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MIAMI -- Whatever happened to "pace-and-space"?

That's the rhyming catchphrase Heat coach Erik Spoelstra utilized to dub the high-speed, low-control offense he developed in the offseason. Inspired by a lockout visit with Oregon football coach Chip Kelly, Spoelstra implemented the fast-paced offense to leverage the athletic talents of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and to emphasize floor spacing with sharpshooters.

The hands-off approach worked for a while. But after a blazing start to the season, the Heat haven't been running teams out of the gym; instead, they have utilized a slower, more methodical brand of basketball. Against Indiana's stifling half-court defense anchored by 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert, the pace-and-space approach could theoretically be Miami's greatest weapon and a potential game-changer in a series tied at 2-2.

So six months after its debut, is Spoelstra still emphasizing pace-and-space?

"Yeah, he’s still preaching it," Wade said at Heat's practice on Monday. "But we have to get stops."

James echoed Wade's sentiment about the importance of defense.

“That’s what it’s about," James said. "When we get stops, we have to attack. We do some of our best basketball when we get a defensive stop and we get out on a run."

A bullet is useless without a trigger. In the absence of turnovers and defensive rebounds, any team will struggle to sprint like the Heat did earlier in the season. The team opened the season as the fastest-paced team in the league over the first 10 games in the season, but over the final 10 games the Heat ranked 25th in possessions per game. Moreover, they averaged the second-most fast-break points in the opening weeks, but ranked dead last in fast-break points in the final 10 games of the regular season.

So is Duckball dead, or is it due for a rude awakening?

The playoffs certainly haven't helped. Postseason basketball typically slows down as the value of each possession becomes more important, but the Heat pressed on the gas in their Game 4 win in Indiana. The Heat doubled their fast-break points from Game 3 to Game 4 (eight points to 16) and reached triple-digit scoring after mustering just 75 points in each of the previous two games.

The key to the spike? Believing that the best offense is a good defense.

"When we defend or rebound the ball, we’ll get opportunities in the open court," Spoelstra said. "That could make a big difference in a series like this. When LeBron gets those defensive rebounds like [he did in Game 4], that’s when we’re at our fastest. He was relentless."

James tallied a season-high 18 rebounds in Game 4, using many of those to propel the Heat's open-floor attack. That's the beauty of having a top rebounder doubling as a point guard; no outlet pass is necessary to ignite a break. During Wade and James' barrage of 38 consecutive points, the Heat throttled the Pacers in chaotic spurts, thriving on transition plays and improvisation.

The "space" part of the equation had been missing too. The Heat weren't able to capitalize on floor-spacing shooters in the first three games; they shot a pathetic 12 percent on 3-pointers in the series before Sunday. But shooting 41.7 percent from downtown in Game 4 helped to free up the driving lanes for James and Wade. The Heat can't get what they want unless Shane Battier and Mike Miller fulfill their floor-spacing duties.

But perhaps most importantly, the pace-and-space attack neutralizes the lumbering Hibbert as a paint protector.

"They obviously have a big guy that sits in the middle a lot," Wade said. "Hibbert is very good defensively, especially protecting the rim, so we have to do a better job of getting points in the paint in transition, not just in the half court. We have to get him in the move a little bit so he’s not just sitting, waiting for us to come down into the paint."

Attacking Hibbert on the move also achieves the Heat's second priority: getting the Pacers' big man in foul trouble. It's no coincidence that the Heat outscored the Pacers by a decisive eight points with Hibbert sitting on the bench with foul trouble. He and David West finished with five fouls apiece.

But it's not as simple as flipping the switch and suddenly deciding to play high-octane basketball. Playing at that speed is exhausting, too, especially after a lockout-shortened season. At Monday's practice, James was asked whether he had any energy after his monster Game 4, and he responded with an exasperated grin.

"Don't have any," James said on Monday. "It’s definitely going to be a recovery and mental day for me to prepare for [Tuesday].”

That's the obvious downside, of course. Throughout the season, this was the overarching question with the Heat: Will they have enough energy in the postseason to play the same kind of pace-and-space brand of basketball that they beat teams with early on?

Wade wasn't so sure.

"Obviously, it’s different now than the regular season," Wade said. "Possessions matter a lot more now. There might be sometimes where they might miss and you might not run. Early on in the regular season, we were just going. It was just ‘pace-and-space’ and we were attacking.

"But that was a long time ago. We’ve got a lot of miles on our legs now from that."

James wouldn't say that fatigue was going to slow the Heat down, but it might make it harder to assert their athleticism.

“Fatigue is part of the playoffs," James said. "I’m just trying to catch my second and third wind out there. You have to just push through it.”

It's no secret that the Heat will look to run at every opportunity, and Pacers coach Frank Vogel has stressed the importance of keeping the fast-break triggers to a minimum. Since Chris Bosh is sidelined with an abdominal strain, the Heat might have no choice but to go all-in on James and Wade's athleticism, and swarm the Pacers as Miami did earlier in the regular season.

“It's that attack mentality," Spoelstra said. "We’re trying to figure ourselves out on the fly with Bosh out. It’s changed the dynamic of the team.”

With the series in the balance ahead of Game 5, channeling an excellent pace-and-space effort might be the dynamic the Heat need to tilt the series in their favor.

“They know what they need and we know what we need," Wade said. "Two sides collide and we’ll see who comes out.”

MIAMI -- Coming off a win in Indiana in Game 4 to tie the series, the Heat were in a good mood at practice on Monday.

With topics ranging from LeBron James' reading material to James and Dwyane Wade's big 70-point night to the Lance Stephenson-Juwan Howard confrontation to Udonis Haslem's bloody eye to James Jones' valiant dunk attempt over the Pacers defense ... it's time to go bullets-style.

• On LeBron and Wade's historic night
  
  James and Wade found out about their 38 consecutive points after the game and didn't hear about the historical precedence of James' 40-18-9 performance until they got on the plane.
  
  When asked whether James took some extra time to take in the historical aspect of his Game 4, James just shook his head.
  
  "No, not really," James said.
  
  Wade later elaborated.
  
  “Last night when we heard about [the statistical feat], we were like, ‘Wow,' and then we moved on," Wade said. "We don’t have time to pat ourselves on the back with our opponent [on Tuesday]."
  
  Wade was mired in an awful shooting slump before reeling off eleven straight buckets on Sunday. It's hard to explain a turnaround like that, but Wade gave it his best shot.
  
  “Obviously, the rim gets bigger and bigger," Wade said. "It’s something that’s indescribable. It’s something you really want to understand because at times the rim seems so small, it looks like a Cheerio. You can’t get the ball in it at all. And then other times it opens up like the ocean.”
  
