Pacers at Heat
It was a marquee event last season when the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat collided while battling for Eastern Conference supremacy. Only the Heat look like legitimate contenders in the early going and will try to take advantage of the visiting Pacers on Wednesday. LeBron James is gone to Cleveland but Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are playing better than ever and Luol Deng is getting more comfortable in Miami.
While the Heat have barely missed a beat without their leading scorer, Indiana is having a more difficult time working through a slew of injuries, the most devastating being to All-Star Paul George. The Pacers snapped a six-game slide with a 97-86 home victory over the Utah Jazz on Monday as Roy Hibbert stepped up and played like a star with 29 points. Hibbert was limited to 10.8 points on 41.5 percent shooting as Indiana lost to Miami in six games in the Eastern Conference finals last spring.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ESPN, FSN Indiana, Sun Sports (Miami)
ABOUT THE PACERS (2-6): The one positive to all the injuries is the door it opens for other players, and A.J. Price stepped up with 22 points in Monday’s triumph. "(Price) obviously gave us a big-time lift tonight,” Indiana coach Frank Vogel told reporters. “He was great. He’s an NBA player. I don’t know why he’s bouncing around. To perform like he performed tonight shows his value." Price played for the Pacers from 2009-12 and went through Washington, Minnesota and Cleveland before being brought back to Indiana thanks to a hardship waiver granted by the league in the wake of all the injuries.
ABOUT THE HEAT (5-2): Deng scored a season-high 30 points in Sunday’s 105-96 win at the Dallas Mavericks and is 19-of-28 from the field in the last two games. “We’re still getting better as a team, and I think there is still a lot to figure out, but in the game plan (against Dallas) they doubled Bosh and (Wade), and we did a good job of moving the ball,” Deng told reporters. “We had a lot of open jumpers” After averaging 90 points in back-to-back losses last week, Miami has put up 103.5 while holding opponents to 94 in back-to-back wins.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The home team took all four meetings in the 2013-14 regular season.
2. Indiana is also missing G C.J. Miles (migraines), G George Hill (knee), G Rodney Stuckey (foot), F David West (ankle) and G C.J. Watson (leg)
3. Bosh is 1-of-10 from 3-point range over the last three games after hitting 8-of-15 in the first four.