The NBA Playoffs have been exciting throughout and the Eastern conference finals only added to the drama in Game 1 on Wednesday night, as LeBron James scored the winning basket as time expired against the Pacers to give the Miami Heat the win 103-102 to take an early 1-0 series advantage.
The Heat and Pacers played an intense game and James proved why he is the MVP of the league with his play at the end to make the winning shot. Head coach Frank Vogel was criticized for not having Roy Hibbert in the game, but the way James played there was a good chance no one was going to stop him. The Heat looked finished when Dwyane Wade fouled Paul George taking a three pointer with less than five seconds left and he made all three shots to give the Pacers a one point lead. That cushion was not enough for the team, as James pushed past the defense and made a layup with time expiring to get the victory.
James and the Heat know how to play in crunch time and the Pacers made some mistakes to give away possessions in the second half and now they must rally if they want to win the series. The Pacers went 2-1 against the Heat during the regular season, but now they are down 1-0 again. The Heat got a great performance from Chris Andresen, who made all his shots and hit clutch free throws at the end of the game.
James scored the game-winning points in the dying embers of overtime as the Miami Heat held off a determined Indiana Pacers 103-102 in a thrilling Eastern Conference Finals opener on Wednesday. Indiana's Paul George, whose turnover looked to have handed Miami the win in regulation, made amends in spectacular style by sinking a huge three-pointer from deep with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock to force overtime.
With Miami's last throw of the dice, Shane Battier passed to James, who drove the lane on his way to a comfortable lay-up that fell a fraction ahead of the buzzer and sent the Heat crowd into a frenzy. James top-scored for Miami with 30 points on 12-of-24 shooting with 10 rebounds and 10 assists as he completed his ninth postseason triple-double, tying the great Wilt Chamberlain for the fifth most in postseason history. Miami's Chris Andersen made a major contribution from the bench with seven of seven shooting and a postseason career high 16 points from his 18:15 minutes on court.
"Any time it seemed like a team was about to pull away, the other team came back," said Dwyane Wade of Miami, who have lost just one game in the playoffs so far. "We can expect this for seven games." George had 27 points for the Pacers with David West contributing 26. Game Two is in Miami on Friday. In the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs lead the Memphis Grizzlies 2-0 ahead of Game Three on Saturday.
(Reuters quotes)