  Wade wasn't done making analogies. He likened LeBron's night to a video-game NBA 2K. And then to Dirk Nowitzki.
  
  "It was video-game-like. You’d get that on [the video game NBA] 2K," Wade said.
  
  "I was watching the game last night on the plane and I turned to Ronny Turiaf who was sitting behind me and I said, ‘You know what, I’ve played in the league for nine years and I’ve seen some amazing things, but I’ve never really played with a guy that I’m amazed so often by the things he does. I’m used to kind of not being the one who is in awe of things. Sometimes he does things and I’m like, ‘How did just he do that?’"
  
  Wade went on.
  
  “I think there was one shot he made in the game, it was kinda like the Dirk shot where he went and drove and fired and faded back off the wrong leg and banked it in. I looked back at Shane Battier and I was like, ‘What? How did he do that?’ I’ve seen a lot, but the performance he put on last night was a typical MVP kind of performance.”
• On LeBron reading "The Hunger Games"
  
  Full disclosure: I haven’t read “The Hunger Games” yet. Having not read the book, I couldn't get into detail with LeBron about his latest read by Suzanne Collins that is out in theaters. LeBron has been a bit of a bookworm throughout the playoffs, having just finished up basketball legend Jerry West’s autobiography titled “West by West.”
  
  You might have noticed he certainly isn’t shy about his reading hobby around the media and cameras either.
  
  “I’ve been doing it since the playoffs started,” LeBron said Monday. “It just puts me in a different mindset. Honestly, before the game I don’t even think about what’s going to happen throughout the game. I’ve just been reading and it’s been able to calm me down. It’s been great.”
  
  His early review of "The Hunger Games"?
  
  “It’s good, it’s really good,” LeBron said. “I just started reading it.”
• On James Jones' dunk attempt
  
  If you're like me, you watched James Jones' dunk attempt at least 30 times. If not, here's footage in GIF form brought to you by the folks at SB Nation.
  
  The team watched the play on the plane ride back from Indiana last night and the team got a good laugh. When asked about it at practice, Wade squealed with laughter.
  
  “That was by far the funniest thing that happened all year," Wade said. "It showed a great deal of aggression and toughness … but he wasn’t even close. That was the funniest moment on the plane when he watched it on tape.”
  
  Jones got a good laugh out of it, too. He also thought he might have gotten fouled.
  
  “I saw the lane get open, so I tried to attack it. I was hoping the referee would make the right call," Jones said.
  
  "Since I’ve been here, I’ve been predominantly a spot-up shooter, but I saw an opportunity to attack the lane, it didn’t go as I had planned, but it’s just me trying to be aggressive. In the grand scheme of things, it was something that gave some comic relief knowing we had to come in here today and prepare for a tough Game 5.”
  
  And then Jones got serious for a moment talking about trying to prove his talents to his fellow teammates.
  
  “You try as much as possible to remind yourself and your teammates that you’re still a player and that you can do certain things even if it’s not what the team calls for you to do on a nightly basis.”
• On the Lance Stephenson-Juwan Howard scuffle
  
  Wade insists he had no idea about Juwan Howard approaching Lance Stephenson during the pregame warmups until after the game (watch and read about it here).
  
  Howard and Wade grew up in the Chicago area so Wade felt some hometown pride when he found out that Howard, who hasn't played more than a few seconds in the playoffs, stuck up for the team like that.
  
  "That’s Juwan Howard from Chicago," Wade said. "He’s invested in everything that goes on with this team."
  
  And then Wade might have gotten a little carried away, even dabbling in the third person.
  
  "Juwan as big of a part of this team as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade is," Wade said. "His voice and his leadership around here means a lot to us. He understands that and he really gets it this year. If it takes something like that, hey. I didn’t know he did it until after the game and I said, 'That’s hilarious. That’s my boy from Chicago.'"
• On Udonis Haslem's cut above his eye
  
  LeBron put up a historic line on Sunday, but in his effort to be humble about the whole thing, he sent Haslem some praise.
  
  "He's the biggest part of how we won last night," LeBron said. "Even with the individual performance of myself and D-Wade, I think UD got the game ball."
  
  About the gash above his right eye from Lou Amundson's inadvertent elbow?
  
  Oddly enough, Wade enjoyed that.
  
  “Yeah, I liked it because I know certain people when they see their own blood, they get a little crazy," Wade said. "I actually liked it when I saw the blood dripping down.”
  
  How does Haslem look now after the nine stitches? Here's a photo I snapped.
  
  
  ESPN.com

Not bad for nine stitches.

I guess.

LeBron James' 40 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in Game 4 hadn't been done in a playoff game in over a half-century, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

But was it even James' best playoff game of his career?

Believe it or not, it might not have been.

At least statistically.

Considering the context of the series and the Heat's desperation with Chris Bosh sidelined, James' outing might be more impressive than his box score implies. But strictly looking at his numbers, how does his Sunday performance stack up?

Using a box score metric devised by our own John Hollinger called Game Score, James' Game 4 was just the seventh-best of his career.

Yes, seventh.

Here are James' top performances in the playoffs.



It's human nature to hail the latest achievement as the greatest achievement, but according to this measure, James' performance on Sunday wasn't even a top-5 outing. It ranked seventh by Game Score, which you can think of as a one-game player efficiency rating (PER).

Why wasn't a 40-18-9 outing ranked higher on the list?

For one, it's a testament to James' career. James receives a strong dose of criticism for his playoff duds, and after his Finals performance last season, much of it is warranted. But James has put up some mind-numbing games over his career.

If we're nitpicking, he tallied five turnovers Sunday and never made a 3-pointer. Granted, he didn't miss a 3-pointer, either, but the 3-pointers help efficiency in a big way. If you personally feel that rebounds are extra valuable, you might regard James' Sunday performance as his best. Feels silly to find flaws in a nearly spotless game like that.

Our own Brian Windhorst, who has covered James' entire career, believes that James' Sunday outing ranks as his best playoff performance since Game 5 against Orlando in 2009, when James put up 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists. Game Score called it James' 10th-best performance.

More than anything, that James' game might not have been his statistical best speaks to an up-and-down playoff career that has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

All in all, LeBron's outing was just about as good as it gets.

(Data provided by Basketball-Reference.com)

Udonis Haslem had a tough week.

