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For the Miami Heat, it’s not how they start, but how they finish. After the Heat fell behind 2-1 in the series, Miami used dominant third quarters to win Games 4, 5 and 6 against the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Despite trailing at the half in two of those three games, the Heat outscored the Pacers by a combined 35 points in the third quarter en route to a combined final margin of victory of 52 points over those three games.

With the win, the Heat advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season and fifth time overall. The only other time they made it this far in the playoffs in consecutive seasons was in the 2005 and 2006 playoffs. The Heat’s only NBA title came in that 2006 postseason.

Miami’s clinching win was hardly surprising as the Heat improve to 5-2 in franchise history when leading a series 3-2 and haven’t lost since the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons. The Heat are now 6-0 this postseason and 3-0 in this series when scoring at least 100 points .

The Pacers, on the other hand, have never won a postseason series after trailing 3-2, dropping to 0-9 all-time after tonight’s 105-93 loss. The only other franchise that has lost as many as nine series without winning one in that situation is the Bulls (0-11), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Keys to the Game
The Pacers dominated the interior in the first half outscoring the Heat 34-16 in the paint, with the Pacers starting frontcourt holding a 35-11 advantage over the Heat’s starting frontcourt in the first 24 minutes.

It was a different story in the second half, as the Heat outscored the Pacers 22-12 in the paint after halftime, with their depleted starting frontcourt outscoring their Pacers counterparts 19-16.

The Heat’s pressure defense also was a difference-maker in their second half comeback, as the Heat forced 10 Pacers turnovers and scored 17 points off those turnovers after halftime.

The Big Two
Dwyane Wade was the offensive spark in Game 6, scoring a team-high 41 points for his seventh career 40-point playoff game, which is tied for third-most among active players. The Heat are now 7-0 when Wade scores 40-plus points in the playoffs.

Wade continued his strong play on the interior, going 8-of-11 (73 percent) on shots inside 10 feet. But his biggest improvement in Game 6 came from outside, as he connected on a season-best nine field goals from 10 feet and beyond, and shot 64 percent from that distance.

LeBron James added 28 points in the victory, matching his career average of 28.3 points per game in potential series clinchers. That mark is the fourth-highest all-time, according to Elias, trailing only Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West (min. 15 games).

Game 6 between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers (ESPN, 8 ET) will feature several key storylines to watch, including how the Heat replace a suspended Udonis Haslem. Miami will be without one of its best mid-range shooters, as Haslem has made seven mid-range jump shots (outside paint, inside 3-point territory) this series, trailing only LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Haslem has also been a spark off the Heat's bench in the last three games, scoring double figures in each of the last two. In three games Haslem has come off the bench this postseason, Miami averages 25.7 bench points. In seven games Haslem started, the Heat have gotten only 16.1 points from their bench.

With Dexter Pittman also suspended, the best option for the Heat is likely Ronny Turiaf, as his +13 this series is the highest among the Heat's available big men for Game 6. In this series, Turiaf has played only 65 minutes in five games. However, when he's been on the court, the Heat have outscored the Pacers by 13 points. Miami has also limited Indiana to just 33 percent shooting when he's playing. Also available in the frontcourt are Joel Anthony (+7) and Juwan Howard (+5).

Overall, the Heat appear to be in good position to advance. In NBA history, teams that have held a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 85.9 percent of the time, including 4-0 in the First Round this postseason. In addition, the Pacers have never come back to win a best-of-seven series after trailing 3-2 (according to Elias they are 0-8 all-time).

James has been a prime reason why the Heat can close out the series tonight. He has recorded at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in back-to-back postseason games, and if he matches those numbers in Game 6, he will become the first player in NBA history to do so in three consecutive postseason games.

History says James will have another strong performance tonight. According to Elias, James has scored at least 20 points in each of the last 11 potential playoff series-clinching games on the road, the second-longest current streak of any player in the league, behind only Kobe Bryant (19).

Meanwhile, Danny Granger (sprained ankle) has said that he will start Game 6. His play will be crucial, as he has been much better at home this series than on the road (averaging over nine points more at home).

What's more, the combination of himself, Paul George, Roy Hibbert, George Hill and David West have outscored opponents by 75 points when on the court together, the highest of any five-man lineup on any team this postseason.

