Heat move closer to final four with bruising win over Pacers

No way through: Indiana's George Hill (left) passes the ball as Miami's Mario Chalmers defends during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday. Miami won 115-83. AP

MIAMI — Suddenly, the road back to the Eastern Conference finals no longer looks daunting for Miami.

Not after the Heat left the Pacers beat up and banged up.

LeBron James scored 30 points, Dwyane Wade added 28, and the Heat moved a win away from the NBA's final four with a 115-83 victory over the hurting Pacers on Tuesday night, a game where three flagrant fouls added more chapters to an already-physical series and Indiana watched starting forwards Danny Granger and David West leave with injuries.

"This is our challenge right now, to leave it behind us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "A lot of good things tonight, but we have to focus on the next one."

That would be Game 6 in Indiana on Thursday night. The Heat lead the best-of-seven East semifinals 3-2.

James added 10 rebounds and eight assists. Shane Battier scored 13 points, Mario Chalmers had eight points and 11 rebounds, and Udonis Haslem finished with 10 points for Miami, which never trailed, held a 22-2 edge in fast-break points and shot a franchise playoff-record 61 percent — best of any team in the playoffs this season.

Paul George scored 11 points for Indiana, with Granger and West adding 10 points apiece. Granger left with a sprained left ankle in the third quarter and departed the arena in a walking boot, while West departed with what the Pacers called a left knee sprain at the end of that period — something that West thought was born of a cheap shot.

Replays showed Shane Battier boxed out West on the play where he fell backward, but it did not appear any Heat player hit West below the waist.

It was an 11-point game when Granger departed early in the third quarter, and the Heat outscored the Pacers by 21 the rest of the way.

"We learned early in this series, you don't get two wins for a blowout," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

A series marked by ugly moments had perhaps its worst with 19.4 seconds remaining when Miami reserve center Dexter Pittman went across the lane to send a forearm into the chin area of Indiana's Lance Stephenson — who was caught on camera making a choke sign toward James during the Pacers' Game 3 win, drawing the ire of the Miami locker room.

Pittman was caught on camera winking after the foul.

"I don't know if that was retaliation. . . . I'm sure the NBA will and do what they have to do," Granger said, adding that Stephenson was getting X-rays for a possible collarbone problem. Physicians were examining Stephenson after the game.

Miami, which had gotten into quick deficits in each of the first four games, was the team that started hot in Game 5, running out to a 19-8 lead on the strength of three 3-pointers from Battier — who had been 2 for 19 from the field in the first four games of the series. Battier left his mark in many ways, even stopping a 3-on-1 Indiana break to set up a score by Wade at the other end.

But much like the Heat did in Game 4 when Indiana threatened to turn things into an early runaway, the Pacers settled down in a hurry.

The Pacers made Wade see blood early on, a couple of early flagrant fouls reminding everyone that these teams don't seem to like each other much.

Tyler Hansbrough struck first, hitting Wade on a play where the 2006 NBA Finals MVP wound up with a cut over his right eye, similar to what Haslem received at Indiana in Game 4. So Haslem retaliated against Hansbrough not long afterward, earning a flagrant-1 foul.

View the original article here