In Game 1 against Indiana last Sunday, Haslem missed all four shots from the floor. In Game 2, he saw his playing time cut in half during a home loss. In Game 3, he was demoted to the reserve role for a rookie -- a rookie who had never played a playoff game, no less -- and played a season-low seven minutes in another loss.

Things were spiraling away from the Heat's co-captain. Perhaps the most prideful and dignified player on the roster, Haslem was forced to watch his team get demoralized in the series from the bench. He could do little but offer high-fives and encouragement, even though his team was getting crushed and pushed around on the floor. In just a week, Haslem was reduced from a crucial starter to a detached observer.

In an ideal world, Haslem was supposed to be the team's replacement for Chris Bosh after the All-Star strained an abdominal muscle in Game 1. But Haslem had been mired in the worst shooting slump of his career and wasn't effective in guarding Roy Hibbert, a center who stood about half a foot taller. With LeBron James shifting to the power forward slot, Haslem was the odd man out. It was a tough week, to be sure.

But on Sunday, however, Haslem got his groove back.

It started with a put-back dunk early in the second quarter, as Haslem rose up out of nowhere and slammed Dwyane Wade's miss with one hand. It was a stunning play from Haslem, considering it looked his shoes had been filled with cement over the last couple of weeks.

Then in the fourth quarter, it all came together for Haslem. And in doing so, it temporarily welded the Heat's Big Three again. With jumper after jumper, Haslem rediscovered his mid-range game that has made him so valuable as a floor-spacing big man over his career. Haslem scored 14 points in Game 4, the first time a Heat big man scored more than 10 points since Bosh went down.

What caused the change?

A little encouragement from James and Wade, Haslem told reporters in Indianapolis after the game.

"D-Wade and LeBron told me to just play my game," Haslem said. "Pick and pop.”

Ah, the pick-and-pop. For those who don't fall into the basketball junkie category, the pick-and-pop might be a foreign term. The "pop" refers to the big man who "pops" out to the mid-range area after setting a screen on the ball. Instead of rolling to the rim, the big man stays back for a jumper to clear the paint. For the 6-8 Haslem, rolling toward the 7-2 Hibbert and 6-10 David West wasn't a bankable strategy.

"I did some things out there that I was used to doing," Haslem said. "The pick-and-pop has really been my game the majority of my career, so instead of rolling to basket into those trees down there I just flared back. I’m more comfortable doing that than anything."

It's true Haslem stayed away from the basket area where he's getting blocked twice as often as his normal career rate. With the Heat up by five points heading into the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Wade and Haslem started running their pick-and-pop game. Wearing a bandage on a cut over his eye that required nine stitches after the game, Haslem found pockets in the Pacers defense and waited for the pass from his driving teammates.

The barrage started with a short jumper on the right baseline with just under six minutes left. Then another pop on the right side when the Pacers put two on Wade. Drilled it. And then another at the top of the key. Hit it again. And then the dagger with 1:12 left in the fourth quarter; he drained a jumper from the left elbow after Hibbert sunk into the paint to put the Heat up by seven.

For a five-minute stretch in the fourth quarter, Haslem matched the Pacers point-for-point, each tallying eight points down the stretch. Without Haslem's timely shot-making, the Heat might not have pulled away as they comfortably as they did.

This was vintage Haslem. The pick-and-pop game had vanished from his repertoire recently, and the Heat sorely missed that paint decongestant with Bosh sidelined. The Heat's offense sings when Bosh pulls opposing big men out of the key to cover jump shots (Hibbert or West, in the case of the Pacers). A pick-and-pop shooter becomes vital in opening up the lane for Wade and James to penetrate, but that had been stopped up recently.

Haslem, who had shot a measly 3-for-12 on jumpers in the playoffs heading into Sunday's game, wasn't a threat anymore. But now, he might be. If he can keep shooting that way in Game 5, the Heat should be able to get what they want offensively. So much of the Heat's offense requires an able pick-and-roll partner that draws the defense away from James and Wade.

To think Haslem's jump shot is suddenly cured might be a bit optimistic; it's just one game, after all. But for one game, the Heat found a replacement for Bosh as a member of the Heat's vaunted trio. By balancing the floor for James and Wade to thrive in the paint and grabbing rebounds, Haslem could be the most important player for the Heat going forward outside of the Big Two.

If Haslem can maintain his breakthrough scoring performance from Game 4 into Game 5 on Tuesday, the Heat may have found the pressure release they so desperately needed after Bosh went down.

"I just got back to my comfort zone," Haslem said. "Pickin' and poppin'."

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat visit the Pacers in Game 4 of the East semifinals (ABC, 3:30 ET).

1. Fact or Fiction: LeBron is right, Game 4 is a must-win for the Heat.

Tom Haberstroh: Fiction. The "must-win" meme is the worst thing to happen in sports analysis since the basketball adaptation of the "closer" term. That may be a bit strong, but our casual acceptance that a non-elimination game is a "must-win" has gotten a bit out of control. If the Heat lose Sunday, they still have potentially two games remaining at home. This isn't do-or-die. Yet.

Michael Wallace: Fiction. I know the point LeBron was trying to make, but I think in a literal fashion, when it comes to this situation, it's not true. Elimination games are must-win games. Neither team's season would end based on the outcome of Game 4. I actually believe this game is bigger for the Pacers' psyche. The Heat can't go in thinking this series is over if they don't win Sunday. Even if they're down 3-1, there's still a game in Miami on Tuesday. Which means there's still a chance to start a rally.

Brian Windhorst: Fact. I think it is rather obvious that getting down 3-1 without Chris Bosh and with the Pacers getting more confident by the minute is not a recipe for victory. The difference between 3-1 and 2-2 obviously is vast, especially because it would give the Heat back the home-court advantage. The Heat players have a lot on the line here: reputations and futures and legacies. Way more than the Pacers.

---

2. Fact or Fiction: D-Wade came off worse than Spoelstra in Game 3.

Haberstroh: Fact. And that's a remarkable achievement by Wade considering that Heat fans were calling for Spoelstra's pink slip after the Pacers went up 7-0 during the Dexter Pittman Experiment of Game 3. And then sprinkle in the fact that Spoelstra had a heated argument with the team's most beloved star. And still, there's no question that Wade came off worse in Game 3. That's how awful Wade was in Thursday's game.

Wallace: Fact. I asked Dwyane on Saturday if he felt he made a mistake by showing his frustrations in such a public fashion during that timeout blowup with Spoelstra. He said it was just the byproduct of a heated discussion during an intense time in the game. At the end of the day, I truly believe Dwyane was much madder with himself than anyone on that Heat bench. His body just wasn't cooperating. He lashed out. He looked bad doing it. Everyone insists it's behind them now.

