The Beasts of the East, Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers, match up tonight for the second time in eight days at the American Airlines Arena. If you haven't already, please don't feed too much into the hype. Much is made of the Pacers blatant pursuit of the Heat after falling short to them in the playoffs for the past 2 years in a row. The Pacers camp is not backing down from the challenge and are making no secret of the fact that they see this, and frankly every game against Miami, as a statement game. Miami is sticking with its subtle arrogant approach in not acknowledging these games as more than competitive regular season games. The first meeting ended in a 90-84 home win for Indiana. So does this make tonight a must win for Miami at home? Yes...and no.
Let's put things into perspective. This is not the playoffs. We are barely approaching the All-Star Break. We are only 24 games into the season so I would agree with Miami in saying this isn't a statement game, at least not for them. However, it is more than just a "good" regular season game. This is a brewing Eastern Conference rival that can pan out to be about as good as the growing Heat-Celtics rival of the past few seasons. It may not be a game in which Miami needs to make a statement, but it definitely needs to respond. If we're going to give the Heat the right to brush the hype of these games off because of the great success they've had the past 3 years, they had better step up and remind those that they think are beneath them, who they are. Losing on their own home court would give Indiana another stroke of confidence that Miami probably won't want to see the results of in the long run.
With all that being said, it still isn't do or die. If Indiana wins, the pot just stirs that much more as we anticipate April and further proves that this team is a force to be reckoned with, for those who weren't convinced. A fan mentioned to me on Twitter today that the Pacers have been putting on a show with the mentality to play every game like its their last, giving it 110%. My question to that would be: When facing Miami, what team doesn't? It isn't fair to sweep every Heat loss under the rug but they are undoubtedly the one team, if no other, that each of the other 29 teams in the league put on their best show for. It's not as easy for the opposition to do the same.
I expect LeBron to play, I expect the maximum regular season effort possible from both sides, and I expect the best playoff type atmosphere one could create in December. It might just a little chippy but unless LeBron is seriously limited and off his game, I don't see why Miami can't win. I'm not conceding the win to them though. Indy has had this game circled for months and there are no motivators that are quite the same as revenge and dislike. Above all, I just want fans on both sides to know one thing. It takes more than four regular season wins to dethrone a real champion, just as it only takes four blows to the head until that crown can wind up in the river fishing right along with you in April.
The game starts at 7pm on ESPN.
Image Source: Washington Post
