This little exchange by two guys who clearly weren’t going to fight each other happened around the 7-minute mark in the fourth quarter of tonight’s Pacers win over the Heat in Game 2. A little tangle up, a little exchange of unpleasantries, a little Brazilian dude running over to see what’s going on and a little bit of everyone calming down once David West came over. A non-event basically, but it came just two minutes after Dwyane Wade was whistled for a flagrant foul on Darren Collison while the game was ramping up in intensity. The Heat shot 5-for-14 (35.7%) from the field and 3-for-8 (37.5%) from the line following this little incident, for what that’s worth. The Pacers were 4-for-8 (50%) from the field and 5-for-10 (50%) from the line.
File this story under “Pacers Piss Off Opponents Like None Other, Part IV.”
Apparently, after the Pacers won Game 2 in South Beach, they were excited. They hooted and hollered some. This is shocking, of course, because most underdogs don’t enjoy winning playoff games on the road. So of course Dwyane Wade went out of his way to talk about it at length after a reported solicited his reaction.
Chris Tomasson of Fox Sun Sports in Florida has the story, which mostly likely is rooted in ABC picking up an in-game quote from Game 1 when Pacers coach Frank Vogel tried to motivate his team to victory by saying, “Do what the Mavericks did — BUT DO IT BETTER.” The Dallas Mavericks, in case you missed it, upset the Heat in the NBA Finals last year.
“I heard they wanted to be like the Dallas Mavericks, in a sense,” Wade said about an apparent reference to Pacers coach Frank Vogel using last year’s Mavs team, which beat the Heat in Miami for the title, as motivation for Indiana. “I saw their little celebration at the end of (Game 2). I don’t know if they didn’t expect to win, but every night we go out on the court, we expect to win.”
Wade then was asked about the celebration, but didn’t elaborate on what specifically irritated him.
“They say their identity, they say they want to be like Dallas,” Wade said. “So they celebrated like Dallas, I guess.”
On the zinger scale of “every joke Shaq has made on Inside the NBA” to Gregg Popovich benching Tim Duncan and writing “DNP-OLD” in the box score, this is somewhere in the middle. It’s not as good as Wade’s comedic work mocking Dirk for being sick, which was legit sorta funny, but it’s marginally clever in the sense of properly framing some decent “calm down, young’ns, it’s one game” mockery. I’ll give him a solid B- in my Post-Game Comedy Grades.
Interesting. Now that the Pacers have knotted the series at 1-1, however, I imagine that, more than trying not to upset Wade again, their goal is to find out just how pissed off Kevin Garnett can get at them.
Series tied 1-1. Pacers looked like they should have been down 30 in the first half. They looked in complete control in the third quarter and into the fourth. Then the ending was a gross display of futility from teams that couldn’t score or hit a free throw. Ugly stuff, but the Pacers made more plays than their opponents and now get to head to Indiana with home court advantage against a depleted and very beatable Heat team that needs to win a game on the road.
More on this game in the hours and days to come. For now, here is how each guy played individually tonight. Agree? Disagree? Express your thoughts below in the comments or yell at me (@8pts9secs) or Tim (@TimDonahue8p9s) on Twitter.
David West41 MIN | 5-13 FG | 6-8 FT | 10 REB | 2 BLK | 16 PTS Had 7 of the Pacers’ 17 pts in the 4th and set the tone for the period by not settling for shots outside of the paint late. Execution wasn’t great there, but Indy’s mentality of attacking the lane was encouraging.
Danny Granger 5-14 FG | 6 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 4 TO | 11 PTS Gross first half, shooting just 2-of-7 with 2 TOs. But was an effective aggressor after the break, especially in a 3rd quarter during which the Pacers took control and hit 10 of 18 shots. The only play better than his blow by to score on LeBron may have been his monster block on that same, aforementioned King. Fouled out.
Roy Hibbert 33 MIN | 2-6 FG | 4-6 FT | 11 REB | 3 BLK | 8 PTS Many were predicting him to drop a 20/10 without Bosh on the court. Not so much. He is not someone you run your offense through — for a lot of reasons. He’s much better when he’s playing off of others, hitting the glass, protecting the rim, which he did very well tonight.
George Hill35 MIN | 4-9 FG | 6-7 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 5 TO | 15 PTS He missed the free throw late, and only scored a point in the 4th, but without him in the second and third quarter, the Pacers are probably facing a 20-point deficit in the middle of the game.
Paul George33 MIN | 4-11 FG | 0-2 FT | 11 REB | 3 STL | 10 PTS By the time Wade spun by him for a dunk, it looked like yet another bad playoff game for George. But he later lived up to his lock-down reputation, forcing both Wade and LeBron into very tough shots again and again. Team defense won this game and Paul’s work allowed everything else to work. His block of LeBron James late in the game is as big of a defensive play as you’ll see in the series. Needs to not miss clutch free throws though. Boo on that.
Darren Collison17 MIN | 2-4 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS Not up to his (high) 2012 playoff standards but was still solid. He looked good with that deadly pull up off the PnR.
Dahntay Jones8 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS Dahntay has provided some excellent minutes in the past two games and Indiana might turn out to be glad that foul trouble forced him to show how well he can play against Miami at times. Plus, he has a new fan. RT @hpbasketball: I like Dahntay Jones. I’m one of like, five peope, but I do.
Leandro Barbosa25 MIN | 4-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS I have tripled-checked the box score now and it still says Barbosa only had 8 pts. Felt like a bigger presence for sure. And could have easily taken a jumper on Indy’s last possession after the ORB. But took it to the hole and it ended up getting Roy to the line. Leandro can be all or nothing and he was “nothing” early on. Mark him down for “all” in the second half though.
Louis Amundson5 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 2 PTS Barely remember him playing. He didn’t in the second half.
Tyler Hansbrough, 7 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 3 PF | 0 PTS Wasn’t hitting his jumper, and really wasn’t able to make any impact with his energy. Vogel opted not to use him in the second half.
As basically everyone on Twitter noted, this frustration foul could have easily gotten Dwyane Wade ejected. He went hard to the rim on the ensuing possession and was (perhaps rightfully … though it was a 50/50 call) miffed at the refs for not calling a foul on Dahntay Jones. Obviously this was an over-reaction. And who knows: Maybe the league will review it and suspend Dwayne for Game 3? #jokes