Windhorst: Fact. Spoelstra's Dexter Pittman experience and revolving door of subs was not exactly awe-inspiring. But Wade came off as petulant because of the way he was playing, especially his hard-to-explain effort level. Combined with his inexcusable flagrant foul in Game 2, Wade's attitude so far in this series has been has been poor. Including snapping at his coach at a crucial part of the game.

---

3. Fact or Fiction: The Heat should still be favored in this series.

Haberstroh: Fiction. In light of the Wade injury stuff, I've moved from toss-up to slight nod to the Pacers. I still think the Heat have a good chance of turning this around and beating the Pacers, but I don't find it to be a likely scenario anymore. Not with Bosh out. Not with Wade playing on one leg. I don't think this is an X's-and-O's problem as much as it is a physical one. Does Wade still have the burst in his step to be himself? I'm not sure. If he doesn't, it becomes a 1.5-on-8 ordeal.

Wallace: Fiction. Call me crazy, but I consider it a 50-50 series right now. Yes, the Pacers have a 2-1 series lead. But I've seen the Heat rally from a 2-0 deficit in the Finals to beat Dallas in 2006. And I've seen Miami hold a 2-1 series lead over the Mavs last season in the Finals and squander it. I've always said the Heat seem to respond to adversity far better than prosperity. But without Chris Bosh available and with Wade ailing a bit, nothing less than their A-game will beat Indy.

Windhorst: Fact. If they split in Indiana, which is still possible, then they will have done exactly what was expected of them and they will have control of the series. Because this is still within reach, they are not yet desperate. They lose Game 4, of course, then they become a heavy underdog. In short, it's a big game.

The only person who might feel more validated than the members of the Indiana Pacers after Thursday night is none other than a player from the losing side: Chris Bosh.

Since joining the Miami Heat in the summer of 2010, the power forward has absorbed all sorts of harsh criticism from seemingly every corner of the basketball world.

He's soft! He's riding the coattails of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade! He isn't qualified to be in the Big Three!

And yet, what's abundantly clear now is that the Heat might not go anywhere unless Bosh rescues them from this series. Since losing Bosh during Game 1, the Heat have been outscored by 22 points in Games 2 and 3 with Bosh missing in action. The Heat's offense is in disarray and the team turmoil came to a boiling point when Wade, the face of the franchise, had to be restrained from coach Erik Spoelstra on the bench on national television. All with Bosh out of the picture, nursing an abdominal strain that could keep him out for weeks.

Who's riding whose coattails?

Unfortunately for the Heat, Bosh's potential rescue isn't likely to happen anytime soon, and there's a chance he might not return in these playoffs. What Wade's meltdown and the Heat's 19-point loss Thursday underlined was the fact that the Heat desperately miss what Bosh brings to the table.

As a smooth-shooting power forward, Bosh functioned as the team's stabilizer and, perhaps more importantly, the scoring buffer between Wade and James. Spoelstra has insisted over the last two seasons that Bosh, not Wade or James, is the most vital player on the Heat roster. But each time the coach made that statement, the declaration was usually met with an air of mocking skepticism.

Bosh, the most valuable Heat player? The guy who averaged 18.0 points and 7.9 rebounds this season after averaging 24.0 and 10.8 in 2009-10? The guy who scored over 30 points just twice this season? The guy who promised in the preseason to average 10 rebounds a game this season and couldn't even average eight?

Yes, that guy.

Though often a punch line and target of ridicule, Bosh thrives in the most important play in professional basketball, the pick-and-roll. When Bosh went down, the Heat also lost one of their greatest weapons in the halfcourt: a simple screen for James or Wade to give them space to work their magic. Bosh has been replaced by non-scorers in Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony and Ronny Turiaf, and the Heat offense has never looked so clogged.

Bosh is often labeled as soft because of a finesse game that includes a consistently effective mid-range jumper. Among the dozens of players with at least 100 shots from 10-15 feet this season, no one shot better than Bosh's 49.5 percent conversion rate, according to Hoopdata.com. Not Dirk Nowitzki. Not Kobe Bryant. Not Kevin Durant. No one.

For this reason, Bosh creates a dilemma for defenders in the pick-and-roll. Leave Bosh to wall off James' or Wade's penetration? Or shade toward Bosh and make sure the league's most sure-handed mid-range shooter doesn't get an open look?

Watch how Roy Hibbert and David West "guard" the Heat's big men. Or better yet, watch how they sag into the paint and ignore the Heat's big men. Watch how Wade and James settle for pull-up jumpers -- the least potent weapon in their arsenals next to heaving halfcourt shots -- because multiple bodies are anchored in their way.

Or just listen to Hibbert.

"Without [Bosh] in the game, I can wander a little bit more and make the paint look a little more crowded and block more shots," Hibbert said after Thursday's rout. "When he's there, I have to respect his ability."

To see the Bosh effect, look no further than Wade's whopping total of two shots derived from the pick-and-roll in Game 3. According to SynergySports, Wade missed both shots after a screen and they were both as a result of Hibbert's noted lack of respect for big men in red. Wade clanked a running floater over Hibbert in the third quarter because the 7-foot-2 All-Star shifted over to Wade, ignoring Turiaf. On another possession, Wade got blocked by Hibbert after the screen because Anthony was never deemed a threat as a roll man.

The pick-and-roll used to be Wade's bread and butter, the vehicle he road to a title in 2006. Without Bosh, it's almost useless. The Pacers can throw two on the ball and lure Wade into rolling the dice on a jump shot. The result? Wade has shot a putrid 16 percent (4-for-25) on jumpers since Pacers coach Frank Vogel had a day to game-plan for the Heat's post-Bosh offense before Game 2.

James has enjoyed more success than Wade in the pick-and-roll game without Bosh, but he certainly feels the effects of Bosh's absence. Because the Heat can ill-afford to play two big men without any semblance of scoring ability, James often is forced to play power forward and exhaust himself defensively on big men. James ran around like a man possessed defensively in the first half Thursday and then, predictably, trailed off after halftime.

There's little evidence that Bosh's skill-set has diminished since he came to Miami, only his role. Bosh has proved that he can be the scorer we knew in Toronto if he gets the touches. Consider that in Wade's nine-game absence in January this season, Bosh averaged 26 points on 59 percent shooting. He sacrificed touches when he came to Miami and did it for the goal of winning a title.

Spoelstra maintains that the Heat "have enough" to replace Bosh's presence. Now, Bosh can only watch while the Heat struggle to survive without him. As we're seeing now in the case of Bosh, sometimes you don't know what you have until it's gone.

