Lance being Lance to the final non-shot by LeBron James.

Indiana needed its superstar to be great, and George did exactly that in the second half with 33 of his 37 points coming in the final two quarters. He made 15 field goal attempts with five of them coming from 3-point range. If you take out the nine missed threes from George's stat line, he made 15 of 20 baskets from the field making it a more impressive stat line. He looked in full control for the first time in the series. It showed the importance of LeBron James in foul trouble because George was able to take control of his basketball game with The King spending much of the time on the bench. It also nice to see a player back up his talk after George's bizarre Game 4 comments, it seemed like he had a purpose out on the basketball court. Curious to see how he carries it over to Game 6 on Friday night.

You never want to be 'that person' in the group whom blames everything on the officials, but man, it sure did look like the zebras did their best to help Indiana.  At one point, Grantland's Bill Simmons points out Miami had 19 fouls to Indiana's 10. What exactly happened?  LeBron is definitely not known for getting fouls called against him. Personally, I believe LeBron should average around four fouls a game leading to him fouling out more often, but the league is selective on when to call fouls on Bron. Maybe he put himself in consistently bad situations allowing for fouls to be called or maybe the officials listened to George's $25,000 complaints after Game 4. The whistle against James had much to do with him struggling last night going 2/10 from the field with seven points. LeBron never got into a rhythm affecting how he played last night.

Lance Stephenson continued to be the pest of the playoff after blowing in LeBron's ear and jumping into the huddle between a couple Heat players. He is baseball's version of Manny Ramirez.  There should be just Lance headlines because he is the only capable of pulling some of this shit. He picked up a 10,000 dollar fine for flopping last night in addition to the antics above. I do think wherever Lance goes this offseason because it will not be Indiana, we need to keep him in whatever conference LeBron is in so we can get at least three or four games of this plus a playoff series. Odds LeBron punches Lance next season are pretty high. Just needs to happen once.

Speaking of James, much criticism has come from James deciding not to take the layup at the rim. Those are the closest LeBron hate squad jumping on every mistake he makes in life. A couple things worth noting as to why James likely gave up the shot to Chris Bosh in the corner. One, LeBron had five fouls. They go to overtime and James fouls out, it is curtains for the Heat plus extra five minutes spent playing Game 5.  Two, Bosh has hit those shots all year. ESPN's Bomani Jones nicknamed him Big Shot Bosh because he found a way to hit late-game jumpers. Granted, Bosh's shot wasn't the greatest yet still, not a terrible decision. If you buy into the old adage, 'Play for overtime at home, win on the road', James tried to do exactly that on Wednesday night.

If anyone thinks this series is going the full seven, they are either a perpetual drunk or a Pacers homer because LeBron is ending this thing on Friday night. We are in store for an iconic James performance on Friday night and I hope Lance is ready for it along with his other Pacer teammates.

Charlie.

STOD: Lance's Ear Blow & Doug Collins - Birdman Fan

Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals saw the Indiana Pacers stave off elimination by beating Miami Heat forcing a Game 6. We will have more on the game later this afternoon. But this morning, we are hear to talk about Lance Stephenson blowing into LeBron's ear, and Doug Collins needing to put out a rap album. I don't know why Lance thought it was funny or getting in LeBron's head by blowing in his ear, but here we are. Ears are a weird body part. Obviously, we need them for hearing, but a lot of pressure points around them as well.  ESPN's Doug Collins set out to prove he is not the old man in the booth. ESPN's Jalen Rose hits us with the birdcall then Collins asks 'What happened to that boy.'  Street cred on a 100 million trillion, Doug. (h/t Reddit NBA & SPR)  

NBA Playoffs Recap: LeBron Drops The Hammer on Pacers

"Don't throw stones if you live a glass house and if you got a glass jaw, you should watch your mouth cause I'll break your face."

The quote comes from the great poet 50 Cent in his song 'Patiently Waiting' off his first album. It is really a shame LeBron James didn't quote this line to Lance Stephenson given the Pacers guard's comments about James. LeBron and the Miami Heat's dominated Game 4 in a 102-90 victory where James delivered a top notch 'Best Player in the World' performance along with the revival of Chris Bosh plus why is Lance trying to become the next DeShawn Stevenson?

James had full control of this game. It lit a fire under his ass, and he played at his A+ level. James was not playing poorly through the first three games of this series, but he took it to another level on Monday. He scored 32 points with 10 rebounds and five assists missing only eight shots and only taking three 3-pointers delivering an efficient performance. Only three of LeBron's made 13 shots were outside the paint. The man was clearly on a mission.  LeBron shoved every single piece of Lance's comments right into his face on Monday night.

