The Miami Heat got lucky with an Game 1 overtime win over the Indiana Pacers, but in Game 2 they'll look to play more disciplined basketball Friday night at 8:30 pm ET.
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Via ESPN:
Barely 12 hours after LeBron James scored on a drive as time expired in overtime to give the Heat a win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Pacers were more steeled than shaken when they arrived for practice at the arena where it all went awry in the series opener. The second-guessing of Vogel's decision to keep Roy Hibbert on the bench for the final play was still going strong, but the Pacers insisted that they're mentally fine.
A short memory would likely help Indiana now, especially with Game 2 of the series back in Miami on Friday night.
"Very encouraged," Vogel said. "Our belief in our ability to beat this team has strengthened after Game 1. Our familiarity in the playoffs, in the playoff series grows with each day, grows with each game, and there's a lot of things we can definitely do better."
And on that point, the Pacers and Heat are in total agreement.
For as intense and down-to-the-wire as Game 1 was, with 35 ties or lead changes over 53 scintillating minutes where neither team ever held more than a seven-point lead, both the Pacers and Heat are expecting Friday to simply be better.
Matching the level of drama may be difficult, but the actual level of play, they think, will improve. It's easy to see how that could be the case, after a series-opener where both teams were turnover-happy -- 20 for Indiana, 21 for Miami, hardly the norm for either side -- and play was at times choppy thanks in part to 58 personal fouls being called.
"We're going to play a lot better," Heat center Chris Bosh said after film and on-court work Thursday. "We've come to expect that of ourselves. We know that yesterday wasn't the championship effort that we need in order to win the series, let alone win the finals. We're going to have to do a much better job on defense and on offense to take care of the basketball, do a better job on the boards, do a better job of containing some of their actions."
