Indiana Pacers vs Miami Heat May 22, 2013

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Indiana Pacers vs Miami Heat NBA Basketball Match at 8:30 PM ET on May 22, 2013. Match place is AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Florida.
Indiana Pacers vs Miami Heat NBA Basketball
Date: May 22, 2013
Time: 8:30 PM ET
Place: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Contest: NBA Playoffs
Pacers at Heat on May 22, 2013 in AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Florida.

Lebron James and the Miami Heat square off against the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers should know each other pretty well by now having faced one another nine times in the space of just over a year. As many may remember, the Pacers took a 2-1 series led over Miami in last season’s conference semifinals, however, the Heat would respond by winning the next three games (with Chris Bosh only playing 16 minutes in that entire series) en route to eventually taking out the championship.

As far as the regular season in concerned, Indiana had a 2-1 edge over the Heat, but I wouldn’t look too much into that considering the Pacers played an extra home game. In fact, the home side dominated proceedings pretty much the entire time and won every meeting by double digits. In their lone meeting in Miami, the Mario Chalmers led the way with 26 points while Chris Both added 24 for a Heat team that took down the visiting Pacers 105-91.

While Miami ended up defeating the Chicago Bulls 4-1 in their previous series, let’s not forget when that lone loss occurred for the Heat, in Game 1. Lebron James and company clearly looked rusty after their 10-day break, scoring just 15 first-quarter points and shooting just 39% for the game. Not saying it’s going to happen again, but it’s something you definitely have to consider for Game 1.

Despite past results heavily favouring the home team, I think the Indiana Pacers have got what it takes to keep this game under double digits. The Pacers might not have a deep bench and boy do they struggle to score at times, but let’s not forget they are the league’s premier defensive team and they all lead the league in rebounding, however, that didn’t help them much against the Heat in last season’s playoffs, and that was without Chris Bosh. In any case, I think Indiana will be ready and I’m just not sure if the Heat are going to be rusty again like they were in the opening game against the Bulls