The criticism of MVP LeBron James for his play down the stretch of Miami’s 78-75 Game 2 loss to Indiana on Tuesday will be much louder than the barbs aimed at Dwyane Wade, who shot 1-of-5 in the last 3:30 of the fourth quarter and missed one of his two free-throw attempts.

It is slightly inaccurate, though, to suggest that James shied away from the ball for the entirety of crunch time. He took a three-pointer with 3:35 to go and attempted a driving layup — snuffed out brilliantly by the Pacers’ Paul George — with less than 90 seconds remaining. He crashed the offensive glass hard on three of those Wade misses. A player who wishes to hide does not chase offensive rebounds, especially when grabbing them often leads to free throws.

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The nice thing about having three All-Star players is that you can get by against most teams without one of them, especially when your best All-Star is the most versatile player in the league. The Heat should overcome the Pacers in the second round without Chris Bosh, who is out indefinitely after straining an abdominal muscle in the second quarter of Miami’s 95-86 victory in Game 1 on Sunday. And if the power forward’s absence extends beyond that, the Bosh-less Heat would still be favored in the Eastern Conference finals against a Sixers team that is 1-11 against Miami over the last two seasons and a ferocious Celtics club dealing with its own health issues. The gap is smaller, though, and the chances for an upset against any of those three teams increase. The Heat may still reach the NBA Finals without Bosh in the worst-case scenario, but beating a team like the Spurs or Thunder would require Miami to be at full strength.

Now, LeBron James will play huge minutes at power forward in “smaller” lineups that have done quite well this season, with and without Bosh. Counting only lineups that logged at least 10 minutes together in the regular season, the Heat used James at power forward for 376 minutes and outscored opponents by about 14.5 points per 100 possessions — a number that would have led the league by a long shot, according to Basketball Value. The two such units that recorded the most minutes did not feature Bosh, as the Heat often used James as power forward when one or both of the other stars rested.

David West was unable to punish James in the post in Game 1, both because Miami makes it a chore just to enter the ball, and because LeBron is just as big and strong as the Pacers’ power forward. Miami’s move to sign Shane Battier and retain Mike Miller has it stocked with defenders capable of guarding small forward Danny Granger, sparing each of the LeBron/Battier/Miller trio the full-game burden. The Pacers were unwilling to go small/fast along with Miami on Sunday, forcing West into an awkward matchup on defense with Battier. That pulls West from the paint, opening driving lanes, and over the course of the series it will provide Battier some good looks as West scrambles around in an unfamiliar, perimeter-oriented assignment.

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David West will be the difference-maker for the Pacers in the second-round series against Miami. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

I spent the regular season watching the Pacers and asking two questions:

1. Will this team ever score efficiently enough to be a real threat to the league’s best teams?

2. When is Darren Collison going to make a leap?

The second question basically amounted to: Why doesn’t Collison look more like Tony Parker on the pick-and-roll? Why is he always pulling up for long jump shots? Why can’t he see the passing lane open for just a beat? Or: Why doesn’t he keep his dribble alive a bit longer to create passing lanes that don’t otherwise exist?

But these were the wrong questions, and not just because the Pacers replaced Collison in the starting lineup with a less traditional point guard in George Hill and got even better. Indiana could use an ace point guard — any team could — but it doesn’t really need one, because it’s built to create offense in a different way. The Pacers are not all that different from the Lakers, both the Phil Jackson and Mike Brown versions, in that they use their big men instead of their point guards to get into the teeth of the defense and create shots.

Among playoff teams, only the behemoth Lakers devoted a higher percentage of their possessions to post-up plays than the Pacers, per Synergy Sports. Roy Hibbert will have a huge height advantage over every Miami big man in this series, and how he responds to the quickness of Miami’s bigs and help defenders will be a key factor in how this series goes.

Again, one way to penetrate a defense is simply to toss the ball to a tall person close to the hoop. But over the last 25 games or so, the Pacers have gotten very good at creating penetration through a second method. And with that in mind, I present the player who gives Indiana the best shot at giving Miami an honest run: David West, and his passing skills.

West has been slipping screens for nearly a decade in the NBA, which is a fancy hoops guru way of saying that when West sets a screen in a pick-and-roll, he cuts straight toward the basket almost before he actually sets the pick. He is not interested in lingering there or nailing an opposing point guard with a cement wall pick. He wants to get in the way for a second and then leave, hoping to catch the ball in an open space somewhere just below the foul line and to the left of the paint. This is penetration via the pass. Read More…

After another epic between the Grizzlies and Clippers on Monday, every remaining first-round series stands at 3-1. And in a weird scheduling quirk, four teams have a chance to close out 4-1 victories tonight, a scenario that would leave us with one fait accompli in Miami and one remaining hope for real on-court drama in Memphis. Here’s one key factor to watch in each of the four games:

PACERS VS. MAGIC

Indiana has outscored the Magic by 55 points in the 158 minutes that David West has logged in this series. (Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)

The power forward matchup: We knew going in that Orlando lacked the size to match up with the behemoth Roy Hibbert, but David West’s old-man game has been just as big a problem — and perhaps a bigger one — for Ryan Anderson, Earl Clark and (in fewer chances) Glen Davis. Indiana has outscored the Magic by 55 points in the 158 minutes that West has logged in this series, while the Magic have won the remaining 39 minutes — with West sitting — by a mammoth 19-point margin.

