Hoops

Heat V Pacers- Stephenson

Yeah those Centers back in the day were freakish in terms of their athleticism (agility, quickness, nimble).

Hibbert has nasty. Its just he is 7"2 and has a more fragile and less flexible frame than those Centers you name.

Its not too much of a hindrance. It means he is rarely out of control when he makes a move.

And if you had a choice as to what end of the floor youd want your player to have good footwork on, I would chose the defensive end.

Agree that West needs looks!

Such an intelligent player who can pass out of the post and has an array of moves in the post which he doesnt get to display because of the lack of pill he gets. Need to start using West to help get the shooters open rather than the shooters trying to create their own shot

The taunting tech is a huge grey area.

What constitutes a taunt?

If its just staring down a player then why does Lebron never get called..

And I agree re: Wade. I used to respect him so much. But now he has no class.

Bosh's pre-game cheap shot at Hibbert in the pre-game interview was hilarious. He came out and torched the Heat in the 1st quarter.

And what does Bosh even give this team. He is just becoming a pick and pop shooter LOL (except he isnt a shooter). He is a poor mans David West.

I'm really looking forward to the ECF replay between these two as I think it could go either way.

If healthy, I think the Heat still have the edge because they have the best player in the series by a wide margin, Wade and Bosh are still quality players and they have a roster full of very capable veterans who will step up.

I'm hoping the Pacers can cause an upset though, so
it was good to see Hibbert have a good offensive game today. His size is an obvious mismatch favouring the Pacers, but he and his team-mates so often fail to take advantage. To me, Hibbert should be thinking: if I dominate this series offensively then we win easy.

If Hibbert can't step up offensively, then I think it'll come down to how well Stephenson and Turner play. Those guys have the talent and size to cause Miami's guards some problems, but both are pretty erratic too.

Lol @ the Heat complaining non-stop in the post game interview.

Do they even know they had 19 turnovers!

Lebron taunts more than anyone in the game but hardly gets a tech.

Something tells me the referees have a tendency to give techs to more flamboyant players simply because the referees know they are flamboyant. Refs monitor Stevenson so closely.

The Heat are crumbling IMO. The team is becoming more like the Cavs of old. Big 3? More like the Big 1.

And the Heat cant cover Hibbert. Oden gave up 13 first quarter points!

Don't you think they were tanking hard enough already before they traded those two? Teams with the worst record have a history of missing out on the #1 anyway. Second worst record would have been good enough.

IMO you also need to keep a few vets with good attitudes around when you bring in highly touted rookies, otherwise you end up with a bad losing culture that stunts everyone's development. See teams like Charlotte who have been perennial losers until this season.

I agree Turner is no longer a great fit for Philly alongside MCW, but its foolish to fire-sale a good asset for cap space they can't really put to good use for a couple of years. They could've just made the qualifying offer next season and waited to see what options emerged.

Soft to dismiss Stephenson for that, but everyone could see it coming except him it seems. He should've learnt by now not to tempt fate when already on one tech.

Good game all round though. I didn't think the physicality from either team was over the top. There were hard fouls from both sides, but there was no malice and the refs kept things under control.

I liked Evan Turner's spin move on Chalmers for the late score. He still has a way to go, with some of his decision-making poor, but he has the potential to be an x-factor for Indy in these playoffs.

I'm still scratching my head as to why Philly would trade Evans for Granger and then just buy him out! Turner isn't even 26 and still has room to grow. Waste of an asset if you ask me. Its not like Philly needs cap space that urgently either, because no big free agent is going there in the foreseeable future.