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MIAMI - After serving a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul during the Heat's series against the Indiana Pacers, forward Udonis Haslem was back at work Saturday with his teammates.

Haslem was suspended for Game 6 of the Heat-Pacers series after he took down Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough during the Heat's 32-point victory in Game 5 on Tuesday in Miami. Haslem traveled with the team to Indiana for Game 6, but the suspension prevented him from attending the game.

So instead, Haslem said Saturday he spent the evening in a suite watching the game at the downtown hotel where the Heat stayed in Indianapolis. Haslem got through the game like most fans - he grabbed a sports drink and a couple of bags of chips while sitting on the sofa.

He regretted not being there for his team, but not necessarily for taking up for teammate Dwyane Wade, who was fouled hard by Hansbrough on a previous play in Game 5 and was also assessed a flagrant-1 foul that was later upgraded to a flagrant-2 penalty.

In the video above, Haslem talks about being back on the court with his teammates as they prepare for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday. He also discussed what it felt like when Wade delivered him the game ball from the Heat's series-clinching victory over the Pacers as players boarded the team flight Thursday back to Miami.

Wade said Saturday he appreciates having Haslem at his side and revealed how deep their relationship runs.

"The biggest thing, I think, for all of us is we understand how much Udonis means to all of us," Wade said. "The foul that he took, you know, in a sense, was a foul for us. Obviously, he took a hard foul and got suspended for a game. With him not playing, we told him we were going to go out there and take care of business. I respect him, what the other captain brought - that toughness for our team."

Wade hopes Haslem stores the game ball away in a nice place. The two have been teammates with the Heat since they came into the league together in 2003. They are the only current members of the team from the 2005-06 championship season.

"For me, it's like having a big brother when you're going to school," Wade said. "You know ain't nobody going to mess with you. And if they do, you'll be calling your big brother."

Because of that, Wade said he tried not to react too angrily after he was fouled by Hansbrough. Wade sensed his most loyal teammate might not take it too well. Haslem has denied that retaliation was his motivation for the foul on Hansbrough.

"I tried to do my impression of trying to calm everything after I got hit, because I know it was a very physical hit," Wade said. "And I know how certain guys respond to that, when they see a guy kind of go after you. (Haslem) had a very good view of it because he was on the baseline when it happened."

Wade attempted to calm his teammates during a brief huddle.

"I tried to act like it was all good, 'Let's just move on guys,'" Wade said of his message. "But (Haslem) is not that guy. I didn't know that (hard foul on Hasbrough) was coming. But I was hoping that it didn't, because I know how thin we were and, like I said, the second guy always gets caught. But we got our guy back and we're ready to move on."

MIAMI – LeBron James insists he's not concerned about his safety on the court, but does vow to brace for even more hard fouls Thursday in Game 6 of what has become a brutally physical playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.

“It may have gotten to that point. For me, it's always at that point,” James said Wednesday after the Heat wrapped up practice and prepared to travel to Indiana. “I'm always in protect mode. For me, in the playoffs or the regular season, there are teams trying to go for me. It's happened. I'm not saying guys are playing dirty, but certain guys say if you hard foul LeBron, get him off balance, he'll stop being aggressive and things like that.”

After winning consecutive games to overcome an early 2-1 series deficit, the Heat are looking to close out the Pacers in Indiana and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season. But James and his Heat teammates know they'll likely have a fight on their hands - maybe even literally, considering how rough the play has gotten in the series over the past few games.

Punishment was doled out by the league Wednesday when reserve Heat center Dexter Pittman was suspended three games for his hard foul on Pacers guard Lance Stephenson in the final seconds of Tuesday's game. Heat forward Udonis Haslem was also suspended one game (Game 6) for a flagrant foul on Indiana forward Tyler Hansbrough.

Another byproduct of this rough series is that James and Heat guard Dwyane Wade have attempted 46 and 45 free throws, respectively, through five games against Indiana. What already had been an especially physical series through the first four games turned ugly during the Heat's 115-83 victory in Game 6, which included three flagrant fouls – included the two by Haslem and Pittman that clearly seemed to have been committed in retaliation for earlier actions and antics.