This all peaked in the third quarter of Game 4, when the Pacers built a huge behind West doing a little bit of everything — slipping screens to create penetration, drawing double-teams in the post, ducking in for post-up chances behind Hibbert pick-and-rolls and firing solid passes to open shooters. He overpowered Anderson and Clark, and his play, coupled with Anderson’s disappearance, has been perhaps the largest swing factor in this series. It got so bad that Stan Van Gundy went small in the second half of the fourth quarter, with Hedo Turkoglu at power forward, a move that seemed to unnerve the Pacers for a short stretch.

But in the long run, or what’s left of it, the Magic need Anderson to make this matchup something close to a wash. He’s just 10-of-31 from the floor so far, and the secondary skills he brings — offensive rebounds, two-point shots, the occasional free throws — have vanished in this series. Orlando has a huge speed advantage at the big-man positions, and it can (and has) hurt Indiana by running West in multiple pick-and-rolls and targeting Hibbert as the last man in quick-hitting, staggered screen plays, knowing Hibbert will sag back and concede a jump shot. Anderson needs to make some of those jump shots, and the Magic need to find a way to limit West on the other end without compromising themselves fatally elsewhere. That’s a huge challenge given the roster limitations here, but Van Gundy, working what might be his last game in Orlando on Tuesday, has coached his tail off in this series. Does he have some tricks left? Read More…

Led by Danny Granger, the Pacers have scored 107.8 points per 100 possessions in their last 20 games, a scoring rate that would lead the league over the full season. (Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

The season in the Eastern Conference began with two superpowers and a bunch of other teams whose absolute playoff ceiling seemed to be hosting, and probably losing, a Game 6 against the Bulls or Heat.

But Miami’s recent listless play and the endless series of nagging injuries to Derrick Rose (and to a lesser extent, Luol Deng) have thrown a monkey wrench into that assumed scenario, and the discussion of which Eastern Conference teams might break up Miami-Chicago party has focused on the surging Celtics and Knicks.

It has not focused on two other teams quietly peaking at the right time: Indiana and Atlanta, the latter a conference semifinalist for three straight seasons and the other a team that has proven it can at least irritate the East’s elite. The Pacers are 9-1 in their last 10 games and 15-5 in their last 20, a stretch in which they have beaten Miami, Oklahoma City and New York (but also lost both games of a home-and-home to the Knicks).

The Hawks haven’t been quite as exciting, at “just” 13-7 in their last 20 games, but both teams share one general trend: They started the year as defense-first teams, surviving despite shaky offenses, and they are ending it by scoring like gangbusters. The Hawks in their last 20 games have scored 106 points per 100 possessions, a mark that would rank third overall; for the season, they rank just 16th, averaging 101.8 points per 100 possessions.

The Pacers have been even better. They have scored 107.8 points per 100 possessions in their last 20 games, a scoring rate that would lead the league over the full season. They’ve crept all the way to 10th in the overall points per possession rankings, becoming one of just four teams — along with the Bulls, Thunder and Heat — to rank among the top 10 in both points scored and allowed per possession. You want to suss out the real title contenders? Look for teams that play top-shelf ball on both ends of the floor.

Scoring has surged leaguewide in the last month or so, but the Hawks and Pacers have outpaced the league significantly. This trend would seem to mark each team as at least intriguing, and at best legitimately dangerous — especially if Al Horford, cleared for contact recently, returns as something resembling himself in time for the postseason. Read More…

The Pacers got a solid bench addition in combo guard Leandro Barbosa. (Ron Turenne/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Pacers entered deadline day with about $14.3 million in cap space, the most in the league, meaning they could absorb salary up to that amount without sending out any player salary in return. They have decided to use more than half of that to swallow up Leandro Barbosa’s $7.6 million expiring contract in exchange for a second-round draft pick in order to (in theory) prop up an offense that has ranked as average or worse in points per possession all season.

The move likely takes them out of the running for Chris Kaman, who earns almost exactly $14 million this season and would thus require the Pacers to move out several medium-sized salaries in order to take on Kaman and remain under the cap.

Barbosa, a combo guard who can still score in isolation and via the pick-and-roll, will display some occasionally nutty shot selection and joins a crowded guard/wing rotation that already includes Darren Collison, Paul George, George Hill, A.J. Price, Dahntay Jones (who can and does swing to small forward) and (until recently) Lance Stephenson. The Pacers really don’t know what kind of offense they’ll get from any of these guys on a night-to-night basis, and Barbosa simply adds another “roll the dice” piece to Frank Vogel’s arsenal.

