The next chapter of the Heat-Pacers playoff rivalry: ‘It’s going to be a dogfight’
The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers have faced off in the playoffs before.
The first time: The Pacers eliminated rookie Dwyane Wade and the Heat in six games in the second round of the 2004 playoffs.
The second time: The Heat’s Big 3 of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Wade eliminated the Pacers in six games in the second round of the 2012 playoffs on their way to an NBA championship.
The third time: It took seven games for the Heat and the Big 3 to get past the Pacers in the 2013 Eastern Conference finals on their way to becoming back-to-back NBA champions.
The fourth time: The Heat and the Big 3 matched up against the Pacers in the playoffs for the third consecutive season, eliminating Indiana in six games in the 2014 conference finals before falling to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Six years later, the Heat and Pacers are set to face off in the playoffs once again with Game 1 of their best-of-7 first-round playoff series set for Tuesday at 4 p.m at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Indiana enters as the conference’s No. 4 seed and Miami as the No. 5 seed, but there is essentially no difference between the two spots with home-court advantage nonexistent at Disney.
“Totally different,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked if this year’s playoff series reminds him of past postseason matchups against the Pacers. “... But you can always count on the two franchises competing at an extremely high level. For whatever reason, these games always tend to go down to the wire, year after year, different teams, different personnel. But same kind of competitiveness.”
In four regular-season meetings, the Heat defeated the Pacers three times. Indiana’s only win against Miami came Friday to close seeding play with starters on both sides held out because the playoff matchup was already set.
Take out the teams’ final meeting when top players on both teams did not play, and Miami outscored Indiana 349-312 during the first three games of their season series.
In part because of that Heat success, Miami is a relatively heavy betting favorite to win the series considering it’s a No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed matchup.
But really how much should be made of the Heat’s three wins against the Pacers this season?
“None of it,” Miami All-Star Jimmy Butler said. “I don’t think anybody is worried about us winning three out of four, them losing three out of four. It doesn’t matter. It’s a different style of basketball now. It’s a different time. The sense of urgency is going to be at an all-time high, so we can’t be focused on what we did in the past. Everything that we’re going over now is how are we going to continually get better and how we can beat this team four times. So we leave the regular season in the regular season. Everything that happened back then, leave it there.”
The Heat will surely take some of what worked against the Pacers in the regular season into the playoffs, though.
Like having Butler defend Pacers forward T.J. Warren, a matchup that grew contentious and ended with Warren’s ejection when the teams met in January. According to NBA Advanced Stats, Warren has shot just 3 of 9 from the field in the 71 possessions he has been defended by Butler this season.
Butler has clearly had the edge up to this point, outscoring Warren 53-31 in their regular-season matchups. Butler has also totaled 26 rebounds, 18 assists and seven steals to Warren’s 13 rebounds, three assists and one steal during that time. Maybe the most telling number: Butler is a plus-44 against the Pacers, and Warren is a minus-34 against the Heat this season.
“I’m not worried about nobody’s matchup, man,” Butler said, downplaying his matchup against Warren. “We can kill that. That’s dead. That’s something of the past. Everybody wants to make a story out of it. But my job isn’t against T.J. Warren, it’s against the Indiana Pacers. And my job is to help the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers.”
The Heat enters the playoffs fairly healthy, with forward Derrick Jones Jr. (neck strain) as the only rotation player on the injury report for Game 1. Jones is listed as questionable for the contest after participating in the walkthrough portion of Monday’s practice.
Rookies Gabe Vincent (right shoulder sprain) and KZ Okpala (personal reasons) remain out for the Heat. No other Miami players were on Monday’s injury report.
The Pacers remain without All-Star center Domantas Sabonis (left foot plantar fasciitis) and Jeremy Lamb (torn left ACL) for the start of the playoffs. Warren (right foot plantar fasciitis) is listed as questionable, but he’s expected to play Tuesday.
There’s no Big 3 for the Heat, and the trio of Paul George, Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson have moved on from the Pacers. But the expectation from both sides is this year’s Miami-Indiana series will be just as competitive as their previous four playoff matchups, with each one taking at least six games to complete.
“The players are going to end up winning this because everybody is going to know everybody’s plays, everybody’s options and what they like to do,” Butler said. “It’s all up to the players to go out there and dictate how the game is going to go. It’s a possession game.
“The tougher team is going to end up winning in the end. I think we have that in our corner. I think we’re going to have that in our corner every series. But for the one at hand now against Indiana, it’s going to be a dogfight. But I think we have some dogs.”
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 4:29 PM.