A key for Indiana will be on the boards. The Pacers have outrebounded the Heat 102-76 in their wins in Games 2 and 3, but have lost the battle on the boards in their losses in Games 4 and 5 (outrebounded 96-73). When Hibbert is on the court, the Pacers are +15 rebounding, but with him off are -19.

You might be able to beat the Miami Heat at home once, but forget about doing it twice in a row.

In the regular season, they lost five home games. They not only won each of their next home contests, they did it in blowout fashion. The wins came by an average of 19.4 points. That included a 35-point win over the Indiana Pacers in January, two days after losing at home to the Atlanta Hawks.

That trend continued on Tuesday, albeit in a one-game playoff sample. Their 32-point win against the Pacers made them 6-0 in their next home game after a home loss with an average victory of 21.5 points.

The 32-point loss is also the worst loss in Pacers playoff history.

The path to victory in this game was their blistering shooting -- a playoff franchise-record 61.4 percent from the field. Their 115 points is tied for the second-most in franchise playoff history and the 32-point win is third-largest in franchise playoff history.

But it was the work inside from the Heat's star duo that continued the Heat's tone from last game.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade outscored the Pacers inside five feet for the second straight game. James made all six of his attempts from this range in Game 5 and Wade went 3-for-5. The Pacers scored 16 points inside five feet in Game 5, their fewest this postseason.

Overall, James and Wade (58 points) outscored the entire Pacers starting lineup (45 points).

James' 30-point game was the 45th of his postseason career. That's as many as Dirk Nowitzki has and trails only Kobe Bryant's 85 among active players.

It also helped that Shane Battier scored more points in the first seven minutes of the game than he had over the first four games of this series combined.

The other boost came from transition scoring as the Heat scored a postseason-high 29 transition points. They are 6-0 this postseason when scoring at least 14 transition points. In each of the Heat’s three losses this postseason, they were outscored in transition.

Starting center Roy Hibbert has been in foul trouble in both games that the Indiana Pacers have lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
In the second half of Game 1, Hibbert sat for 11 minutes, 25 seconds spanning the third and fourth quarters, which is one reason the Heat outscored the Pacers by 14 points on field goals less than five feet from the basket in the second half.

Overall in Game 1, the Heat outscored the Pacers, 40-22, inside of five feet from the hoop.

In Game 4, the Pacers were minus-8 with Hibbert off the court, and minus-5 in rebound differential. With Hibbert on the bench from the 5:03 left in the third quarter until 6:11 left in the fourth, the Heat made seven field goals -- including six within 12 feet of the basket (three each by Dwyane Wade and LeBron James).

Even without an inside scorer, the Heat have attacked the basket when Hibbert has been out of the game.

During the regular season, the Heat shot 62.3 percent on field goals less than 5 feet from the basket, which ranked fourth in the NBA (league average was 59.5).

With Hibbert on the floor, Miami’s field goal percentage inside of 5 feet drops to 51.7; however, with Hibbert on the bench, that percentage shoots up to 64.6. What’s more, the Heat attempt more than 42 percent of their shots inside of 5 feet when Hibbert is off the court, compared to less than 30 percent when Hibbert is playing.

There have been more than 3,000 postseason games in NBA history, but only once has a player scored 40 points, grabbed 18 rebounds, and recorded 9 assists in a game. At least until Sunday.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us LeBron James joined Elgin Baylor as the only players in postseason history to register 40 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists in a game as the Miami Heat evened their series with the Indiana Pacers at two games apiece. Baylor posted his 40-18-9 game in a Los Angeles Lakers win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of the 1961 Western Division Semifinals.

Betweens points scored and assists, James had a role in 62 of the Heat’s 101 points Sunday. That’s the highest such percentage (61.4) for James in any game this season.

But Miami’s performance was far from a one-man show, as Dwyane Wade scored 30 points one game after being held to five points on two-for-13 shooting. James and Wade became just the fifth set of teammates to have a 40-point game and 30-point game in a road playoff win in the last 20 years.

After trailing by eight at halftime, James and Wade combined to outscore the Pacers 43-39 over the final two quarters. And after much was made of the Pacers rebounding edge in Game 3, it’s worth noting that James and Wade also had more rebounds than Indiana in the second half in Game 4 (19-18).

