Hubbard: “I Want Some Nasty” Works for Spurs in Game 1

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SAN ANTONIO — If there is one certainty about the next couple of days, it is that in various areas of free market trade in the greater San Antonio area, t-shirts emblazoned with “I Want Some Nasty” will be available for purchase.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich provided a one-liner that will follow this series the rest of the way, and will continue following the Spurs franchise into the next days, weeks and, well, maybe even years – although Popovich would settle for about a month.

By then, the NBA champion will be determined, and if it is to be the Spurs – who certainly are the favorites right now – then Game 1 of the Western Conference finals will undoubtedly be a focal point.

That’s because the Spurs overcame a gallant effort by the Oklahoma City Thunder to take a 1-0 lead in the series with a 101-98 victory Sunday night. (Boxscore here).

The Thunder battled evenly for a half, asserted themselves throughout the third and early in the fourth period and were playing confident, free-flowing basketball. They entered the last quarter with a nine-point lead and it seemed Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and a strong group of role players was coming of age.

In growing up, the young team with its core players all 23 or younger, was poised to end the Spurs 18-game winning streak, steal home court advantage and take a giant step towards advancing to the NBA Finals.

But then Popovich addressed the situation. He was unhappy because the Spurs had not played with the same passion or energy of the Thunder. He asked the players if they thought winning was going to be easy. He reminded them that each round was more difficult.

And then he uttered a line that will become a permanent part of Spurs lore, “I want some nasty.”

And he got it – well, as much nasty as a nice group of guys like the Spurs can muster. A minute into the fourth quarter, the Spurs began playing their regular game.

They trailed 73-64 with 11:19 left. They responded with nine consecutive points. And get this – four by Gary Neal, three by Tiago Splitter and two by Tony Parker. They took control of the game. They disrupted the OKC offense. They stifled Durant, who had 27 points in the game but was 0-of-2 from the field in the fourth period.

And after three periods of difficult, grinding basketball, the Spurs breezed to the victory, which was more convincing than the final three-point margin suggested. San Antonio was nine points ahead with 22.1 seconds left but OKC made several desperation shots. But the outcome was never in doubt at the end.

After the game, Popovich was able to laugh at himself for “I Want Some Nasty,” which has all sorts of commercial possibilities – Hip Hop, Country & Western, Heavy Metal, Triple-X rated and, very importantly from a cultural perspective, Jersey Shore.

“The heat of the game, stuff comes up,” Popovich said, laughing. “It was like . . . I thought it was a great question for a lot of reasons. I thought we were playing unconfidently, kind of on our heels. So I talked to them about they’ve got to get a little bit uglier.”

For the Spurs, the final result was pretty. After scoring only 16 points in the third quarter, they had 39 in the fourth. Manu Ginobili won the battle of excellent sixth men, leading the Spurs with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

James Harden, the sixth man award winner this season, had 19 points but shot only 7-of-17 from the field. Russell Westbrook was even worse — 7-of-21 and 17 points.

The Thunder settled for a lot of wild shots early and seemed intent on challenging the Spurs at the basket. Several times, they tried to dunk over players guarding the basket, and they were never successful. But they still played well enough to be in control of the game early in the fourth quarter, although ultimately they fell short.

They will get another chance in Game 2 on Tuesday night, but the task is a monumental one. The Spurs have now won 19 consecutive games, including nine at home, and have not lost a game since April 11.

The Thunder looked for the bright side after the game.

“We knew going into this game that they were going to play their style of game,” OKC head coach Scott Brooks said. “They’re a very good basketball team. They’re playing the best basketball in the league. And we were right there.”

While that’s true, the Thunder built a 8-1 record in the first two rounds with victories over the Mavericks and Lakers – two teams that have won the last three titles – by playing clutch basketball and having strong fourth quarter performances.

That wasn’t the case Sunday. If they are going to avoid a 2-0 deficit, they’re going to have to steal a page out of Gregg Popovich’s playbook and play much nastier on Tuesday.

Jan Hubbard has written about basketball since 1976 and worked in the NBA league office for eight years in between media stints. Follow him on Twitter at @whyhub.

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Five Factors for Celtics-Heat: How The East Will be Won

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The Boston Celtics have staggered into the Eastern Conference finals for the third time in five years, their “Big Three” era so close to complete that the moniker is outdated. It no longer even includes their best player, the mercurial and unpredictable Rajon Rondo.