James, who won his third league MVP award this season, said even the threat of suspensions might not drastically alter the rugged tone of a series that has included a total of 234 personal fouls, five conduct-driven technical fouls and four flagrant-1 penalties. James also said he's been a target for hard fouls throughout his nine-year NBA career, and doesn't think the Heat-Pacers series is any different.

Check out the video above to watch James react to the storylines entering Game 6 Thursday at Indiana.

Considering all of the hard fouls, bloody cuts and tough talk that have permeated this brutal playoff series between the Heat and Pacers, it's difficult to imagine a player from one team rooting for anything that has to do with the opposing squad.

But that's exactly where Heat guard Dwyane Wade stands entering Game 6 of this best-of-7 series. Wade said Wednesday he hopes Indiana is as close to full strength as possible when the teams head to Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Thursday night, with the Heat leading 3-2 and having a chance to close out the series.

Why? Well, because Keith Bogans is still haunting Wade after all these years. Yes, Wade still has a sore spot for Kentucky fans who suggest the Wildcats would have knocked off Marquette in the 2003 NCAA Tournament had Bogans been healthy instead of trying to play through a high ankle sprain. Wade went on to notch a triple-double against Kentucky in a performance that not only launched Marquette into the Final Four but also cemented his status as a top-five lottery pick.

So that, in a nutshell, is why Wade wants Pacers' swingman Danny Granger (sprained left ankle) and forward David West (sprained left knee) to recover as quickly as possible from injuries that knocked them out of Miami's Game 5 victory. Granger sat out of the Pacers' practice Wednesday, but West participated in the light workout. Both players are expected to play Thursday.

Wade explains the motivation behind wishing the Pacers well in the video above, and also comments on team president Larry Bird calling his own team "soft."

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.

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'."

INDIANAPOLIS – Frank Vogel calls them his Vince Lombardi moments.

It's those times when the Indiana Pacers' coach claims to deliver just the right motivational message and make the most effective adjustments before he sends his team out after halftime in the perfect frame against the Miami Heat.

“I'm a genius,” Vogel sarcastically quipped. “That simple.”

How the Pacers have taken a surprising 2-1 series lead against the Heat entering Game 4 Sunday might be a bit more complicated to explain than what Vogel has let on.

But not by much.

Among the adjustments Miami hopes to make is to buck a recent trend in which the Pacers have dominated the third quarter in each of the past two games to take control of this series. For whatever reason, the Heat have been a bit sluggish coming out of the locker room after halftime. And as a result, they've been slammed to start the second half.

The Pacers have outscored the Heat 54-26 in the third quarters of the past two games, which includes holding Miami to just 12 points in the period in Game 3 on the way to a 94-75 victory on Thursday to pull ahead in the series.

Miami has shot just 31.5 percent in what has proved to be the decisive period in its matchup with Indiana. The Heat haven't fared much better overall, and are shooting only 37.6 percent through three entire games.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admitted after Saturday's practice that his team's third quarter production – or lack thereof – has been a longstanding problem that also affected the team during the first-round series against New York. Even last season, the Heat's inconsistency in making halftime adjustments – or responding to them – was a source of criticism all the way through the loss in the Finals to Dallas after squandering a 2-1 series lead.

“That's somewhere we have to be much better at,” Spoelstra said entering Sunday's game. “That's not exclusive to this series. We had a little bit of a problem with that against New York and in the regular season. Our guys understand that we have to come out with a different mentality and force in that third quarter. No question.”

Miami typically has done its most effective work defensively in the second and fourth quarter this season, with their opponents shooting higher percentages from the field in the first and third quarters – right after coming out of the locker room. Vogel said he's noticed the trend, but hasn't had to make many adjustments to capitalize because the third has always been a breakout period for Indiana.

“Our starters have played well against just about everybody all year,” Vogel said of the Pacers, who averaged 25.1 points a game in the third this season, their most of any quarter. “That unit has played at a level the Pacers haven't seen in quite some time. When they come out strong in the third quarter, we ride them a little longer than usual. And that's what led to these third quarter leads.”

