From cloud nine to Dante's inferno, the Miami Heat have found themselves transitioning from clear-cut NBA Finals champion to possibly not even making it out of their Eastern Conference Finals series after a 99-92 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
Most eyes will be diverted to the questionable officiating down the stretch that resulted in LeBron James being called for his sixth foul and Dwyane Wade traveling on crucial possessions late. However, you've come to the wrong place if you're hoping for a scathing, written lashing of Joey Crawford and his band of cronies.
Because when Erik Spoelstra reviews tape of Miami's Game 4 loss, he won't be looking at how the officiating made any sort of negative impact for his team. He's going to be looking for ways to improve after seemingly having it altogether after a dominating Game 3 win that made it seem all but assured Miami would have this series wrapped up at home in Game 5.
For the third time this series, Indiana played the game they wanted to play. They powered their way inside for easy baskets, forced a lot of fouls to be called to impede the pace Miami wanted to play at and made the game theirs by exploiting Miami's greatest weakness: their size.
It's nothing to be ashamed of if you're small in stature, as long as you find other facets of the game to make up for it. .
Miami has found ways to compensate with their small-ball lineup that has resulted in the rendering of the traditional NBA center nearly obsolete. More and more teams are beginning to play smaller lineups, in order to play a faster game and place more emphasis on drives and kick-outs to threes.
No team has done this better than the Heat, but it's hurting them in a big way. It wasn't any more clearer than in Game 4, where Miami essentially lost the game because nobody could put a body on 7'2" Roy Hibbert to keep him away from easy rebounds on missed shots.
Like the Chicago Bulls attempted the series before, the Pacers have no problem in missing shots because they have a large frontcourt that can simply go over the top of the Heat's frontcourt rebounders, who currently have the resistance of a wet piece of cardboard.
A 49-30 rebounding edge sealed Miami's fate in Game 4. Although the Pacers only held a 15-12 offensive rebounding advantage, an eye test indicated that Indiana ended up winning this game because they had Hibbert, who finished with six offensive rebounds, simply grabbing rebounds over Bosh on missed shots.
Indiana held a 50-32 points in the paint advantage, and Chris Bosh had two rebounds in nearly 30 minutes worth of action. Ray Allen led the Heat with seven rebounds, while Bosh, Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen combined to grab a grand total of seven.
The Pacers ended up shooting 50 percent because they seemingly went 1-of-2 on every offensive possession—miss a jumper, have Hibbert or West, who finished with four offensive rebounds of his own, grab the board for a putback.
Obviously, this, as well as Indiana's astoundingly easy ability to get shots near the rim, will be the point of emphasis for Spoelstra.
Hibbert, averaging 22 points and 12 rebounds this series, has been Indiana's best player, and it hasn't been close. With the Heat failing to establish Bosh and attempting to get Hibbert into foul trouble, Hibbert has been allowed to do as he pleases in the form of clogging the paint, helping on post-ups and going over Miami on both sides of the court.
In last year's series against the Pacers, Hibbert was marginalized as Miami employed a strategy of fronting him with either Ronny Turiaf, Udonis Haslem or Shane Battier and then having a second defender shadow behind Hibbert to cut off any sort of space he had between himself and the rim.
That hasn't been evident this series. Miami has been electing to allow Bosh and Chris Andersen to go one-on-one with Hibbert, and it's resulting in the Pacers' center simply posting up and throwing a five-foot hook shot in for an easy two points.
It's also causing Bosh to get into foul trouble. He's had at least three fouls all four games, including four in the past two. He has yet to play for more than 37 minutes and has now played consecutive games with under 30 minutes of playing time.
Was it any coincidence that Miami's offense was at its absolute best in Game 3 when they established Bosh early as a threat? By establishing Bosh, as well as Haslem, early, the Heat were able to create an outside presence that would need to be recognized by Indiana's bigs.
Hibbert isn't going out of his comfort zone in the paint to guard someone who shoots 1-of-6, which is what Bosh did in Game 4. Miami is constantly flirting with the idea of getting Bosh more involved in the offense, but abandoning it as quick as they get positive results out of it.
Miami isn't going to win games relying solely on its wing threats, especially with how poor they have been shooting. Specifically, Ray Allen, Shane Battier and Mario Chalmers, who combined to have another abysmal performance from beyond the arc with three makes on 12 attempts.
No, Bosh is going to have to serve an impact every game Miami wants to win. They're not going to win games relying on LeBron "Do Everything" James and Dwyane "I left my game somewhere around here" Wade to simply drive and kick out. That doesn't work against a defense like Indiana's, who are arguably the league's top team when it comes to defending the perimeter.
Wade, Chalmers, James and Allen all took at least 13 field-goal attempts, while Bosh is on the outside looking in with one more field-goal attempt than Haslem, who played 12 fewer minutes and doesn't exactly bring the same significance to the game like Bosh should.
Plain and simple: Miami doesn't have a Roy Hibbert-stopper in its arsenal. Unless they start gang-rebounding and making it a point of emphasis to put bodies on him, Hibbert is going to continue to get his.