Just 48 hours after Rondo finished off the stubborn, pesky eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of a series that was borderline unwatchable for those without a rooting interest, those same time-tested and battle-proven Boston Celtics will be rolling into the arena just south of the South Beach causeway, the scene of the infamous “Yes We Did” celebration in the summer of 2010.

Doesn’t that seem like ages ago?

Awaiting the men in green are the Heat, who no longer have a Big Three of their own because Chris Bosh has an abdominal injury for which a prognosis has not been given. The Heat did a little staggering of their own in their previous series, falling behind the Indiana Pacers 2-1 before finding the moxie and self-confidence to oust those purveyors of “smashmouth basketball” who ended up getting their own mouths and heads smashed as things got ugly in Game 5.

Miami is a huge favorite to put an end to Boston’s Big Three era, and with good reason. The Celtics are battered and bruised, without their best perimeter defender, Avery Bradley, without a decent center, and with Ray Allen looking like a shell of his former self (except when he summoned two huge fourth-quarter shots when they were needed most Saturday night in Game 7.) Rondo also had a pair of daggers in the closeout win over the Sixers, and you have to wonder whether he has emptied his bullet chamber. (The smart guess is no).

LeBron James has been brilliant throughout this postseason after winning his third MVP award, and he was brilliant in last year’s Eastern Conference finals when the Heat took down the Bulls in 5 games.

Except nobody really remembers that, because the memory LeBron sent us into last summer with was a string of fourth quarter failures in the championship series against Dallas.

Here are the five factors that will have the biggest impact on which of these two teams emerges from the East to take on the Spurs or the Thunder for the championship. (Click here for the Five Factors column on the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series.)

  1. The Rondo Factor. Is it a stretch to say this guy can win a game all by himself? He has been the MVP of the playoffs in the East, going for three triple-doubles in the Celtics’ 13 postseason games to raise his career total to nine, tying him with Wilt Chamberlain for fourth-most in NBA playoff history. As noted above, he is the best player in the Celtics, yet he is the player opponents most often dare to shoot, the player who crashes the boards instead of getting back on defense, the player with the uncanny knack for getting into the paint and wreaking havoc, either by finding an open teammate or finding a way to score. He is averaging 12.2 assists in the postseason, but also 3.8 turnovers. The Heat is a team that thrives in transition, and Rondo’s ability to protect the ball and dictate the tempo of the game will be crucial.
  2. The Bosh Factor. If he was healthy, Chris Bosh would be the one defending Kevin Garnett, who was looking unusually spry over the early part of the playoffs but seemed to be running out of juice in the latter half of the series against the Sixers. So the task of defending KG will fall to Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem, who will be drawn away from the basket because of the need to respect Garnett’s perimeter game. This will help negate Miami’s size advantage, which is no small matter when you consider that the Celtics were the NBA’s worst rebounding team in the regular season. The Heat showed in Games 4, 5 and 6 against Indiana that they can make up for Bosh’s point production if both James and Wade have their offense in gear, but if one of them is having an off night there will be an opportunity for Boston to keep the score low and keep themselves in the mix.
  3. The Tempo Factor. If Miami is allowed to run, they will run away with this series. It’s that simple. James is next to impossible to defend in the open court, and the Heat will look for every opportunity to create transition points rather than getting bogged down in halfcourt sets that make them look more ordinary than otherworldly. Even if you count Ray Allen out of the equation when listing each team’s best offensive weapons, the Celtics still have three guys who can score the ball with consistency — Rondo, Paul Pierce and Garnett. The Heat have only two, James and Wade. And if Boston can keep the scores in the 70s and 80s, they can uglify this series to the point where they can compete.
  4. The Dinosaur Factor: The Celtics looked washed up and finished at this time last year when they were ousted by the Heat in five games, and the storyline throughout this entire season has been whether this is the end of the road for Boston’s aging core. General manager Danny Ainge was ready to break them up at the trading deadline, with deals in place to send Ray Allen to Memphis (Allen even got a call from coach Doc Rivers saying he had been traded) and Pierce to the Nets. But the team stayed intact, hunkered down and finished the regular season with a second wind, then outlasted two postseason opponents who had no one with the talent level of James or Wade. History tells us that teams past their prime eventually crash and burn, and most expect a flameout from the Celtics. But dinosaurs can be stubborn when facing extinction, and no group of oldtimers plays with as much intensity as the Celtics.
  5. The Wade Factor: Somebody has to guard him, and that somebody was going to be Avery Bradley until his shoulder kept popping out if its socket (it hurts just to type that) and he underwent season-ending surgery. Allen is too old and gimpy to handle the job, which means someone from the threesome of Rondo, Keyon Dooling and Mickael Pietrus will be assigned the task of trying to contain a superstar who came to life following his Game 3 meltdown in Indiana when he cursed at his coach, closing the series with games of 30, 28 and 41 points. If the Celtics can get enough scoring out of Pierce to offset James’ production, the Celtics’ ability to contain Wade will be paramount. The more shots the Heat gets from players other than James and Wade, the better the Celtics’ chances.

