“It’s a longshot for the Indiana Pacers to win game 4, but they have to PRAY”. (c) Stephen A. Smith
Game 3 of the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals was arguably the most anticipated meeting for the entire post-season thus far. In game 2, Miami evened the series edging by Indiana in a hard fought late rally during the 4th quarter, but the bigger story was whether Pacers star small-forward Paul George would be ready to go after suffering a concussion.
Under NBA league rules, all players who suffer concussion or concussion-like symptoms have to sit out 24 hours of play after the time of incident and be reevaluated. Luckily for Larry Bird and the entire city of Indiana, there was a lengthy layoff following Tuesday’s loss.
More on the story and video highlights from tonight’s game after the jump.
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LeBron James has virtually been the one man show on the Miami Heat leading the team in points, rebounds, assist and having to guard the best player on the court at 1-4. Visibly fatigued, no one needed the rest more than him heading into Saturday’s match-up.
The Pacers came out firing taking a big lead in the first quarter holding the Heat to only 4 points right before the three-minute mark in the period. Both Chris Bosh and Paul George would get into foul trouble and changed the landscape of the game. Indiana saw quality production from Luis Scola, who in our opinion should’ve remained in the game more with Hibbert finishing the game with only 2 rebounds in 36 minutes out.
An animated LeBron James enjoying point production from role players.
LeBron would lead all scores at 26, but had a quiet outing compared to Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen’s big 4th quarter explosion. With Bosh on the bench for most of the game, Miami was undersized and turned up their defense to force 19 turnovers, scoring 26.
Indiana really needed to protect the ball when they had their early 15 point lead, where an AmericanAirlines Arena home crowd was getting very anxious. Bron would exit the game late in the 3rd quarter, where D-Wade would finally put his fingerprints on the series carrying the team into the 4th with rare back-to-back three pointers. With Wade attacking the basket and the Pacers defense confused in the transition, Ray Allen would flood the 4th with four three-pointers, to give them their biggest lead of the series at 15.
Paul George really need some handles though.
A happy LeBron James finally received late contributions from role players and gave him relief. We’re certain the Pacers will play game 4 like it’s their game 7 on Monday night at 8:30pm on ESPN. No players for Indiana had 20 points, as they’ll also be looking to even the series against Miami. The rest period is only a day, so the Pacers will have to act fast and come out with a sense of desperation to avoid a 1-3 whole.
Paul George and Lance Stephenson will also be looking to improve from their sub-par performance in tonight’s game; but a loss could inch Miami closer to their 4th straight NBA Finals match-up and imminent back-to-back meeting against the San Antonio Spurs.