The third round began, not with a bang, but a whimper. So let's get to it.
Game 1: Miami vs. Indiana.
I'm not going to make too much of the result of this game. After all, it's one game and everyone knows who the better team is.
That said, yeccccccccccccccccccch.
Okay, that's about as badly as Miami could have...well, maybe not as badly, but let's be reasonable here. There's no way Miami should have even been this bad.
And really, when you look at it a little closely, they weren't entirely bad. LeBron and Wade were good. Chris Bosh didn't have his best game, especially his shooting percentage, but that shouldn't have been so difficult to overcome. And the role players were about as good as you can expect.
So I guess what this comes down to is defense.
In addition to being "almost there" in regards to offense (likely the product of Bosh's 4-for-12 night; a couple more of those go down and the game is closer by far), they were not great on defense. Indiana scored 30 in the first and 28 in the third; given how they routinely performed against Atlanta and Washington, this cannot continue.
Also, all five of Indiana's starters scored in double figures, including Roy Hibbert, who had 19. I don't know if that's a fluke or the inability of Miami to guard him. He had tremendous problems scoring consistently in the two previous series, though, so I don't expect that to be a constant.
Miami is the two-time defending champion, though, and they're up against a team who wants to usurp their position at the top of the Eastern conference. So one would think that a better effort would be forthcoming in Game 2. Let's hope they don't wait until they get back to Miami to pull out the big guns.
Indiana leads 1-0. Game 2 is Tuesday.
Later today, Game 1 in San Antonio. Should be interesting to see who sets the tone, and how. And how!
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