The Pacers insist they take full advantage of the opportunity to regroup during the extended break between the first and second halves. It represents a fresh start.

“It's just part of the game we feel we can come out and execute because the information is still fresh in our heads,” forward David West said. “So we try to put a lot of emphasis on that point of the game. But it's more than just five guys, the starters. The bench guys come in and up the pace, up the edge and continue to pressure the other team.”

Several factors have affected the Heat's immediate performance after halftime in this series. In Game 1, Miami was forced into a major adjustment when starter Chris Bosh left the game in the second quarter with an abdominal strain that is expected to sideline him for the rest of the series.

Ironically, the Heat won the third quarter of that game and outscored the Pacers 53-38 overall in the second half. In Game 2, Miami missed 14 of 17 shots in the third and were outscored by 14 points en route to a 78-75 win for the Pacers in Miami. In Thursday's loss, Spoelstra switched his starting lineup in the third and inserted Ronny Turiaf at center after Dexter Pittman had a horrible three-minute stint to open the game.

While the Heat have been searching for answers after the half, the Pacers have been all about stability.

“I think we've done a good job of making adjustments, picking spots where we can attack and (identifying) where we're being attacked,” Pacers forward Danny Granger said. “That third quarter … It's been pivotal for us.”

INDIANAPOLIS – Dwyane Wade can’t get his age-25 explosion back, he can’t magically heal Chris Bosh’s abdominal muscle and he can’t take back the angry words he said to his coach on national television. But there are things that Wade and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra can do to attempt to change the tide in their series with the Indiana Pacers.

Spoelstra goes to extreme and sometimes paranoid lengths to conceal his true thoughts and strategy. The team’s various non-answers about Wade’s health are just a recent example. But one thing that did come through in their preparation for Sunday’s Game 4 is some planned changes for the struggling and perhaps hurting Wade.

Without Bosh as a pick-and-roll partner in addition to giving up 7 inches to primary defender Paul George, Wade’s had trouble getting to the basket in this series. It’s forced him to rely more on jumpers than his preferred attacks. And his jump shot, whether it’s a slump or because his lift is being affected by some leg issues, has been in a deep freeze.

Spoelstra, seeing these realities, apparently intends to make some adjustments to try to find Wade some relief.

“Big part of that is my responsibility to make sure he get to place where he’s comfortable and confident and where he can be aggressive,” Spoelstra said. “That’s where we’ve been focusing our energies the last couple of days. I anticipate we’ll do a better job of it this game.”

Just what wrinkles Spoelstra has in mind and whether it might make a difference is to be determined. But this bit of in-between-game coaching is some of the most vital coaching Spoelstra has had to execute all year.

His moves so far in the series have come off as erratic, including a bizarre first quarter in Game 3, when he started a player who hadn’t been seen for weeks, Dexter Pittman. Then he shuffled in no less than 11 different players in the game’s first 12 minutes like it was some sort of preseason scrimmage.

Already dealing with a fragile offense, the Heat’s rhythm has been obliterated over the last two games. After averaging 98 points a game in the regular season and 96 in the first round against the New York Knicks, the Heat haven’t cracked 75 points since Bosh’s injury. In an effort to find a mixture that works in light of Bosh's absence, Spoelstra's decisions have been all over the place.

Udonis Haslem, one of the steadiest players on the team, has seen his playing time slashed and his mood darken noticeably on the bench and in the locker room. Rookie Norris Cole has gone from in the rotation to deep on the bench to one of the first subs in. Shane Battier went from backup wing to starting power forward. And then there’s Pittman, whose three minutes in Game 3 could kindly be called unsuccessful. Spoelstra must’ve agreed because Pittman never saw the floor again.

The whole thing resembled an out-of-control garden hose. Not exactly the feeling you want in a pivotal playoff game.

“When you have injuries, especially to key guys, roles change,” Battier said. “You just have to roll with it.”

With all that going on, figuring out how to ease Wade’s struggles -- he shot 10-of-35 over the past two games and has just 12 free throw attempts after he got 14 in Game 1 alone -- is Spoelstra’s greatest challenge.