The Heat’s big two were dominant at the rim, outscoring the entire Pacers team on shots inside of five feet (32-26). Wade made six of his seven shots inside five feet after attempting a season-low one shot from that distance in Game 3.

Indiana’s eight-point lead through two quarters was the largest blown halftime lead for the Pacers this season. They fell to 15-1 when leading by eight or more entering the second half in 2011-12.

The two teams will meet in the all-important Game 5 Tuesday night in Miami. In NBA history, teams to win Game 5 of a series tied at two go on to win the series 83 percent of the time.

There's been lots of speculation as to why Dwyane Wade was so painfully ineffective in Game 3 -- including reports that he may actually be in pain.

On the NBA Today podcast, Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute attributed some of the Heat star's struggles to the absence of Chris Bosh.

Later in that same podcast, David Thorpe notes that Wade simply looks like he's lost a step, and Paul George is doing a great job of using his incredible length and quickness to cut him off in isolation sets.

But Wade is also one of the best in the league at using pick-and-rolls to feast on defenses, and it's on those opportunities that his lack off aggressiveness is truly puzzling.

Perhaps we should doff our caps to Pacers coach Frank Vogel for designing a sharp strategy to neutralize the dynamic wing on this action.

Or maybe not.

Over on Pacers-themed blog Eight Points, Nine Seconds, Jared Wade goes to the tape, and finds no such wizardry.

An overwhelming majority of the times that LeBron, Wade and Chalmers have dribbled off a high screen, they have found themselves open. The guy defending them is busy fighting through the screen and the big man, as previously mentioned, is hanging back five feet in “free-safety/rim protection” mode. So they are open. It’s just that they are open in a way that they are unaccustomed to being open.

That has generally not deterred LeBron from being effective. He has still found many ways to score and create for teammates. Most impressively, he has resorted to a little running floater in the lane that I have hardly ever seen him take. It really is amazing. To deal with an unfamiliar way of being defended, he has basically created an entirely new weapon.

LeBron has also consistently found other ways to ensure that the Heat’s pick-and-roll attack — one of the most vital aspects of Miami’s offense — continues to be productive regardless of how it is defended.

In striking, baffling, puzzling contrast, Dwyane Wade has shown no such ability to adapt.

The video above is a horror flick for Heat fans.

Throughout the series, he has been confounded while coming off the screen with the ball. He has turned it over repeatedly, missed pull-up jumpers, missed floaters, missed layups, thrown poor passes and generally just been useless leading the pick-and-roll in all three games.

There really is no good way to explain exactly why such a talented player is having so much trouble making the right decision when he finds himself virtually unguarded dribbling off a screen. In this respect, two Wades are baffled.

In the clip above, just look at how many little hiccups there are in his attack and how indecisive his actions generally look. LeBron’s hesitations, on the other hand, are measured, change-of-pace moves that help create more space to attack.

Dwyane's hesitations just look like a guy who is clueless on what to do next.

It doesn't sound good, but we've seen this number before from Wade.

He struggled to do much of anything against the Celtics -- a team renown for its consistently excellent pick-and-roll defense -- throughout the regular season last year, then torched them on 52.5 percent shooting in five games during the playoffs.

For all the speculation about LeBron James' mental makeup, Wade's inconsistent effort (not to mention that blown layup at the end of Game 2) has largely gone uncriticized. The hometown hero with a ring to boot, Wade has escaped the sort of inspection many feel LeBron demands.

Maybe Wade just needs a day off to uncork another vintage performance.

But if the Heat can't recover from his current funk? Then, for the first time since he and James joined forces in Miami, it may be Wade who has to do the explaining.

After they split two games in Florida, the Indiana Pacers returned home and handed the Miami Heat a 19-point loss Thursday night to take the series lead.

The Pacers lost their first playoff game at home, against the Orlando Magic, but have won their past three home games by a combined 52 points. All three of the victories have been by at least 15 points.

The key Thursday was Roy Hibbert, who finished with 19 points and 18 rebounds, both of which are career playoff highs. With Hibbert on the floor this series, the Pacers have outscored the Heat by 30 points; when he has been on the bench, they’ve been outscored by 17.

After not getting any support for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in Game 2, the Heat’s leading scorer Thursday night was Mario Chalmers. It was the first time in 29 playoff games over the past two seasons that the leading scorer wasn’t one of the Big Three.

