After all the graceless falls and roller-coaster turns, the Indiana Pacers—somehow and so often in spite of themselves—wound up right where we all first figured: squaring off against the hated Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
To see the Pacers as walking wounded almost cheapens the weirdness of their journey: from genuine contenders-in-waiting to conference afterthoughts and back again in the course of three short months.
Watching Indiana climb and crawl its way back to relevance, you’d be forgiven for seeing in its playoff march a single, simple strategy: though scarred and often stagnant, survive, survive, survive.
They’ll need a better blueprint than that—a borderline brilliant one, even—to beat the Heat.
Heeding Hibbert
If you’re looking for a microcosm of Indiana’s schizophrenic season, look no further than its 7’2” All-Star center, Roy Hibbert, whose sporadic play became the bane of the Pacers’ plight and very nearly got the All-Star center benched during the postseason’s first r ...
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Article written by Jim Cavan
Blueprint for Indiana Pacers to Upset Miami Heat in Eastern Conference Finals
May 17th, 2014 by Jim Cavan Leave a reply »
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