It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The Miami Heat were supposed to waltz past the Indiana Pacers and begin thinking about how they are going to handle either the Celtics or the Sixers. But then Chris Bosh went down with an injury. No worries, D-Wade and King James provide more than enough firepower to upend the Pacers, right? Wrong.

Game two found the Heat falling to the Pacers 78-75 to even the series at a game a piece. Not only does the win shock the Heat, but now they have to travel to Indiana and figure out what went wrong. Aside from James and Wade’s collapse in the final two minutes, the Pacers out rebounded the Heat by ten, immediately putting into question just how big the loss of Chris Bosh will affect the Heat. You can’t keep anticipating that Dwyane Wade will remain stuck in a shooting funk. You also can’t expect both Wade and James to come up short in the final minutes of the game. What you can expect is the Heat’s supporting cast to keep stinking up the court. LeBron and Wade combined for 52 of the Heat’s 75 points. That means that the rest of the Heat only offered a whopping 23 points. You’re not going to win very many games like that.

Meanwhile, the Pacers have found a way to keep the Heat off balance with an attack that spreads the wealth amongst their deep squad. It may not be Granger or George or West or Hill. It could be Hibbert in the next game. You never really know with the Pacers and that gives the Heat some problems to figure out heading into game three.

Do I expect the Pacers to take the series? Absolutely not. But I will enjoy the ride while it lasts.

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