Why anyone would tempt LeBron these days is beyond me. No one needs to give LeBron any motivation these days. No one questions James ability to come through in the clutch anymore nor does anyone recycle any of the former narratives about The King. He earned the right to be called The King and no one really can even come close to his Iron Throne. Lance runs his mouth as he has been accustom to in the past only to get buried by James and company. There is another LeBron could have went with 'If you swing at the king, you better not miss.'

Chris Bosh didn't have one of the best playoffs thus far. He became the number two man for Miami this season as Dwyane Wade battled through injuries all season. Bosh became this player known for his big shots. But in this series, Bosh strung together three straight games of single digits getting frustrated by the Indiana big men. He started off fast which was different for both the Heat and Bosh with quick 10 points in the first quarter of the game. Bosh had control throughout the game with 25 points making seven shots including three 3-pointers. He spread the floor paving the way for opportunities for LeBron and others on the Miami roster. Wade had two big games and now Bosh added his own to the mix. This could be curtains for Indiana.

I am still trying to figure out why Lance Stephenson opened his mouth. He did the same thing two years ago making a choking gesture to LeBron on the bench which paved the motivation for the rest of the series. Remember DeShawn Stevenson?  Same last name, different spelling, same stupid trash talk. Stevenson did get redemption in the twilight of his career but during his prime, LeBron made DeShawn look like a complete jackass including a diss song written by Jay Z.  He might of had the last laugh against James, but he is known for his career as being the player whom shit talked LeBron and got destroyed because of it. The aforementioned Jigga Man once said, "Don't be the next contestant on that Summer Jam screen." And that basically describes Stephenson.  

But then again, maybe Indiana is delusional as an entire team. Paul George blamed the officials and said they would have won the game if the refs were better. That is complete and utter bullshit. Then again George got catfished on the Internet so I mean it is fair to wonder if his judgement is impaired a little bit. Maybe his Gatorade got tainted or he had a bad Papa John's pizza post-game because this is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. George wants to make the fans feel better even though they watched their Pacers team getting beat by 20 points in the second half. George also would like you to know that Thomas Dewey beat Harry Truman, it was just a technicality.  

Indiana is done. I felt good about predicting the Heat in five after the Game 2 victory. It does seem like the Pacers have no answer for this version of the Miami team. They could have had Game 2 and Game 3, and failed to capitalize in both games. Heat will put them to bed Wednesday night.

Charlie.

NBA Playoff Recaps: KD Takes Over, Pacers Hold On

Second Round of NBA Playoffs will feature two games of night.  I dropped the ball on writing on Saturdays meaning Friday games were left in the dust.  I am going to write about the games like we did for the first round because it is picking up steam in terms of the hits. I will probably add a full blog post sometimes when we have a must talked playoff win. 

A late Thunder roll in Los Angeles pushes Oklahoma City to victory 
It seemed like we were heading to at least one Game 7 in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Los Angeles Clippers got out to a 16 point lead in the early stages of the game, but Oklahoma City slowly but surely came back pulling away late in the game with a huge effort from Kevin Durant.  When people talk about the best players in the world, they want them to come up big in the big moments no matter what the sport can be, and Durant did just that after a bad start. He picked up two fouls early on with 1/7 shooting meaning KD shot 7 of 29 in about six quarters. He turned it on from there going 11/16 for the rest of the game finishing with 39 points, 16 rebounds and five assists. Hell of a stat line from Durant when the team needed it the most. Additionally, this leads to people forgetting all about the fact Russell Westbrook shot 4/15 in a Game 6.

Valient effort by Los Angeles, but they got tight at the end of the game. They didn't really attack the basket when Serge Ibaka left the game with a calf injury, and it didn't feel like anyone wanted to take that big shot when Los Angeles needed it the most. They also were on the bad end of the officials multiple times down the stretch with consecutive offensive foul calls with one being bullshit on Chris Paul and the other, a clear foul on Blake Griffin. As for Paul, he fails to make the Western Conference Final and this will become a narrative like it did for many of the other greats whom had postseason struggles. He played well in the game going for 25 points, eleven assists and seven rebounds, but in the end, Oklahoma City will face off against San Antonio, a rematch of the 2012 Western Conference Finals.

Pacers Continue Winning Road Ways 
You know how there are things in sports that end up being the most difficult to explain. I think that's what we have with the Washington-Indiana series. The road team ends up winning five of the six games and the Pacers move on to a rematch against their rival, the Miami Heat. Nothing is more Eastern Conference than Indiana finding their way into the remaining two. A team with a great deal of dysfunction is in the final two, but to their credit, they withstood a hell of a fight from Washington. The Wiz took the lead in the fourth even, but Indiana stood tall getting back the lead with two big David West jumpers. West played great with 29 points and six rebounds. Lance Stephenson bounced back from three straight rough games to have 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds including only missing five shots all game. Might not be able to understand Indiana, but got to respect them a bit.

Charlie.