PREDICTIONS: 

 SHERIDAN: Heat in 7.

HUBBARD: Heat in 7.

HEISLER: Heat in 6.

BERNUCCA: Heat in 5.

HAMILTON: Heat in 6.

PERKINS: Heat in 5.

ZAGORIA: Heat in 6.

PARK: Heat in 6.

 

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Hamilton: Five Factors for Spurs-Thunder: How The West Will Be Won

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In today’s NBA, you won’t wake up one day and find yourself winning championships.

The 2008 Boston Celtics were an anomaly, and their three main cogs each endured years of heartache and growing pains before they became champions.

That’s why the rise of the Oklahoma City Thunder has been interesting to witness.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are in just the fifth and fourth years of their respective careers, yet for the second consecutive season they find themselves poised to battle for the right to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.

Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs are in very familiar territory. Tim Duncan will be playing in his seventh Western Conference Finals and hopes to have the right to battle for his fifth championship. His running mates, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, will be playing in their sixth conference finals and trying to win their fourth championship.

No doubt, the NBA’s 2012 Western Conference Finals will be a story of the new versus the old. But even better, it’ll be a matchup of the student versus the teacher. A little known fact is that Sam Presti—the mastermind behind the Thunder’s rise to prominence—grew up under the wing of the Spurs’ General Manager, R.C. Buford. Presti is his protégée. So that’s an added element to what already promises to be an exciting series.

The Spurs and the Thunder have been West’s two best teams all season long, and finally, we’ll get to see them battle. Here are the seven key factors (it was supposed to be five, but I went long) that will determine the winner of the series.