The Heat needed those points to offset the lack of production by Wade, who scored just five points. It was the second-lowest scoring playoff game in his career and the first time he scored fewer than 10 points since the first postseason series of his career, in 2004.

Part of the reason for his lack of scoring was his inability to get inside. Eleven of his 13 shots were from at least 10 feet out. His two field goal attempts from inside 10 feet were his fewest this season -- regular season plus playoffs -- and second fewest of his postseason career.

Wade didn’t have any more success filling the stat sheet elsewhere. Among players on the court for at least 35 minutes, he was the first since Eric Snow in 2001 to record no more than five points, rebounds or assists while turning the ball over at least five times.

The Heat have struggled to get out in transition against the Pacers. They scored 10 transition points on 39 percent shooting in Game 3 and have been outscored in transition over the first three games of the series.

Against the New York Knicks in the first round, the Heat shot 59 percent in transition and scored 39 more points than they allowed.

The Heat are even having trouble on open jumpers. In unguarded, catch-and-shoot situations, Miami made just two of 12 shots in Game 3. Against the Knicks, the Heat made 42 percent of these shots.

This is the eighth time LeBron’s team has lost back-to-back games in a playoff series. If the past is any indication, it doesn’t look good for the Heat. James’ team lost six of those previous seven series, including the past five.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

The Miami Heat were unable to overcome the loss of Chris Bosh, dropping Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at home against the Indiana Pacers.

When LeBron James and Dwyane Wade played together without Bosh on the floor during the regular season, the Heat outscored their opponents by 17 points per 48 minutes. In Game 2, the Pacers outscored the Heat 62-51 in the 32 minutes when they were on the floor together.

The Heat have leaned on James and Wade in the second half of both games against the Pacers. They have combined to score or assist on 81 of Miami’s 90 second-half points, including 33 of 37 points after halftime in Game 2.

In fact, no Heat player other than James and Wade scored more than five points on Tuesday. Elias confirms that no team has ever won an NBA playoff game in which the third-leading scorer had five or fewer points.

James missed two free throws with 54.3 seconds left and the Heat trailing by a single point. He is now shooting just 59 percent from the charity stripe this season in the final minute of one-possession games. The rest of the Heat have made 13 of 15 free throws under similar circumstances.

After the missed free throws, Wade and Mario Chalmers missed game-tying shots in the final 24 seconds. Over the last two seasons, including the playoffs, Wade is 4-for-13 and Chalmers is 1-for-8 on such shots. The four makes and 13 attempts by Wade are the most for the Heat in that span, topping the 2-for-12 effort by James.

It wasn’t only the Heat that went cold in the final two and a half minutes of the game. The teams combined to miss all 10 field goal attempts and six of eight free throws. The Pacers’ two free throws in the final minute were the only points after Wade made a shot with 2:41 left to cut Indiana’s lead to a single point.

The Pacers won despite scoring just 78 points. In the last 25 years, this is the second-lowest point total in a postseason road win for Indiana. The low was also at the Heat, a 73-70 win in the decisive Game 6 in the 2004 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

LeBron is the fifth MVP to play for a team that scored 75 or fewer points in a playoff game. According to Elias, the only MVP to appear for a team scoring fewer points was Allen Iverson, as the Philadelphia 76ers scored 74 points in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2001.

Without Bosh in the lineup, the Heat had trouble finishing inside five feet. Miami made just 42 percent of its shots from inside five feet, tied for its second-lowest accuracy this season. After outscoring the Pacers 40-22 from close range in Game 1, the Heat were outscored 26-22 on Tuesday and had six shots blocked inside five feet.

The Miami Heat will be without Chris Bosh indefinitely after an MRI showed an abdominal strain.

Bosh missed nine games during the regular season, with the Heat going 4-5 in those games. It’s interesting to note that LeBron James missed three of those nine games and Dwyane Wade missed four of them. They were 2-2 when Wade and James played without Bosh.

When the Heat have needed him, Bosh has made some big shots during the regular season. Bosh led Miami with 19 game-tying or go-ahead field goals in the fourth quarter or overtime during the regular season. By comparison, Wade made 18 while James made 15 such shots.

When James and Wade played together without Bosh on the floor, the Heat outscored their opponents by over 17 points per 48 minutes. That was easily the best out of any combination of the three players.

