A tale of two halves: Why the Pacers lost to the Miami Heat

The Good

As I tuned into this evening’s game, I was prepared for a back-and-forth affair. I was more concerned in the first quarter, though, when the Pacers gave up back-to-back threes around the 7:45 mark in the opening act. Then the Heat seemed to pile it on from there with the Pacers trailing 23-9. That was when this happened:

That dunk by Nesmith caught my attention. Could that be a tide-turning dunk? In a way yes. T.J. McConnell also helped get the Pacers back on track in the first half and hit one of two triples to bring the Pacers within 2 with about 9 minutes to go in the first half. A night that looked like it could have been a disaster turned into a game. In fact, the Pacers were able to take the lead at the 4:22 in the 2nd quarter, climbing out of big hole, and leading into the half. It was great to see the team effort tonight to make this a competitive matchup, even if the final score wasn’t on the Pacers side.