  1. The Half-Court Factor
    Statistically, the Spurs and the Thunder are very similar in a number of areas. Most important, though, is probably scoring. During the regular season, the Spurs scored the second most points per game (103.7) in the NBA while the Thunder were third (103.1). The major difference between the two, however, is that the Spurs feature a deep team that has the personnel to play an uptempo game, but also executes better than most other NBA teams in the half-court. After Game 3 against the Los Angeles Clippers, Tim Duncan said he feels better than he has in the past 10 years. If the Big Fundamental can continue his high level of play, Greg Popovich will probably feature Duncan in the post early and often in order to slow the Thunder down. Without a reliable post threat, the Thunder will have trouble winning any game unless they can score 100 points. Expect Popovich to know that, and to attempt to control the pace of the game. The Thunder will look to speed it up and get 3-point looks in transition. This will be a major factor.
  2. The Bench Lefties Factor
    Of all of the subplots in this series, the James Harden vs. Ginobili battle is probably the most interesting. Both are lefties and both are Sixth Man of the Year Award winners. Either would start for most NBA teams and either are capable of singlehandedly dominating a game and leading their team to victory. Harden is probably the Thunder’s best playmaker off the dribble and Ginobili is the Spurs’ best passer. Neither team would be the same without either of these guys, and you can certainly count on them to check into games at the same time—with about six minutes remaining in the first quarter. The lefties from the bench who have the better series will likely lead their team to the finals.
  3. The turnover factor
    Despite being statistically similar in a number of categories, during the regular season the Thunder led the league in turnovers with 16.1 per game. The Spurs, on the other hand, turned the ball over the third fewest times (13.2). The main culprit is Russell Westbrook, who averaged 3.6 turnovers per game during the regular season. Fortunately for the Thunder, in these playoffs, he’s only coughing it up an amazingly low 1.6 times per game. Because the Spurs are an effective transition team, the Thunder will not be able to overcome needless turnovers. It should be noted that during their series with the Lakers, the Thunder turned the ball over just 10.8 times per game. That would have been second best in the league during the regular season, trailing only the 76ers (10.7).  If the Thunder manage to take such great care of the basketball against the Spurs, they’ll take easy transition scoring opportunities away from the Spurs. Another huge key.
  4. The Battle of the Europeans
    When Parker first came into the league, opposing defenses could get away with ignoring him on the perimeter because he wasn’t a prolific jump shooter. The same can’t be said today. But even still, Parker is most effective when he gathers a head of steam and gets into the paint. He makes clever decisions with the ball and is one of the backcourt finishers in the league. His effectiveness, however, can be severely limited by the shot blocking presence of Serge Ibaka. Ibaka averaged 4.0 blocks per game against the Lakers and is averaging 3.7 blocks per game through the playoffs. If he continues, and if he can discourage Parker’s forays into the paint, it could make a world of difference. Also, Popovich has been using Boris Diaw, a Frenchman, as his starting center ahead of DeJuan Blair. Does that continue against Kendrick Perkins, who is not an offensive threat and needs to be drawn away from the basket? Probably so.
  5. The Deeper Than You Factor
    The Thunder definitely have the two best players in the series in Westbrook and Durant, but they would be hard pressed to overcome a subpar scoring night from either of them. The Spurs will be able to more easily overcome a subpar scoring night from one of their major cogs mainly because of their deeper supporting cast. Specifically, Boris Diaw and Stephen Jackson are each capable of putting together some great stretches, and Gary Neal and Matt Bonner are each dangerous 3-point shooters. Offensively, the Spurs execute better than every other team in the league because each and every person that plays stays within the system and does exactly what is required of them. The bench battle will probably be won by the Spurs, but if the Thunder can consistently execute a well thought-out game plan, and if Durant and Westbrook aren’t often forced into attempting to dribble and finish on their own, I’d say their chances of winning are better.
  6. The Ds In The C Factor
    In the playoffs, the Thunder have been involved in their fair share of close games; they’re 4-1 in games decided by three points or less. Meanwhile, the Spurs have played one such game, and although they won, their average margin of victory in these playoffs is 13.8. We can’t have the same confidence in the Spurs’ ability to pull out close playoff games as we can for the Thunder, can we? Even in games in which he’s shot poorly, Durant has made big shots when they’ve counted the most, and he’s rightfully received a lot of attention for his three-game winning shots in these playoffs. With the game on the line, there’s no player I’d rather have with the ball in his hands than Kevin Durant. Being that these teams are so evenly matched—at least, statistically—Durant will probably have a few more opportunities. In the past, when the Spurs have needed big buckets, they’ve gone to Duncan. In years past, he’s made big shots. Whether or not he still can, whether the Spurs will still go to him for that one biggie, and whether or not he can match Durant’s clutch shot making will swing the pendulum one way or another.
  7. The Perimeter Defenders Factor
    Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green will be charged with the task of slowing Durant and Harden down out on the perimeter. Although both Durant and Harden have had success against opposing defenders thus far, they have not seen a combination with this combination of youth, athleticism, length, and strength. Leonard is 6’7″ and Green stands at 6’6″. The extent to which Leonard and Green can contain Durant and Harden—or lack thereof—will play a major factor in how this series turns out. And if either of them can consistently provide some offensive production, it’ll be difficult for the Thunder to win.

PREDICTIONS: 

 SHERIDAN: Spurs in 5.

HUBBARD: Spurs in 4.

HEISLER: Spurs in 6.

BERNUCCA: Spurs in 6.

HAMILTON: Spurs in 7.

PERKINS: Spurs in 6.

ZAGORIA: Spurs in 6.

PARK: Spurs in 5.

 

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Playoffs Day 26: Dwyane Wade and LeBron James dominate to end Pacers season

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When is the last time we saw the combination of a shooting guard and a small forward completely and utterly dominate a game the way Dwyane Wade and LeBron James did on Thursday night?

His Airness and Robin Scottie Pippen certainly come to mind. Back in the 90′s, the NBA and its fans saw Michael Jordan and Pippen display unparalleled athleticism and skill that allowed the tandem to terrorize their opposition with incredible offensive games.

Longtime Pacers fans, along with Larry Bird – now the chief executive of the Pacers – can surely remembers those days, and this series against the Miami Heat proved that when both players are focused, Wade and James may be just as scary and just as deadly.

Things were supposed to be difficult for the Heat in Game 6 with the absence of both Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem, but Wade wrote his own script and decided that all they needed was a big dose of himself and a sprinkle of James to move past the Pacers while advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. (Boxscore here.)

Chris Sheridan discussed the Heat’s victory, along with their prospects against the Celtics, 76ers, Thunder and Spurs this morning on Sporsttalk 790 The Ticket in Miami. Click to listen.

From Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald: “This was Dwyane Wade’s very best — his Ninth Symphony, his Ulysses, his roundhouse, double-legged dropkick from the top rope. In a rough-and-tumble second-round series that featured blood and flagrant fouls, cheap shots and suspensions, Wade delivered the final blow Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. He scored 41 points in the decisive game of the series, leading the Heat into the Eastern Conference finals with a 105-93 victory against the Pacers. Although the series was peppered with hard fouls and trash talk throughout, there was none of that in the final game. There was just a whole lot of Wade doing things that reminded all that watched of the 2006 NBA Finals and delivering a performance that will live forever. LeBron James, who smartly deferred to Wade on a night that Wade could hardly miss, called his teammate “spectacular from the beginning to the end.” James was absolutely right about that. Wade’s 41 points came on 17 of 25 shooting. He scored 20 points in the second quarter alone, tying a Heat postseason franchise record, and also had 10 rebounds.”

From Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com: “But there was also James dropping the hammer, pouring in 28 points in the supporting role including seven straight in the final two minutes of the game that finished off the No. 3 seed and guaranteed the Heat their second straight Eastern Conference finals berth. James made 12 of 23 shots and added seven assists and three steals. The totals for the last three games, the Heat’s reversal from the brink after falling down 2-1, are wild. James averaged 32.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and eight assists on 55 percent shooting. Wade averaged 33 points (he scored 99 in the three games, James 98), 7.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 62 percent shooting. Those numbers for Wade come as a response to the worst playoff moment of his career in Game 3, where he scored five points on 2-of-13 shooting and looked like he had just eaten a very large but instantly regrettable meal. When the Heat doctors drained his knee last week they must’ve injected some venom.”

After the game, Wade wore this - much to the chagrin of James – but the man is entitled to his own fashion sense after a performance of such high magnitude, right?

The Heat will now have a chance to rest until Monday as they watch the outcome of the Sixers-Celtics on Saturday to determine their next opponent. The game tips off at 8 p.m. EST, and if you believe the Celtics are a lock, you should read this first. 

For the Pacers, a successful season came to an abrupt end after suffering their third consecutive loss to Miami.

The advantage was supposed to be on their side when Bosh went down in Game 1. What they failed to anticipate was how much more responsibility the two superstars of the Heat would shoulder, which turned out to be their ultimate downfall.

“Chris Bosh is an awesome basketball player, but when he goes out it means more touches for LeBron and Wade and that’s not exactly an advantage. They were spectacular this series; they were too much for us,” coach Frank Vogel said. ”We had our whole focus on Derrick Rose last year and it’s like having two of them out there. Only bigger. It’s a big challenge. We did the best we could. We put up a good fight. We gave them a little wake-up call. But ever since Game 3 these guys played at such a high level that I don’t know if anybody can beat them.”

From Zak Keefer of Indianapolis Star: “The Indiana Pacers’ lengthiest postseason run in seven seasons came to a cruel completion tonight. The team – the same one that rode a surprising 2-1 advantage in this Eastern Conference semifinal series as recently as five days ago – now begins an abrupt summer vacation, 105-93 losers to the Miami Heat in Game 6 tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse… Certainly, the loss stings. But the season and its successes will provide a building block this franchise had been after for a number of years. The Pacers finished the abridged regular season with the NBA’s fifth-best record, won a playoff series for the first time in seven years and pushed a vaunted and favored Heat group to six games, battling toe-to-toe with an NBA title favorite and providing some terrific theater along the way. Indeed, the future appears bright for the blue and gold. But on this night, the Heat’s surplus of talent trumped a gritty effort from the Pacers.”

Indeed, the team has plenty to look forward to. Roy Hibbert and Paul George are intriguing young talents, while David West – who looked much more like himself in the final months of the season – will be one season removed from microfracture surgery.

Their main issue may lie at the point guard position. With no one that can consistently create for others – not one player had more than six assists in any of the games in the second round – Indiana did not have a go-to player that could disrupt the Heat’s defense. George Hill is a solid scoring option, but he is just that – a scoring guard. Darren Collison was supposed to be the starting point guard for the long haul, but losing his job to Hill is not an encouraging sign.

In any case, they will now have plenty of time to ponder their next move to improve for next season.

James Park is a regular contributor to Sheridanhoops.com. You can find him on twitter @nbatupark. 