The Heat will miss Bosh’s scoring production in the front court. Miami had the third highest scoring production during the regular season from their front court starters, who averaged 45.6 points per game. The Orlando Magic (46.5 PPG) and New York Knicks (46.0 PPG) were the only teams ahead of Miami.

With Bosh out indefinitely, look for James to be more aggressive. In six games without Bosh during the regular season, James increased his scoring by four points and also shot a higher percentage from the field than in games Bosh played.

On the flip side, Wade’s production decreased across the board in five games without Bosh this season.

During the regular season, the Heat were nine points better per 48 minutes with Bosh on the court. The difference was on offense, where Miami scored nearly eight more points in the paint per 48 minutes.

Not surprisingly, the Heat also were a better rebounding team and committed fewer turnovers with Bosh on the court.

After seeing a 3-1 series lead vanish after back-to-back losses, the Los Angeles Clippers went on the road and beat the Memphis Grizzlies by 10 points to pick up the first Game 7 win in franchise history.

According to Elias, the Clippers are the sixth team in NBA history to win Game 7 on the road after relinquishing a 3-1 series lead. It was only the third postseason series win in the franchise’s 42-year history and second since the club moved to the West Coast from Buffalo for the 1978-79 season.

The key to Sunday’s win was the defense. The Clippers held the Grizzlies to 72 points. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s the second-fewest points allowed on the road in Game 7 during the shot-clock era. The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics 97-70 in the 1st Round of the 2005 playoffs.

The biggest improvement was in transition defense. In Game 6, the Grizzlies outscored the Clippers 24-11 and made all eight shots in transition. On Sunday, the Grizzlies made only two of nine shots in transition and were outscored 16-6. In their four wins, the Clippers allowed nine points per game in transition; in defeat, that number climbed to 20 points per game.

The Clippers bench outscored the Grizzlies 41-11, with the five players off the bench all finishing with a positive plus-minus. During the 10 minutes that the five bench players were on the court together, they outscored the Grizzlies by 10 points.

The Clippers and Lakers both advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals creates a logjam on the schedule at Staples Center next weekend. With the Los Angeles Kings still alive in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the arena will host four basketball games and two hockey games from Thursday through Sunday, including doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.

The Lakers (Friday and Saturday) and Clippers (Saturday and Sunday) will both be playing on consecutive days. Our friends at Elias let us know that this will be the first time an NBA team has played playoff games on consecutive days since May 10-11, 2003. The Dallas Mavericks played the Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons played the Philadelphia 76ers on both of those dates.

Notes from South Beach
Chris Bosh left the game with an abdominal strain in the second quarter, but that didn’t slow down the Miami Heat. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combined for 42 points in the second half, outscoring the Indiana Pacers on their own. In the fourth quarter, James had 16 points to match the Pacers’ output.

LeBron joined Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in Heat history with a 30-point, 15-rebound playoff game.

After averaging 21.4 points per game in the 1st Round, Danny Granger scored seven points in the first game against the Heat. He was held scoreless in the first half for the first time since April 10, 2007 (regular season and playoffs combined).

The under-the-radar Indiana Pacers head south to take on the larger-than-life Miami Heat as their Eastern Conference semifinal series tips off Sunday at 3:30 ET on ABC.

The Pacers have had a pair of unsuccessful trips to South Florida this season, getting blown out by 35 on Jan. 4 and losing on a Dwyane Wade buzzer-beater on March 10. The 35-point loss was the Pacers' worst in more than two years.

Pacers leading scorer Danny Granger was held to just six points and made 2 of 13 shots from the field in that loss, a major reason he averaged just 13.3 points against the Heat in the regular season, more than five points below his team-best 18.7 scoring average.

While Granger was one of five Pacers to average at least 10 points per game in the regular season, no Miami Heat player topped that level outside of the team’s All-Star trio of Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James, who led Miami with 27.1 points per game.

For the seventh time in seven attempts, James was able to lead his team to a series win in the first round of the postseason this year. But things are about to get tougher for the three-time MVP.

While James is unbeaten in seven first-round series, his team has lost three of his six conference semifinal series, dropping a seven-game series to the Detroit Pistons in 2006 and losing to the Boston Celtics in 2008 and 2010.

