MIAMI -- The Indiana Pacers have been in this position before.
They faced it in January in Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston. Then again in Dallas in February. . . . trying to beat a top-tier team on its home court.
Now they face it again -- with much higher consequences -- tonight against the Miami Heat.
The Pacers have to win at least one game at AmericanAirlines Arena if they are to upset the Heat in their Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series.
The Pacers are confident they can win here; they did it in Game 2.
"The first four games of this series have proven that home-court advantage means nothing," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "They split (in Indianapolis), we split there. We know we can win in their building, and we can win in any building in the NBA. We have that confidence."
The series is tied 2-2.
The most obvious way for the Pacers to win tonight is by stopping Miami's superb duo of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. They scored 70 of their team's 101 points in Game 4.
Shutting down those two is unlikely, especially James, so the Pacers have to make them use a lot of energy to score while also addressing a number of other issues.
"We've got to be more precise," Pacers forward David West said. "We allowed too much freedom. I don't think they felt us enough when it came to their comfort level."
Other keys for the Pacers include:
West and Hibbert
West and Roy Hibbert give the Pacers their biggest advantage against the Heat. But they have to stay on the court.
It doesn't do the Pacers any good if both players are on the bench, which was the case because of foul trouble in Game 4.
West and Hibbert are the Pacers' only low-post threats on offense and they're the team's best defenders and rebounders.
The two combined for 18 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks Sunday. Those numbers have to double if the Pacers expect to have a chance.
"We got away from looking at (Hibbert) from over the top when they were fronting us," Vogel said. "Myself from a play-calling standpoint, David and Roy both have to work harder to get the ball in the post and their teammates have to see them better in the post if we're going to take advantage of those matchups at the big positions."
Limit Miami's options
The Pacers can't let anybody else join the scoring party. James and Wade will score. Everybody knows that. But the Pacers can't let any other Miami players get to double figures.
Heat reserve big man Udonis Haslem came off the bench Sunday and scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Haslem was huge for Miami in the fourth quarter, when he scored eight points -- all on jump shots from at least 10 feet -- when the Pacers forced James and Wade to pass.
"That's huge," Pacers forward Danny Granger said. "To their credit, he hit some big shots down the stretch. We can't let things like that happen if we want to win this game. LeBron and D. Wade had great performances, but we limit Haslem's 14 points and we might get out of there with a win."
Win the third quarter
That's been the trend of the series. The team that won the third period won the game.
James and Wade scored Miami's first 28 points (of 30 total) of the third quarter Sunday. The Pacers scored 16 while shooting 33 percent and turning the ball over seven times.
Have no regrets
The Pacers find themselves in a best-of-three series against championship-minded Miami, with two of the potential three remaining games set for South Florida.
It doesn't matter that nobody outside the Pacers organization thought they had a chance against the Heat.
The Pacers must put everything on the table so that there's no second-guessing any decisions that are made.
Vogel found himself thinking twice about leaving Hibbert and West on the bench with four fouls each in the fourth quarter of Game 4.
If the Pacers eventually come up short, it needs to be with their best low-post players on the court, even if it means they eventually foul out.
As Vogel found out Sunday, they will do more good on the court than on the bench.
Call Star reporter Mike Wells at (317) 444-6053.
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