Heating the Pacers; Grizzling the Spurs?

If this were a race, we’re down the stretch of the NBA Playoffs with the finals four taking place. Out in the West, the familiar sight of the San Antonio Spurs leads Memphis Grizzlies, 2-0 for the Western Conference Finals. In the East, it’s a dogfight of a battle between defending champions Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers. The series is tied 1-all after yesterday’s win by the Pacers.

All pre-playoffs talk has pointed to an easy path for Miami to the NBA Finals, pointing to the way they have dominated the second half of the regular season. What many people don’t know is that the Pacers are the kind of team that has the materials to defeat the Heat. What the Heat are weak at, the Pacers are strong and vice versa. Many tend to forget that since Indiana plays in a relatively small market area vis-à-vis LA, New York or Miami, they don’t attract too much attention. Now that they’ve tied the series and have shown that they can match up with the Heat, people are now recognizing their amazing strength in their frontline of Roy Hibbert, David West and Tyler Hansbrough. Up against Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen, the Pacers have a huge edge in inside play on both ends of the court. The Heat make up for this with the duo of Lebron James and Dwyane Wade, but their advantage is slowly but surely being negated by Paul George, George Hill and Lance Stephenson. From a defensive standpoint, the Pacers have the edge with their tall frontline that can shut down the lane for the drives of James and Wade. On the other hand, the interior defense of the Heat is suspect against Indiana’s bigs. Thus, it isn’t surprising that both games have so far been scrappy, far from pretty and have been played to the tempo preferred by the Pacers. If Indiana, can continue at this pace, Miami is going to have some serious problems. Moreover, the Pacers are playing with an underdog tag on them, giving them a nothing to lose mindset up against the pressure that Miami has to face as defending champions and presence of the James-Wade-Bosh triumvirate.

Out in the West, it’s a similar scenario where the veteran-laden Spurs are supposed to cruise past a younger and upset-seeking Memphis side. So far, the veterans have stepped up big time while Memphis hasn’t shown the stuff it was made of when it ousted OKC (so far). Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan have been a pleasant sight for us “oldies” while Tony Parker is proving why he’s one of the best (if not the best) point guards in the world. They have gotten excellent contribution from Kawhi Leonard, Tiaggo Splitter and Danny Green. Memphis badly needs Zach Randolph to be more consistent up against the supposedly much older, slower and “weaker” Duncan. On paper, Randolph and Marc Gasol are supposed to dominate the inside game, but Duncan has proven to be tough to crack. Everyone was saying that if Memphis can beat OKC, the Spurs should be easy picking. But boy are they wrong. And then again, we must all remember that Memphis is a better team when its backs are against the wall. Didn’t they do it against the Clippers after losing the first two games of the series? They suddenly made Chris Paul and Blake Griffin vulnerable and far from their hyped up “savior” roles for the Clippers franchise. They also lost their first game of the OKC series, the scored four straight wins. They overcame Kevin Durant and company, surprising all basketball fans.

Are things heating up or what? On both sides, it’s a battle between traditional powerhouses (Spurs and Heat) against upstarts Memphis and Indiana. The irony of it all is that there is a sector of basketball fans who are rooting for the “smaller” market teams to win. Memphis and Indiana aren’t as popular as their more high profile opponents. They’re like teams from the “probinsya” battling giants from the big city. They’re like outsiders who aren’t supposed to be invited to the party reserved for the likes of LA, Oklahoma, Miami, New York and San Antonio. I mean whoever predicted that Memphis and Indiana would make it this far. Did you? I certainly didn’t. Everyone was talking about a Miami-Oklahoma rematch even before the season started. Will it happen?

 Can the NBA deal with a Memphis-Indiana final? Intriguing, isn’t it?

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Time-out: Happy birthday to Boy “Ali” Montes and Marvin Florida. >>> You can reach me at [email protected].