It will be strength against strength when James and the Heat attack the Pacers with the pick-and-roll. Miami averaged 0.94 points per play with the pick-and-roll in the regular season, sixth best in the NBA. But Indiana defended the pick-and-roll nearly as well as anyone, allowing just 0.86 points per pick-and-roll play, fourth best in the league.

A better bet for the Heat might be to dump the ball down low to Bosh or have James set up on the block. Indiana allowed 0.91 points per play in post-up situations in the regular season, better than just five teams.

Indiana’s offensive balance is undoubtedly an asset at times, but the lack of a go-to scorer has hurt the Pacers late in close game this season.

Indiana has made just 2 of 12 game-tying or go-ahead shots in the final 24 seconds of a game this season, with six different players attempting such a shot. Granger and Paul George lead the Pacers with three shots each in such situations, but neither has made a game-tying or go-ahead bucket in the final 24 seconds this season.

While the Heat’s end-of-game struggles have been more scrutinized, the Pacers have first-hand knowledge that Wade has emerged as the Heat’s most reliable option late in close games. Wade’s game winner against the Pacers on March 10 was one of his three game-tying or go-ahead buckets in the final 24 seconds this season.

Miami’s problem is if it can’t get it to Wade in such situations. While Wade was 3-for-6 on game-tying or go-ahead field goals in the final 24 seconds this season, the rest of the team was a combined 3-for-10.

In recording their 12th straight playoff loss - tying the NBA record set by the Memphis Grizzlies from 2004 to 2006 - the New York Knicks couldn't match the assists of the Miami Heat and got burned by the Heat inside.

The Knicks had just 15 assists on their 38 field goals, a rate of 39.5 percent. That's their second-lowest assist percentage in a game this season, behind only 36.8 percent on April 3 at the Indiana Pacers.

The Heat made the same number of field goals on Monday, but assisted on 28 of them (73.7 percent).

Meanwhile, LeBron James was 6-6 and Dwyane Wade was 7-9 when shooting inside 5 feet of the basket in Game 2 against the Knicks. As a team the Heat shot 80 percent from such distances, tying their second-best rate of the season.

For the series, the Knicks have actually taken 15 more field goal attempts than the Heat inside 5 feet of the basket. But the Knicks are shooting just 55.3 percent on such attempts while the Heat are shooting 71.9 percent.

After a slow start in Game 1, Carmelo Anthony got off to a hotter start but that wasn't enough to change his team's finish. Anthony made his first two field goal attempts of Game 2, both within the first three minutes of the game. In Game 1, Anthony didn't make his first field goal until 2:06 of the second quarter - and didn't make his second until 7:46 of the third quarter.

He finished with 30 points, the 15th time in his playoff career that Anthony scored at least 30 points. But his team has a 6-9 record in those games.

One thing to keep an eye on in this series is the free throw discrepency. Through the first seven quarters of the Knicks-Heat series, LeBron James had taken 21 free throws. The entire Knicks team had taken 23. In that span, the Heat took 33 more free throws than the Knicks.

The Knicks averaged 24.8 free throw attempts per game in the regular season, but are averaging just 15 in the first two games against the Heat. Just three players have gotten to the line, and all but one free throw was attempted by either Anthony or Amar'e Stoudemire. Tyson Chandler (and his one free--throw attempt) is the only other Knicks player to shoot a free throw.

The Heat have taken twice as many free throws in the series, with eight players attempting at least one free throw.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Do you trust a man without a conscience, one who operates on a different -- even nonexistent -- moral code?

For basketball purists, that’s a tough one. We subscribe to the high-minded principles of “quality shot selection,” of “taking what the defense gives you,” of “not settling.” These tenets make up the basketball code we romanticize in “Hoosiers” and in the longevity of the San Antonio Spurs.

But Los Angeles Clippers’ swingman Nick Young doesn’t subscribe to this code -- not by a long shot. When Young has the ball in his hands, he doesn't factor his decision-making the way coaches, fans and analysts would.

"I'd say I have no conscience, to a certain extent," Young says. "I feel like I can make any shot. That's something that's been in me since I started playing the game."

Young doesn't deny that he takes a few ill-advised shots a game, but he won't apologize for them. And on Sunday in the Clippers' improbable comeback, he had nothing to be sorry about. He went for 19 points on 11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers in a span of a minute to shave a 12-point deficit to three in a flash.