FULL LIST OF COMPLETED TRADES

Barbosa is fading with age; he has attempted 5.1 long two-point jumpers per 40 minutes this season, by far the highest number of his career, and he has hit a horrid 28 percent of those shots. He doesn’t get to the rim as often as he used to. He will take at least one maddening off-the-dribble jumper while nearly falling out of bounds every game. At 6-foot-3, he is probably a below-average defender at this point and can struggle against the bigger and physical shooting guards in the league. Read More…

This year is a test for everyone, but there are four teams to watch for the remainder of the season — four teams that are either experiencing a temporary internal crisis or playing closer to what is really their true level. If it’s the latter, teams just outside the playoff races or holding a loose grip on the No. 7 or No. 8 spots — the Grizzlies, Jazz, Bucks and Timberwolves — might have reason for encouragement.

A quick look at each:

INDIANA PACERS

Despite Danny Granger's improved shooting, Indiana's offense still lags. (Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images)

The Pacers have lost six of eight to drop to 18-12, ceding that “feel-good threat to Miami and Chicago” status to Philadelphia and falling to a point where New York, Boston and Milwaukee can see them without squinting. Injuries and the schedule are both culprits here, but the collapse of Indiana’s formerly top-shelf defense and the shaky play of its bench are both worrisome trends to monitor.

The Pacers are without George Hill, their best bench player and key insurance for Darren Collison, and Jeff Foster returned from injury only a week ago. They also just finished a stretch of seven games in 10 days that contained one segment of four games in five nights and a separate back-to-back-to-back  that ended Thursday night, with a much-needed win over Deron Williams and the Deron Williams Players.

This Indiana team was always going to win by relying on solid defense to lift a mediocre offense, while hoping internal improvements to that offense might help it win more — and against better teams — later. The offense has remained inconsistent, even as Danny Granger has done the inevitable and rediscovered his jumper. This is a post-heavy team without an elite creator, and it can look very slow on the wrong night.

The Pacers have been neck-and-neck with the Lakers all season in terms of devoting the greatest share of its possessions to post-up plays (per Synergy Sports), and Collison, despite flashes and generally solid play, just hasn’t made a leap as a penetrator or creator. Hill and Paul George can both run the pick-and-roll, but they often do so tentatively, dribbling sideways instead of into the teeth of a defense. Read More…

David West will join Tyler Hansbrough in forming a solid power forward duo. (Michael Hickey/US Presswire)

The Pacers entered the offseason with perhaps the cleanest cap sheet in the league and a ton of hope, and they appear to be coming out of it with two main moves:

• Signing power forward David West to a two-year, $20 million deal.

• Trading shooting guard Brandon Rush and power forward Josh McRoberts to Memphis for shooting guard O.J. Mayo. The deal is close, according to several published reports, but not yet done. The Pacers have to first re-sign McRoberts to make the deal work.

With Indiana in the same conference as two rising juggernauts in Miami and Chicago and one fighting to stay alive in Boston, it’s easy to look at these moves and ask what the Pacers have really accomplished here. What’s the point, really, in fighting to win one playoff round, battling Atlanta for supremacy in the middle of the Eastern Conference? There’s some truth in that. The Pacers still don’t have a star, and even this improved roster probably can’t challenge the Heat and Bulls as those teams get better.

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Pacers forward Danny Granger (right) is working to improve his ball-handling. (John Gress/Reuters)

The Pacers are a compelling team for the first time in more than a half decade. They played a competitive first-round playoff series against Chicago last season and are set to have a pile of salary-cap space when the NBA resumes business. Indiana is loaded with good, if not great, young players, making 28-year-old Danny Granger the elder statesman on a team that hopes to push the Eastern Conference elite.

Granger chatted with SI.com about his offseason, the Pacers’ problems scoring in crunch time and his plan for a personal Batcave.

SI.com: Everyone loves your idea of taking Conseco Fieldhouse workers out for dinner during the lockout. How did you come up with it?

Granger: The biggest thing I miss about the NBA is the interaction I have with the workers and everyone else who is there. I had a few rituals I’d do — I have a secret handshake with one person and a really good relationship with all of them. I just thought it’d be a good idea if I could get them all together, take them to dinner and maybe do a raffle and bring in some teammates to help raise money for the workers.

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Former Pacers great Reggie Miller could replace Larry Bird as the team's president in a year. (AP)

You can almost hear the cackling from the NBA know-it-all crowd, and it’s sort of understandable: Reggie Miller isn’t exactly the first player-turned-analyst who comes to mind when you think of guys you might like to run your team’s personnel shop. And yet, as Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports, Pacers owner Herb Simon sees Miller, perhaps Indiana’s most beloved professional player, as a potential successor to top decision-maker Larry Bird.

It’s important to note a few things here:

• This move is at least one year away, because Bird has agreed to serve as the Pacers’ president for one more season. And it’s really several years away, since the team will have a number of executives on hand to mentor Miller during his theoretical transition from analyst to executive. That group could include current GM David Morway; director of player personnel and former Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard; and Donnie Walsh, the former GM who drafted Miller over more popular, local choices (i.e. Steve Alford, though this was not really a close call) in 1987.

That’s a nice collection of voices with varied styles and experience levels. Even if the Pacers bring in Miller a year from now, it’s going to be a while before he has enough power to do serious damage.

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