MIAMI -- The Heat weren't supposed to be this top-heavy.

The loss of Chris Bosh has ripped a gauze pad off Miami's hidden wound, exposing the Heat's thin depth behind the Big Three. In the Heat's first full playoff game without Bosh, the team's third-highest scorer tallied a putrid five points. According to STATS LLC, that's the first time in Heat franchise history that only two players scored more than five points in a game. According to our friends at ESPN Stats & Info, a team has never won a postseason game with that type of scoring distribution.

Use any statistic you please, what's clear is that the Heat have a pressing issue on their hands. It's just one game, but Game 2's lopsided scoring distribution reinforces the fact that the Heat are desperate for any help from their supporting cast.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

In the summer of 2010, Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller were signed to five-year contracts worth a total of $45 million to act as relief and support for the Big Three. They were hired to be cushions for the Big Three, there to protect them with shooting and balance. We're in just Year 2 of those deals, and whispers of the dreaded "washed up" label can't be too far away for Haslem and Miller, who are 31 and 32 years old, respectively.

Haslem's 5.8 PER is the worst rating among the dozens of big men with at least 125 minutes logged in the playoffs. Miller has scored more than four points just once over his last five games and is shooting 33 percent from the floor in the playoffs.

So what happened? We'll take it one struggling ballplayer at a time.

Udonis Haslem
Haslem maintains he is 100 percent. After he chatted with Pat Riley on the sideline at Wednesday's practice, I asked him whether there's anything physically limiting him on the court, and he responded sternly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said. "Nothing's wrong with me. I'm fine."

In this case, actions might speak louder than words. What his actions on the floor suggest is that something is keeping him grounded. Literally. Haslem, who was once one of the league's more efficient big men, has seen his field goal percentage plummet this season to 42.3 percent. In the playoffs, his conversion has sunk even lower; he's shooting 33.3 percent in what Erik Spoelstra likes to call "the second season."

What should concern the Heat is that the opposing team always seems to throw a block party when Haslem gets the ball underneath. And it's not just because 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert has anchored Indiana's front line. This has been a season-long trend. When we pull up NBA.com's stats tool, we find out that a whopping 20 percent of Haslem's shots in the paint have been blocked this season, which is the third-highest rate among qualified big men in the league. (Only Brandon Bass and Ivan Johnson were swatted more). That's one out of every five shots. That's also double the rate we saw before he was injured last season (10.3 percent). In his last full season in 2009-10, that number stood at 12.5 percent.

As a result of all the blocked shots, his field goal percentage on shots in the paint has dwindled to a mere 46 percent, which is far below the 54.5 percent average among bigs. More and more we see Haslem retrieving an offensive rebound (often off his own misses) and passing it out to the perimeter instead of going back up with it. While that might be the smarter move, it's also one that might not have happened a couple of years ago.



Then we get to that jumper. The herky-jerky shooting motion has never been a thing of beauty, but it always seemed to get results. Not so much lately. So far in the postseason, he's shooting a putrid 27.3 percent on jumpers, according to Synergy Sports, which is down from his rate of 36.2 percent in the regular season. Before going down with a foot injury, Haslem nailed 50.9 percent of his jumpers, making him one of the best knockdown midrange shooters in the league.

What's the cause of his jumper's demise? It could be a matter of balance and follow-through as his former trainer and current ESPN Insider David Thorpe observed in January. Although Haslem started hitting shots soon after that article was posted, his proficiency has hit rock bottom yet again.

This is not the Haslem the Heat thought they were getting when they signed him to a contract that extends to 2015. The fire, heart and leadership that earned Haslem a co-captain designation? That's still there. That should never be doubted with Haslem, the team's hard-nosed leader and rock of the franchise. The production, though? That's been missing for some time now. The 12 minutes he received in Game 2 spoke wonders about where he fits into the Heat's current plans.

So what happened to Haslem? It's hard to say. Again, Haslem insists that he's healthy, but that foot injury required several surgeries over the past year or so. The increase in blocked shots suggest that he doesn't have the same burst that he used to. His strong rebounding numbers might tell us that he's not hurting at all, but Haslem's rebounding has always been a product of expert positioning and effort, not bounce.

The Heat need Haslem's shooting more than ever now that Bosh is sidelined. He's giving no reason for Hibbert and David West to follow him after a pick-and-roll. As is, the Pacers bigs are more than happy to throw an extra body in the way of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, rather than stick to Haslem in the midrange. The Pacers are making it clear that they don't feel he's a threat from there anymore. And it's hurting the Heat's attack.

Mike Miller
Miller and Haslem find themselves in the same boat, which is appropriate since they were college roommates at Florida. After receiving a multiyear deal to flank the Big Three, Miller has barely played a healthy minute on the floor. In Game 2, he grimaced as he trotted up and down the floor with a noticeable limp, perhaps due to a lingering soreness from his left ankle injury that forced him to miss 14 games in March and April.

Miller, like Haslem, maintains that he is healthy. The hobbling in Game 2 suggests otherwise, and there's little doubt that it's sapping his game. The Heat recruited Miller because of his shooting stroke and ballhandling ability. Upon his signing in July 2010, Riley gushed about Miller's skill set, calling him the finest perimeter shooter in the NBA and the signing as "a match made in heaven."


"He is a multifaceted player who can rebound, handle the ball and make plays," Riley said that summer. "We expect big things from him."

The shooting stroke is still there -- he's shooting 36.7 percent from downtown in the playoffs and 45.3 percent in the regular season, but the ballhandling and playmaking skills that the Heat were sold on? We've haven't seen that in months.

If you have any doubt that Miller's ankle is bothering him, chew on the following information. In Game 2, Miller played 17 minutes. In those 17 minutes, guess how many times he dribbled in the half court?

Four.

And he lost the ball on three of those dribbles, causing two turnovers.

Think about that. Four dribbles in 17 minutes.

Miller, who used to play de facto point guard during his days in Memphis, played 17 minutes in Game 2 and successfully put the ball on the deck once in the half court. (I say half court because he caught an outlet pass and dribbled twice on one occasion before passing the ball past half court). As has been true for a while, Miller's role on the team has been reduced to a corner 3-point shooter, camped out and waiting for the kickout from James or Wade.

This is a significant problem for the Heat, because once Bosh went down, they have had no one who can create their own shot besides James and Wade. It's gotten so bad that the team is forced to rely on rookie Norris Cole, who shot 34 percent after the All-Star break, for buckets off the bench. Sure, Cole can create his own shot, but making the shot has been a different story -- although it should be mentioned that he made both of his attempts in Game 2.