Most of those shots on Sunday were open looks, but for most of his tenure with the Clippers the degree of difficulty on his shot selection has been astronomical.

"Those shots? I still think I can make them," Young said. "Some people might think, 'He's glad to shoot that shot,' but I practice those shots."

This entire premise can offend certain sensibilities. I ask Young, "Really? You practice taking contested 21-footers inside the arc with two guys on you?"

"I know I can make 'em," Young says.

This certitude can drive an empiricist nuts. An average NBA game has about 94 possessions, and if you have a guy like Young chucking up bad shots on three or four of those possessions, that can kill your efficiency. Look at the point differentials of most NBA teams -- a bucket or two per game is the difference between a top-four seed and a seat at the draft lottery.

Despite these truths, is it possible that Young has a point? Are some of those bad shots loss leaders that ultimately pay off in a game like Sunday night's?

In an effort to try to make sense of whether a lack of conscience can translate to success, I go in search of Gilbert Arenas.

After Arenas dropped 61 points against the Los Angeles Lakers in December 2006, Kobe Bryant famously said of the then-Washington Wizards star, "He doesn't seem to have much of a conscience. I really don't think he does. Some of the shots he took tonight, you miss those, and they're just terrible shots. Awful. You make them and they're unbelievable shots."

Setting aside the irony of the source, Bryant gets to the heart of the matter. Many interpreted his comments as a swipe at Arenas, but it wasn't. Bryant was just delving into the mindset of the unconscionable shooter, who is neither good nor bad -- but just is.

On Monday, Arenas had plenty to offer on the matter:

The best players in any sport in the world have no conscience.

It's like someone who has ADD (attention deficit disorder). They have a creative mind. They can see things that other people can't see. They can do things that other people can't do. But once they take the medicine, it calms them down -- just like a coach who gives a conscience to a guy who doesn't have a conscience.

It's like an assassin. In any movie, he starts off killing everybody, but then he finds the girl who stops him from being an assassin. That's just like players. The reason Steve Nash can make the passes he can make is because nobody has ever told him when he makes a turnover, "Don't make that pass." Same thing with Rondo. It gives them that freedom to expand and create anything he can think of.

I challenge Arenas on the notion that really bad shots are part of the creative process, that a guy somehow can't be both judicious and aggressive, but he rejected the premise that there's anything wrong with taking a 20-footer with a defender in your face and time on the shot clock:

His creativity lets him do that. It's a shot he thinks he can make. Just like Kobe. If you think about the best players in the world, they have no conscience. They try anything. They do anything. Brett Favre -- he threw any pass he thought he could throw. That's his creativity. That's what he's like. He's going to fail and he's also going to win.

But a guy with a conscience won't pull that trigger.

I ask Arenas whether you can be a great player and still have a conscience.

"I don't think so," Arenas says. "Michael Jordan never had a conscience. A.I. didn't have a conscience. Kobe doesn't have a conscience."

I counter that Kevin Garnett has a conscience, that he exercises an uncommon discipline and has still been one of the best players of his time.

Arenas' response?

And that's why he doesn't get the ball in the fourth quarter. That's why they give it to Paul Pierce, because he has no conscience. LeBron has a conscience. He cares what you think about him. But Kevin Durant doesn't have a conscience. D-Wade doesn't have a conscience. But Bosh has a conscience.

You're born with it or you're not. Some people are what I call "killers." Some people have the killer mentality and that's who you want with the ball at the end of the game. You want them taking that shot because they don't care about failing -- even if it's a bad shot.

It's hard to let Arenas off the hook on this point. Does he deny there are bad shots that cost you basketball games?

That's the game of basketball. You can't go around and play like we did yesterday -- like college basketball when you're up 20 with a few minutes left and you're stalling and you do the four corners, and before you know it, you stop being aggressive.

So the Grizzlies developed a conscience at the wrong time in Game 1?

"Yes," Arenas says.

Arenas' theory that conscience is a congenital trait is interesting. In his worldview, a player can't develop -- or rather shed -- his conscience. He's either hard-wired to kill, like Nick Young or, on a larger scale, Kobe Bryant. Or he's not.

Arenas might be half-right, half-wrong:

A lack of conscience might be a necessary ingredient for Arenas' "killers," but those moral vacuums aren't created equally.

