MIAMI — Several times around the start of the playoffs, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra insisted that the postseason path his team would wind up navigating had the potential to be more challenging than the route it took to winning the NBA championship a year ago.
He’s apparently correct, probably to his own chagrin.
The defending NBA champion Heat is in a bit of trouble. Miami can’t get enough rebounds, can’t get Dwyane Wade on track, can’t get consistency out of Chris Bosh — and will likely see those story lines grow exponentially or basically disappear Thursday night when it hosts the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, now knotted at two wins each.
“We have a great locker room of alpha competitors,” Spoelstra said Wednesday. “And so they take this very seriously. We’re playing against a worthy opponent and if we don’t play well, they beat us. If they don’t play well and we impose our identity, we beat them. That’s what this is all about. So let’s lace ’em up and let’s get ready for Game 5.”
Game 6 in the series will be at Indiana on Saturday night.
NBA history says the Game 5 winner when a series is tied 2-2 has a colossal upper hand, though the Heat proved and disproved that last year.
When the Heat and Pacers split the first four games of their second-round playoff series last year, Miami won Game 5 and captured the series in six games. One round later, Miami lost a home Game 5 in the Eastern Conference finals to Boston, then went on the road for Game 6 and got 45 points from LeBron James to stave off elimination before coming home and winning a thriller in Game 7 to advance.
