After Friday’s game against the Pacers, Miami sits at fourth in the conference. According to standings, Miami will face the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. This will be the fifth time Miami will face Indiana. This time, however, the winner takes all in a best of 7 series. In the last matchup. The Heat lost by double-digits to the Pacers, a game where both teams rested most of their starters and role players to prepare for the playoffs.
The rivalry between the Pacers and the Heat was revived earlier this year following an altercation with Jimmy Butler and T.J Warren. This matchup will be the latest chapter in the ongoing feud. The earliest levels of competition stemmed back as far as the 2009-10 season where the Heat, centered around then All-Star MVP Dwyane Wade, swept the Pacers in the season series. From there, the rivalry picked up again when Miami formed their “Big 3” consisting of LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh. The “Big 3” battled over the next few seasons against a rising star in Paul George and a deep Pacers team.
We fast forward to now, Miami and Indiana are both building teams capable of challenging the top teams in the playoffs and once again will need to battle it out in a seven-game series. This series will be one of the highly televised games given the recent success of both franchises as well as their bad blood with each other. Miami has a great chance to knock off the Pacers and advance to the next round given their previous success throughout this season. Unfortunately, we will likely miss the high-flyer Derrick Jones Jr after he sustained a neck sprain in yesterday’s finale of the NBA restart. Pacers will look to get T.J Warren back in rhythm as he went on a jaw-dropping streak of scoring over 30 points in four of the last six games. Indiana will also utilize Victor Oladipo, who is still adjusting after suffering knee injuries that derailed his time on the court. This series has all the makings of going six or possibly seven games with both teams near equal in standings. Game 1 of the series begins on Tuesday at 4:00 pm on TNT.
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