All people are going to talk about after this game is Lebron James and that is 100% warranted after an historic output when his team most needed him. If Miami were to lose this game their season would essentially have been over, so Lebron put the team on his 6’8″ shoulders and scored 40 points, muscled inside for 18 rebounds and got his teammates going with 9 assists as the Heat won 101-93. All this plus some strong team defense and Wade getting back to doing Wade things saw Miami pull out what has to be considered a mini-upset over an Indiana team who has had all the answers against a Heat squad missing its third pillar (the injured Chris Bosh did not make the trip, staying in South Beach for treatment to his strained abdominal muscle).
Lebron James reacts after getting the dunk and foul
Lebron looked primed for business early when he posterised Danny Granger off a nice pass from Mario Chalmers half way through the first and he never let up. It wasn’t all the Heat’s way however, as despite the show Lebron was putting on, Indiana still held a 10 point lead and commanding position in the third quarter. Then Wade got untracked and the one-two punch was too much for Indiana to handle.
Game 5 is back in Miami and if Lebron and Wade don’t leave their mojo in Indiana, then we have a real series on our hands. This has been a back and forward series so it’s hard to predict what will happen in game 5. Coming in it seemed like the series would be decided by whichever coach was able to put the right lineup on the court to exploit mismatches, but so far it’s come down to which team has the greater will to win. Game 5 will show us a lot about both of these teams.
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