Miami Heat beat Indiana Pacers to set up NBA finals with San Antonio Spurs
Miami set up date with San Antonio after James and teammates find another gear to cruise past Indiana in Eastern Conference deciding play-off
What, you expected something else? LeBron James and his teammates weren't going to blow this one, not at home and certainly not with a third straight trip to the NBA finals on the line.
That it went seven games gave the people of Indiana some false hope, but in a star-driven league, the biggest star in the game wasn't about to allow a flop of gigantic proportions on his watch.
David Stern can rest easy now, because the last championship series he will preside over as commissioner won't be the ratings bust that a Spurs-Pacers final would have been. Miami and San Antonio is about as good as the league could have hoped for.
Sure, Indiana had given the Heat trouble all year, handing Miami five of its 20 losses. And, yes, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh looked so lost at times during the series that the whole concept of a Big Three in Miami seemed a bit silly. But did anyone really believe James hadn't learned from his mistakes of years past? Did anyone really think that Wade and Bosh would let James down again when it mattered most?
Surely no one ever thought the greatest three-point shooter in the history of the league had forgotten how to shoot. Ray Allen did in the first half just what he was supposed to do for his new team, and now he's four wins from the ring he figured was his when he signed on to play alongside James.
"We have guys that are inspired by these types of moments in the bright lights," Miami coach Eric Spoelstra said just before the game, and he was right.