When the Heat signed Miller and Haslem, there was no way of knowing that they were going to battle injuries for almost all of their first two seasons in uniform. Between the foot, ankle and shoulder injuries and the concussions, there's a ton of bad luck involved. But you always run that risk when you sign veterans on the wrong side of 30 to five-year deals. Thanks to injuries and age, the multidimensional players they thought they were getting have become increasingly limited as basketball players.

What the Heat need now is Miller and Haslem to step up if they hope to escape out of the Eastern Conference semifinals. There's still time to get healthy and reverse the trends.

But the more they limp up the floor and get swatted underneath the basket, the more it appears that time might be running out.

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat visit the Pacers for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

1. Fact or Fiction: Dwyane Wade should have been suspended.

Tom Haberstroh: Fiction. Although, I've gone both ways on this one. Darren Collison decelerated slightly for the pass, so I'm not sure it was all Wade's fault for the sheer velocity of impact. But I can't shake the feeling that this wasn't a fully objective ruling. I keep asking myself the following three "What Ifs": What if Collison and Wade switched places? What if Chris Bosh wasn't out indefinitely? What if the Heat were up 2-0 instead of split in the series? We'll never know.

Michael Wallace: Fiction. I thought a Flagrant 1 was adequate punishment to fit the crime. As it turned out, that extra possession Indiana got as a result of Wade's message-sending cheap shot ended up costing the Heat in a 3-point loss. I will say this: Had Wade or LeBron been hit from behind like that, my guess is the call would have been more harsh under the same circumstances.

Brian Windhorst: Fiction. It was a cheap shot hit and was properly called a flagrant foul. It would've been interesting had it been called a flagrant-2 foul and they had to review it and decide whether Wade should've stayed in the game. Joey Crawford was all over the play, made the call and the league stood by him. It was proper.

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2. Fact or Fiction: Heat need Haslem to step up more than Miller

Haberstroh: Fact. Haslem has played worse than just about anybody left in the playoffs and the Heat don't have anyone who can score underneath. If they can just get Haslem to provide 10 points with some mid-range jumpers and put-backs, it would open up so much in LeBron James and Wade's games, especially in the pick-and-roll.

Wallace: Fact. Only because Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers or James Jones are capable of giving Miami the shooting Mike Miller is supposed to provide. With Chris Bosh out, Miami doesn't have any other bigs who as effective as Haslem could be in the pick-and-roll game with Wade and LeBron. Who else is going to grab 10 rebounds if needed? Haslem must first give Erik Spoelstra a reason to play him more than the 12 minutes he got in Game 2.

Windhorst: Fact. Well, the Heat need somebody to step up, anyone. But Haslem would be a bigger boost because if he was able to get his jumper going he would be a threat in the pick-and-roll game. With Bosh gone, the Heat's favorite play has been gutted because the Pacers do not respect whoever is in the play unless it is Wade and LeBron.

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3. Fact or Fiction: This series is a 50/50 toss-up at this point.

Haberstroh: Fact. I would say that a breakout game of the Heat's supporting cast is just around the corner, but I look at Haslem and Miller limping up and down the floor and I can't help but wonder if there's something more that's plaguing this team. The Pacers are healthy, hungry and home for the next two games. This is a toss-up, to me.

Wallace: Fiction. I'd go 55/45 still in favor of the Heat. Miami still has the league MVP in James and a top-5 player in Wade on the roster. Two more baskets from anyone else on the roster the other night would've put the Heat ahead 2-0 right now. You could also look at it another way and say that if the refs didn't hold back Indy in Game 1, the Pacers could also be up 2-0. So in essence, that does mean this thing is essentially anyone's series to win.

Windhorst: Fiction. The Heat have the two-best players and overall more experience. They still have the edge but it is much closer, there's a much smaller margin for error with Bosh out.

Sitting at his locker after the 78-75 loss to the Pacers, Heat point guard Mario Chalmers felt that Darren Collison clipped him on the arm on the potential game-tying 3-point attempt with three seconds left.

"I had a good look at it," Chalmers said. "I felt like I was fouled on the three that I shot but they didn’t call it. Darren got me for sure. It is a shot I usually knock down."



Tough to tell live or on video, but the photos above certainly appear to back up Chalmers' complaint. Collison appears to make contact with Chalmers' elbow and then immediately afterward Collison pulls his arms back.

Either way, expect LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to shoulder most of the blame for their missed shots at the end.

But did the refs miss one, too?

See for yourself. Chalmers' 3-point attempt occurs around the 55 second mark.

In another postseason installment of the Heat Index's 5-on-5 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat host the Pacers in Game 2 Tuesday night.

1. Fact or Fiction: Roy Hibbert will get 20 and 10 in Game 2.

Tim Donahue, 8 points, 9 seconds: Fiction. It's possible, but unlikely. There are too many things that mitigate against Hibbert getting much more than 30 minutes - fouls, matchups, conditioning. In addition, Hibbert is too easy to take away, if he becomes the main focus of the offense. The 17 and 11 he put up Sunday feels awfully close to his peak to me.

Tom Haberstroh: Fact. Expecting big things from him in Game 2. I see Frank Vogel getting back to his roots, and studying the tape to find a better way to get Hibbert the ball in the post with Chris Bosh ailing. Secondly, the Heat know that locking down the perimeter and creating havoc in the passing lanes will lead them to fast-break opportunities. They'll "let" Hibbert get his.

Jared Wade, 8 points, 9 seconds: Fiction. He dropped a 20/10 only four times this regular season and couldn't manage to do so against the center-less Magic in the first round. Doubt he starts now against one of the league's premier defensive teams.

Michael Wallace: Fiction. I believe Hibbert will get the rebounding numbers. But he doesn't have to quite score 20 for the Pacers to be effective. In order for Indiana to fully exploit its size/strength advantage, Hibbert's production must be complemented by David West.

Brian Windhorst: Fact. He got only 27 minutes and 12 shots in Game 1 because of foul trouble. He also had to play a half against Bosh. And he still had 17 points and 11 rebounds. No excuse not to improve on that.

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2. Fact or Fiction: Danny Granger needs to step up more than Hibbert.

Donahue: Fact. Miami proved that it can live with the Pacers' bigs having their way, provided Indiana gets little or nothing from the perimeter. The Pacers have little or no chance of winning a game - let alone the series - if Granger doesn't play better at both ends.