If Spoelstra can tweak his game plan and find a way to re-engage his second-leading scorer, it could help turn the series around. And perhaps restore some confidence after a coaching performance that so far could be termed as shaky.

It is possible the Heat could look to post Wade up more often, a mainstay of his game during the season that has disappeared over the past several games. Spoelstra may attempt to free up Wade away from the ball so he doesn’t have to beat his man plus a secondary defender, most often the free-roaming Roy Hibbert, to get to the rim. It’s possible Spoelstra could go to Wade pick-and-rolls with LeBron James, which might force the Pacers to change the passive style they’ve enjoyed without having to worry about Bosh setting those usually valuable screens.

What is known is that Spoelstra had a meeting with Wade on Friday at the team hotel before Wade drove to see his old college coach, Tom Crean, at Indiana University. Then the Heat had a long film session on Saturday before going over new strategy for Game 4.

When it was over, Wade was downplaying health concerns and making references to how a game plan change may be beneficial.

“A lot of [the struggles] is not your lift or your explosion, sometimes it’s the game plan,” Wade said. “I’m sure tomorrow will be a different game than any other game in the series from how and where my attacks come.”

Wade, Spoelstra and the rest of the Heat hope it’s sure. They have not had any answers to the Pacers’ defense since Game 1. It may not be as simple as changing the strategy, if Wade is limited by an injury, there is only so much than can be done against an Indiana team that has been thoroughly enjoying itself on defense.

But Spoelstra seems ready to try something new, again. He’s running out of chances to find something that works.

“We have to vary our menu,” Spoelstra said. “We have to use everything we have.”

INDIANAPOLIS - It was a tale of two performances that defined the Indiana Pacers' blowout victory in Game 3 against the Miami Heat.

Pacers center Roy Hibbert had a formidable game while Heat guard Dwyane Wade's performance was flat-out forgettable. As expected, Indiana spent Saturday's practice bracing for what it expects to be a huge bounce-back effort from Wade, who went scoreless in the first half for the first time in 95 career playoff games and finished with just five points and five turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Heat worked Saturday to ensure that Hibbert won't duplicate the kind of impact that led to his career outing with 19 points, 18 rebounds and five blocked shots in Thursday's 94-75 win to take a 2-1 series lead.

"We're going off the mindset ... that D-Wade isn't going to have the kind of night he had in Game 3," Hibbert said after the Pacers' practice Saturday in preparation for Sunday's game. "So we're preparing for him to have a good night, and we'll have to go out there and execute."

Wade missed 11 of his 13 shot attempts and struggled to get into the lane against Indiana's speed and length. Wade also has been dealing with nagging knee and lower-leg injuries that required extensive treatment in recent days.

But with two days off before Game 4, the Pacers expect a more explosive display from Wade. Hibbert insists Indiana will be ready for the challenge, as well as the chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead before the series shifts back to Miami.

"We have some schemes to put him in situations to get the ball out of his hands, and make sure he works on the defensive end," Hibbert said. "I'm not really worried about scoring. I'm really worried about stopping LeBron (James) and D-Wade from getting into the paint."

As for his own game, Hibbert said he can't guarantee another massive double-double like he had in Game 3. But he did vow to focus on two areas.

"I'll tell you one thing: I'm going to rebound and defend," Hibbert said. "Whatever happens after that, happens."

INDIANAPOLIS - After cancelling practice and media sessions Friday, the Heat hunkered down in their search for answers to overcome a 2-1 series deficit against the Pacers. With two days to recover and regroup before Game 4 Sunday, I break down where the Heat must go from here.

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.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Tough defense might not have been the only factor that contributed to Dwyane Wade having one of the worst playoff performances of his career in Thursday's blowout loss in Game 3 to the Indiana Pacers.

Wade is dealing with lingering injuries that forced him to miss several games late in the regular season, and the Miami Heat guard required treatment in recent days for knee and leg soreness, sources told ESPN.com on Thursday.

