The Miami Heat have once again been one of the best teams in the eastern conference, but they have a true challenger this season in the Indiana Pacers and on Tuesday night the two teams will go at it at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the game on NBATV will be live at 7:00 pm and will be streaming from the NBA.com League Pass website as well.
LeBron James comes in having another fantastic season and he led the team with 24 points and nine assists on Sunday when the team took down the Pistons on the road in Detroit and now they will face the team with the best record in the league in the Pacers. Indiana added more talent in the offseason and they also have Danny Granger to bring back and so far they have been the best team in the NBA, losing just three games for an 18-3 record and after playing against the Pacers the Miami Heat will have another anticipated matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers and that game will be in South Florida after the teams played already in Ohio this season. The Pacers have been the most consistent team in the NBA with Roy Hibbert and David West up front and Paul George has once again shown why he is a budding superstar in the league.
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Miami is scoring over 105 points per game this season and are ranked sixth in both scoring on offense and defense and the team is also ranked fifth in the league in assists per contest this season. James is averaging 25.4 points per game this season and he is also leading the team in assists and rebounds and they are starting to pull away in the division over the Atlanta Hawks. The Pacers are coming into the game after a tough loss to the Thunder on the road and now they will host Miami in an anticipated matchup and they come in ranked number one in the league in scoring defense and this will be a nice early test for the Heat, as they may have to hit the road against Indiana come playoff time.
Last season Miami had home court advantage over the Pacers in the eastern conference finals and with the Heat series going seven games, the fact that it ended in Florida may have turned the tide and for the Heat to catch the Pacers, a win here would be huge. The Pacers are the main team in the east that is considered a favorite to knock off the Heat and the way the Knicks and Nets have started, they are not considered real options to actually make it out of the east this season. The Pacers score under 100 points per game and the team is ranked in the top 10 in rebounding as well.
The Pacers finished 3-2 on their recent road trip and now they return home for Miami and the Heat are ready for a challenge. LeBron James said that he sees how great the Pacers are playing and he knows that Miami likely will be seeing them again when the playoffs roll around. Miami has no eliminated the Pacers in each of the past two seasons and now the team feels they are ready to get past them finally.