Haberstroh: Fact. This is their leading scorer and he was invisible offensively. The Heat don't respect Granger quite on the same level as Carmelo Anthony, but he's clearly much less capable against James. If the Pacers have any hope of stealing a game in Miami, Granger needs to hit his shots. Otherwise, where else are those points going to come from?

Wade: Fact. The Pacers spread the scoring around pretty evenly but Granger usually finishes near 20 points when they're playing at their best. This means he gets a few open 3s, a few transition points and a few points he creates by getting to the rim or pulling up in the midrange. He needs to find a way to score or Indiana is toast.

Wallace: Fact. Granger claimed that Vogel apologized after the Game 1 loss for not getting him more involved offensively. Granger also has to be much better than 1-for-10 from the field. Bottom line is Granger must make James work much harder defensively at a time when he'll be carrying an even bigger load to make up for Bosh's absence.

Windhorst: Fiction. The Pacers' hopes are on Hibbert, he has to be a force. He has to compel the Heat to alter their defense and get out of their preferred style. Granger of course has to play better, he can't be going 1-of-10. But after watching Granger play against James about 25 times over the years, I do not expect greatness.

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3. Fact or Fiction: You expect the foul disparity to even out in Game 2.

Donahue: Fact. No good way to answer this, but 9 is a big gap, so it will likely go down. Miami (read: James and Wade) attacks the rim much more, and that will create more fouls. Unless Granger and Paul George become much more active, the Pacers will remain upside down when it comes to foul count.

Haberstroh: Fact. Call him soft or whatever, but Bosh is one of the top whistle-drawers in the game. He'll be missed in the free throw column and it's not like Ronny Turiaf, Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem need to be fouled underneath. James and Wade won't stop attacking Hibbert and West on the front line, but don't forget that that Pacers posted a higher free throw rate (percentage of shots coming from the free throw line) than the Heat this season. It'll balance out some.

Wade: Fiction. I expect it to be closer, but still favor Miami. The Heat are just so much more aggressive in terms of attacking the hoop with abandon. Sunday wasn't a single-game aberration as much as it was a continuation of a season-long trend for both squads.

Wallace: Fiction. James and Dwyane Wade will always get calls, many of which they deserve and some that are byproducts of superstar treatment. That won't change. The only thing the Pacers can do is attack the basket on the other end and make the refs occasionally call it both ways.

Windhorst: Fact. It'll tighten up. But how much disparity was there? The Heat took 10 more free throws than Indy. That's not exactly normal but it's not obscene. The Heat average eight more free throws than their opponents in the playoffs. The Pacers foul a lot. The Heat are going to take more free throws in this series most likely.

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4. Fact or Fiction: James should start at power forward.

Donahue: Fact, though I'm not entirely sure if it matters. It seems unlikely that experimenting with starting Turiaf or Anthony will hurt the Heat much. However, James should see significant time at power forward, because it puts the most pressure on the Pacers. It's also the most likely way to neutralize the one advantage West and Hibbert give Indiana.

Haberstroh: Fact. If it means more floor-spacers in Mike Miller and Shane Battier on the floor instead of Turiaf or Anthony, the Heat should seriously think about starting James at the 4 -- although the MVP clearly said he didn't expect (er, want) to start at the power forward slot at Monday's practice. Normally, I don't care who starts or finishes, but in this case, I think the upside is great enough that James should get the start. Playing Turiaf or Anthony means more 3-on-5 ball.

Wade: Fact. Getting Battier on the court for more minutes is better than extending the time given to any of Miami's bigs.

Wallace: Fiction. Keep James in his comfort zone for now. Besides, there's no need to risk the early foul trouble or the physical exertion banging with West and Hibbert down low from the start. Put Turiaf at center and keep Haslem at power forward for the time being.

Windhorst: Fiction. I don't care who starts, he'll likely finish playing power forward.

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5. Fact or Fiction: The Heat should still be favored in this series without Bosh.

Donahue: Fact. Bosh is a significant loss, but it remains to be seen how quickly Miami will feel it, or how quickly the Pacers can capitalize on it. Ultimately, the Pacers still have to overcome first James, then Wade before making Bosh's absence matter. The reward's richer if they can, but overcoming those two isn't all that much easier for Indiana.

Haberstroh: Fact. I originally had the Heat in five, but I'll push that back to seven games. Even without Bosh, the Pacers still don't have any answers for James and Wade's attack. If Granger doesn't show up, might have to keep this at Heat in five.

Wade: Fact. But barely. It is now a very even series if Bosh doesn't play again this round. In Game 1, Indiana showed that it can play with, and perhaps even better than Miami for long stretches. The Pacers will have to withstand great play by two great players, but they now have a clear advantage in roster spots 3 through 10.

Wallace: Fact. The Heat still have two of the top five players in the game, still have home-court advantage and still have a level of confidence and mental toughness the Pacers have yet to show on a postseason stage with this much intensity.

Windhorst: Fact. They still have the two best players including the MVP.

Here's a short clip of Chris Bosh speaking to reporters on Monday about his abdominal strain. He is listed as "out indefinitely," but the key quote (which isn't in this short clip):

"This season has to be extended for me to play again."

Speculating about Chris Bosh's injury when you don't know a thing about sports medicine or wear a white jacket is a bad idea. I don't have a degree in sports medicine. So I asked someone who does.

ESPN's Stephania Bell is the injury analyst on our staff and a board certified orthopedic clinical specialist and certified strength and conditioning specialist (fancy!). Given what we know about Bosh's injury (which is very little), I thought I'd ask her a few questions about what the heck an abdominal strain is and what it means for the Heat going forward.

Chris Bosh seemed to grab his groin after the injury, but it's being called an abdominal strain. What's the difference?

Bell: The groin is one of the inner-thigh adductor muscles and the lower abdominal muscle is the rectus -– the "six-pack" muscle -- but what's important is that they all attach to the pubic bone along with the oblique muscles. That’s the issue. If he partially tore the muscle down by where it attaches, that is a huge problem.

These things sound tricky, but can we get any sense of the severity based on how he looked after the injury?

It’s hard to say and I wouldn’t venture to guess on a diagnosis based entirely on video. You can’t tell the magnitude or degree, but the more interesting factor is the way he looked, the way he grabbed, it has the potential to be something that’s problematic going forward. When you see a guy grabbing at the muscle and going down to his knees, it certainly suggests it’s more than a mild partial tear. It’s not like it was only sore after the game. It took him to his knees and then he had to leave.


So what does a strain mean? What does it limit?