Wade was held scoreless in the first half of Game 3 and finished with just five points and five turnovers in 37 minutes during the 94-75 loss to the Pacers, dropping Miami into a 2-1 series deficit entering Game 4 on Sunday.

After missing 11 of his 13 shots from the field, Wade downplayed concerns about whether he has been slowed by an injury or illness during the series. But even Wade's teammates questioned his health after Thursday's loss. Wade missed a total of 17 games this season, including eight of the final 15, for various ankle, foot and knee injuries in addition to a dislocated left index finger.

“At this point of the season, no one is 100 percent,” Wade said when asked after Thursday's loss whether he was affected by an injury.

The Heat already are struggling to compensate for the loss of forward-center Chris Bosh, who is out indefinitely with a lower abdominal strain he sustained in the opening game of the series last week. With Wade also quietly ailing, the Heat's chances of beating the Pacers and returning to the Eastern Conference finals could be in serious jeopardy.

Wade's frustrations with his play -- and his body -- boiled over in the third quarter of Thursday's game when he got into a heated exchange with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra during a timeout. Wade and Spoelstra came face-to-face briefly, and Wade was then restrained by forward Udonis Haslem.

Wade declined to comment on the incident after the game, saying, “I don't even remember what y'all talking about.”

Haslem, the only other player on the Heat's roster who was part of the 2005-06 championship team, said the incident was simply a discussion between two people who desperately wanted to win. The Pacers were in the midst of a 17-3 run when the timeout was called.

“We've got a lot of alpha males in this locker room, on this team,” Haslem said. “We're going to encourage each other and get on each other's case when need be. But it's all constructive criticism. I don't think it's personal with anybody. Emotions get high. It's the playoffs.”

But Spoelstra said confrontations like those are routine during intense moments in games and practices.

“Anybody that has been part of a team or has been a coach or been a player, you have no idea how often things like that happen,” Spoelstra said. “That was during a very emotional part of the game. We were getting our butt kicked. Dwyane and I have been together for a long, long time. We've been through basically everything.”

They're now in a series that turned out to be much tougher and far more physical than many had expected. Wade is shooting just 31 percent from the field in three games against the Pacers while averaging 19.3 points in the series. His struggles Thursday were evident from the outset.

Wade missed his first five shots and was held scoreless in the first half for the first time in 95 career playoff games. His first basket came on a jumper with 10:22 left in the third quarter. By then, it was obvious that Wade was having a difficult time beating his defender to get into the lane, and he was slow to recover defensively. He appeared to bang his right hand while defending Paul George in the third quarter and spent several minutes favoring that injury.

“He obviously wasn't himself,” Heat forward LeBron James said of Wade. “He wants to play better, of course.”

Heat guard Mario Chalmers scored a team-high 25 points in an effort to compensate for Wade's off night. James had 22 points and seven rebounds, and reserve center Joel Anthony finished with 10 points. But Miami lacked the firepower to match Indiana, which had four players in double figures.

Wade tried to soften the impact of a tough game with a bit of humor and sarcasm. But even poking fun at himself quickly gave way to a sobering reality for the Heat.

“I guess I made history tonight. It was a bad night,” Wade said. “There were a lot of reasons for it. ... We're not going to win a ballgame with Chris Bosh out and me scoring five points, obviously. There's frustration in that.”

Wade also credited the Pacers' defense for making the night uncomfortable. Indiana defended Wade with several different players, including Danny Granger, Paul George, George Hill and Leandro Barbosa. They mixed up coverages and rotated defenders with quickness and size.

The Heat are scheduled to practice Friday, and Wade is likely to get two full days of treatment on his sore knees and legs before Sunday's game. The plan for Wade also includes reviewing Thursday's loss to find ways to attack an Indiana defense that is holding the Heat to just 81.7 points and 37.6 percent shooting from the field.

“Every game, we come out and run some plays for me whether I'm on and whether I'm not,” Wade said. “You just try to get the best opportunity. I didn't hit many [shots] -- I was 2-for-13. I knew I didn't have it going. No secret about that. Obviously, I have to go back and look at the film.”

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.