On Sunday, we saw the best of Young's nihilism. Without it, the Grizzlies are up 1-0 in this series. But down the road, it's possible a lack of conscience might shoot the Clippers out of a game.

Such is the fickle nature of the code.

The Heat and Lakers both emerged victorious Sunday afternoon, as Miami clinched the Southeast Division, and Los Angeles moved a game and a half ahead of the Clippers in the Pacific Division.

The Heat relied on their Big Three, and the Lakers leaned on their two bigs, as we learn from diving into the numbers...

Heat 93, Knicks 85
Miami snapped New York's nine-game home win streak, thanks to a combined 73 points from the trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Those three scored 78.5 percent of the Heat's points, their highest percentage in a Miami win this season. With 16 points and 14 rebounds, Bosh recorded his first double-double and second double-digit rebounding game since the All-Star break.

Carmelo Anthony kept the game close with 42 points, the most any player has scored against the Heat this season.

But Anthony got little help from the other Knicks starters, who combined for 19 points. This was the first time since the NBA-ABA merger that the Knicks had a player score 40 or more points with no other starter reaching double figures.

Carmelo Anthony scored 26 of his 42 points on isolation plays, his most points on such plays this season and the most allowed by the Heat.

Lakers 112, Mavericks 108 (OT)Los Angeles improved to 4-1 without Kobe Bryant this season, in large part because of two Pau Gasol three-pointers in overtime. This is the first time Gasol has made two or more treys in a game for the Lakers. He previously did it twice with the Grizzlies, most recently over five years ago in December 2006.

The Lakers have won six straight versus Dallas, and they swept the four-game season series from the Mavericks. The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that the last time a team won all four games of a season series against the defending champion was five years ago, when the Magic swept the Heat.

Since the Mavericks eliminated Los Angeles in four games in last season's Western Conference Semifinals, it's also the fourth time ever that a team swept the season series against the same team that swept them the previous postseason.

Gasol finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Andrew Bynum had 23 points and 16 boards, marking the third time this season they each posted 20 and 10 in the same game.

The Mavericks lost despite scoring 108 points, ending their 18-game win streak when scoring 100 or more points.

I watched Thursday night's Heat-Bulls tilt airborne at 35,000 feet above some rectangular state between the Great Plains and my home airport of LAX. That's the miracle of human flight and the privilege of personal screens on a garden-variety 757.

Explaining away the Heat's failures -- no matter what, no matter when -- is fraught with peril. You get tarred as a Heat apologist, or a LeBron sycophant or, if you read the comments section, a miserable human being with irreparable flaws.

When C.J. Watson's game-tying 3-pointer fell through the net, you could hear a rousing reaction from all over the cabin which, for an NBA fans, should be reassuring, especially on a Western U.S. route.

Dwyane Wade did a nice job contesting Watson's incredible shot, and had probabilities played out (Watson had made three out of eight 3-pointers over his career and we can fairly assume that percentage drops when there's a hard close by a defender), we'd be talking this morning about how the besieged Heat responded with moxie to their recent struggles.

That's how thin the margin is in the NBA between cataclysm and redemption. This isn't to take away from the Bulls, probably the league's most resilient team and a squad playing without the health of its best player, but it underscores that fine line between process and result.

There's something ironic about the collective hand-wringing and schadenfreude over the Heat's struggles. First, let's take the Thunder, losers of four of their last seven. In the process, they've let the Spurs, over whom they had a healthy lead for the No. 1 seed in the West, back in the chase for the top spot. But outside of Oklahoma County, nobody is pressing the panic button.

And that's probably smart. Early April basketball provides the blurriest of snapshots. The Celtics stumbled into the playoffs in 2010 losers of seven of their last 10, then marched their way to the Finals. Their opponent for the trophy, the Lakers, lost six of their final nine -- nobody could find that purple and gold switch. With only four games left in the regular season last spring, the Mavericks were reeling. You know the end of that story.

We measure Miami through an entirely different calculus. Back in February, when the Heat were rolling, we were told by many that any success the Heat and LeBron James compiled in the regular season was irrelevant. Achievement would be measured in June, and only in June.

Well, if that's the criteria for the Heat -- that pre-playoff dominance tells us nothing about the Heat's fortitude -- then shouldn't their April failures be weighed in a similar vein, even recognizing that there are legitimate issues to be addressed between now and then?