RealGM

Simple question, as of right now if the Pacers played the Heat in the East Finals who do you got??

50/50. Until we beat the Heat in a 7 game series, the odds will always be with the Heat. And that's only fair.

I'll always be for us but were I to bet I'd take the team with home court advantage.

Pacers struggle way too much with ball movement to beat Miami right now. I'll take Miami in 5 with Wade at 85%, 6 games with him missing one.

Right now I would take Indiana in 7. Reasons why:

Improved bench
Homecourt
Improved play of Stephenson

I think those are 3 huge things we didnt have last year and hopefully are enough to get us over the hump. Dwayne Wade being hurt also helps us, but I honestly hope he is healthy for the playoffs.

yeah I am with tocooks, there is another factor, LeBron is coasting right now, not really sure his heart is in it. It is all fine and dandy to state that this is due to the season being long and boring (in the East, true enough), but he is going to have to restart that engine and might actually find that a lot harder than he expects.

EuroPacer,

not as hard as most of us think, what make accomplished three seasons ago is still not reality to some of us... it was truly unreal.

The way I think the heat beat us is if we commit 16-20 turnovers a game. The way we play it won't be hard for us to commit that many or even more

If everyone stays healthy and the team can get in a rhythm by the playoffs, I feel that the Pacers are quite a bit better than last year. And that even without home court, they could beat the Heat.

I believe that the only thing that will stop the Pacers is sub par play at the point guard position. That is the achilles heel for the team. Having home court would just help cover up that weakness a little better.

as long as both teams play at their bests, heat easily

we aren't guaranteed to get to the finals. if we think only Miami can beat us, then someone like Chicago will show up with their A game and we'd better be ready.

mswenson wrote:as long as both teams play at their bests, heat easily

I think the use of he word "easily" is pretty generous. Also, for the pacers to play at their best, that means that we are defensively keeping Miami from playing at THEIR best, so it's really impossible for "both teams to play at their best".