A strain could be anything, really -- mild, moderate or severe -- we don't know. It doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t try to play, but it would certainly compromise his ability to run, jump, anything that stretches that muscle, anything that requires power. If it’s down low near where it attaches, essentially every time that muscle contracts you’re going to get a sharp pain that makes it virtually impossible to power to your legs and your trunk can’t be strong. They’re going to be very open (with the timetable). That’s a fair thing to do right now, because usually there is a lot of uncertainty day-to-day. Can he function? Can he get on the court and be serviceable? They’re not wrong to leave it open.

Is this a sports hernia?

A sports hernia is a confusing term because it's not actually a hernia at all. A sports hernia is a tearing of the abdominal wall or tear of the groin. They wouldn’t necessarily use that term right now and it’s proper to call it an abdominal strain now, but sometimes we later hear it being called a sports hernia. Sometimes they need to be repaired. Sometimes a mild strain, depending on location, can heal on its own. Reason being most of the things they call sports hernias will not heal independently.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra often says that Chris Bosh is the most irreplaceable player on the Heat. Not best, but most critical.

With Bosh leaving Sunday's game with a lower abdominal strain, we'll find out how vital he is to the Heat. To be clear, abdominal strains are one of the trickiest injuries in basketball. Sometimes they knock out a player for a day (like what happened Jazz big man Al Jefferson this season). Sometimes they knock out a player for three weeks or more (like what happened to Kevin Garnett in 2008).

Depending on the severity of the strain revealed on Bosh's MRI, he could be out anywhere from a day to a whole month. A month on the sideline would likely mean he's done for the season. The best guess at the moment is that this abdominal strain will probably keep him out for the rest of the Pacers series, but we'll know more about it after the Heat's practice on Monday afternoon.

So if Bosh is out for the rest of the series, what does that mean for the Heat?

They still have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade
This is pretty obvious, but James and Wade are pretty good at basketball. Any time you can have two perennial MVP candidates wearing the same jersey, that team's chances are pretty good regardless of how much overlap they bear in playing style.

This notion was solidified on Sunday, when the James and Wade outscored the Pacers by themselves in the second half. Yes, James and Wade combined for 42 points after halftime while the entire Pacers team scored just 38 points. Riding the dynamic duo, the Heat absorbed Bosh's injury and squeaked out a win over the fifth-winningest team in the NBA this season.

Is that success sustainable? It actually might be. Looking at the regular season, we find something interesting: the Heat blew out teams with James and Wade on the floor and Bosh sidelined. When the Big Three was reduced to the Big Two for 235 minutes on the court this season, the Heat scored 120.8 points per 100 possessions while giving up only 99.8 points per 100 possessions according to basketballvalue.com. Said another way, the Heat beat opponents by 17.8 points every 48 minutes when James and Wade played without Bosh. Looks like addition by subtraction, no?

Well, we have to be careful here. The James-Wade tandem preyed on opponents partly because they played against second units. The Heat obviously want the Big Three on the floor as much as possible against the opposing teams' best lineups, so the Bosh-less units usually came against bench players in the regular season.

For this reason, there's no sense in thinking that the Heat can continue that torrid pace here in the playoffs against the cream of the crop. And the sample size isn't huge (for reference, it's about one-tenth the size of our sample looking at Carmelo playing without Amare). But 17.8 points every 48 minutes is a strong indication that James and Wade can hold their own.

OK, so what does it mean for this series?
Now that we're done with the overview stuff, let's talk details. Bosh was particularly valuable in this series because of his ability to hit a jump shot and pull gentle giant Roy Hibbert outside the paint. With Bosh out, they're forced to rely on Udonis Haslem, Ronny Turiaf and Joel Anthony to set picks and hope that the defense doesn't double-team the ball-handler (which would typically be James and Wade).

We saw a lot of this in Game 1 on Sunday. With no reason to follow Turiaf or Anthony at 18 feet, Hibbert just camped out in the paint and waited for James to approach. Couper Moorhead of Heat.com did a fantastic job of breaking this play down with video. When Hibbert gave James space, the MVP took advantage by pulling up for clean looks in the midrange. That's not a shot Spoelstra wants every time, but giving James space is never a bankable plan.

The Heat won't find someone to replace everything that Bosh does, but Haslem was supposed to be a serviceable understudy. As a gifted midrange shooter and tenacious rebounder, Haslem fit the role as a solid backup power forward who could offer some floor-spacing with his jump shot. But Haslem's shot has been broken for some time now; he's shooting just 3-for-12 (25 percent) on midrange jumpers in the playoffs (via Hoopdata.com). Bosh he is not.

But Turiaf and Anthony should see a big boost in minutes. When the task is to catch-ball-dunk-ball, Turiaf and Anthony can be useful (Anthony has been playing as if his hands had been recently dipped in glue). Asking them to do anything outside the immediate basket area is a fool's errand, although Turiaf can dish it out to shooters. If they can catch James' and Wade's dump passes when Hibbert and David West collapse onto the ball-handler, that could go a long way to decongesting the offense.

James at power forward: power outage concerns?
James isn't a known as a power forward by trade, but he has the strength and size to be the league's most effective 4 if he wants. Don't believe me? James has a 29.1 player efficiency rating (PER) as a small forward this season according to 82games website. At power forward? James' PER soars to 37.1, which is simply off-the-charts good.

With the size of Karl Malone, James can be a monster on the block when he wants to be, thanks to his improved postgame footwork and ability to pass out of double-teams. We saw James at the 4 for 20 minutes in Game 1 on Sunday and the Heat outscored the Pacers by 15 points. The Pacers tried to stick Danny Granger on James and assign West to take Shane Battier on the perimeter, but removing a big body like West from the paint area is just asking for a Wade or James basket attack.

Rest assured, the Pacers will make adjustments in Game 2. While the Heat could start James at the 4 spot in Game 2, the Heat must be careful about James' stamina. They do not want him burning all his energy trying to body up West on the block, then expecting him to shift into higher gear on offense with Bosh out.

With Battier in the fold, the Heat's No. 1 priority this season was making sure they found relief for James and keeping his minutes down in the playoffs. Asking James to battle West for 45 minutes isn't part of that plan, but Spoelstra might not have any choice. They'll be glad now that they were extra careful about James' minutes in the Knicks series.

At the end of the day, this is Spoelstra' great dilemma: Can the Heat survive and prevent James from burning out in the Finals again? That's the big question. The Heat might have enough to get by the Pacers, because James at the power forward slot might be their best option in the first place, but at what cost?

Getting past the Pacers without Bosh is the Heat's current priority, but it's not the only one. They have enough talent to prevail in this round, but the bigger question might be whether they'd be running on empty thereafter.