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Playoffs Day 26: Preview of Heat-Pacers(G6)

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The series between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers has been filled with unexpected drama and extracurricular activity with all the trash-talking and posturing – mostly from the Pacers.

Things took a turn for the worst in Game 5 when Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough “made a play on the ball” but also swiped hard enough at the head of Dwyane Wade to draw blood from the All-Star guard.

What resulted from that play was retaliation by Heat forward Udonis Haslem, who less than a minute later hammer-dropped both arms down on Hansbrough, who was in the act of shooting. Then, of course, came the ill-intended foul by Miami’s Dexter Pittman against Indiana’s Lance Stephenson with the game well in hand.

The results of those actions? An upgrade of Hansbrough’s flagrant-1 foul to a flagrant-2, which for all intents and purposes does not hurt the Pacers, while suspensions were handed out to Haslem and Pittman.

At the end of the day, the biggest casualty will be Miami, which will have to try to close out the series without a critical piece.

Miami (3-2) at Indiana (2-3):

heat small logoThe Heat took control of the series on Tuesday night with a 115-83 blowout victory over the Pacers and need one more victory to move onto the Eastern Conference finals. It could be a challenging task due to the suspensions, leaving only Ronny Turiaf and Joel Anthony to deal with the tandem of David West and Roy Hibbert. Chris Bosh has been out due to a strained abdomen and will miss Game 6.

The worst-case scenario may be to play Juwan Howard for extended minutes or activate Eddy Curry who has yet to make an appearance in the postseason, although Stephen A. Smith said “the only time you mention his name is if you mention Burger King and Dunkin Donuts.”

James and Wade were spectacular again as they combined for 58 points, but their performance was far from the topic of discussion heading into Game 6. The suspensions – Haslem’s in particular – were still fresh in the minds of Heat players and coach Erik Spoelstra, who openly questioned why his players aren’t being protected better.

From Ira Winderman of South Florida SunSentinel: “While insisting he only is looking ahead, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra took time Thursday to question the way his team’s games against the Indiana Pacers have been officiated this season. In the wake of Heat reserves Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman being suspended by the NBA for their flagrant fouls in Tuesday’s Game 5 victory over the Indiana Pacers in this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series, Spoelstra turned his focus to hits absorbed from the Pacers this season by forward LeBron James and guard Dwyane Wade. ”The league does not have a problem with hard fouls on our two main guys. In nine games now, there’s been over a dozen hard fouls to the face, some of the tomahawk variety,” he said of his team’s regular-season and postseason games against the Pacers. “Some of them have drawn blood. They don’t have a problem with it, so we don’t have a problem with it. Our guys will continue to attack. They’ll play their game and we’ll focus on what we can control.”

James believes the poor decisions by the referees caused the subsequent plays followed by Hansbrough’s foul. “If there was a flagrant-2 to start with,” James said, “then U.D. would have never fouled him, which means U.D. never would have got suspended. I mean Hansbrough, it’s not the first time that he went after one of our players this year. We have two guys suspended and basically they have no one suspended.”

pacers small logoWhile the Heat questioned the rough play of the Pacers, Larry Bird took time to question the softness of the team he assembled. ”I can’t believe my team went soft,” he said. “S-O-F-T. I’m disappointed. I never thought it would happen.”

”I agree with his assessment. We did play soft,” Danny Granger replied. ”We got smacked around. We got beat up, we got bullied, and we really didn’t respond well.”

From Bob Kravitz of Indianapolis Star: “Indiana Pacers President Larry Bird has issued a call to arms. And elbows. And knees. And other body parts that might get involved in this skirmish of an Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series between the Miami Fighting Heat and the Indiana Battlin’ Pacers. Like the rhetoric hadn’t been ratcheted up enough already.  I like it. And I think you’ll like the Indiana team that comes out tonight and stretches this to a seventh game in Miami. There’s no issue here with Bird’s proclamation, which he made in a late-night, postgame phone call to Indianapolis Star reporter Mike Wells. He was right, wasn’t he? (Although Dwyane Wade, owner of a cut over his right eye, may take issue with the suggestion the Pacers were soft.) But they were competitively soft, falling to pieces when they lost their top scorer and captain, Danny Granger, to an ankle injury.”

Granger will play through the ankle sprain without restrictions in tonight’s game.

After shooting just 33.7 percent from the field in Game 5, Indiana will look to play sharper on the offensive end.

James Park is a regular contributor to Sheridanhoops.com. You can find him on twitter @nbatupark. 

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