After the close games of that opening round, this sort of dismal blow-out is pretty depressing. Pacers were woeful.

Yeah agree, with Mick and Isaac. Hibbert has to go, Luke Neville looks like a better option..There are suggestions that NY Knicks could make a trade with Indiana for Hibbert-Tyson Chandler

Agree with the commentators that Indiana being in the eastern conference has allowed them to conceal their weaknesses

I can't get it out of my head that Joakim Noah makes 2 million less a year than Roy Hibbert. The West/Noah frontline has me salivating...

The east is weak as hell outside of who ever Lebron plays for. The conference system is a bust, the real NBA finals is being played now & it's the WCF.

You'll be eating your words then Miami win the championship, Mystro

Miami are obviously a great chance to win it all at this point, but throw them in the West and it is a helluva lot easier for them to get upset in an earlier round by a lesser team with a puncher's chance. Getting to the ECF, let alone the Finals, would be no certainty for Miami in the other conference.

This Miami team is worse than it was a year ago and basically just cakewalked to another Finals series.

What Mick said...

Miami are prob going to win their 3rd in a row because they get to jog into the finals all fit and healthy from cake walk series after cakewalk series to finally peak at the final while OKC and the Spurs go through some tough teams in Dallas, Memphis, Portland & the Clippers and then each other.
Durant has had some tough defenders to deal with all post season, Lebron had to put up with some dude blowing in his ear!

By the same token because the East is so weak compared to the West maybe Miami are not as "battle hardened" as The Spurs or OKC as they've had to face far inferior opponents. Maybe that cancels out their advantage of being "fresher", I don't know...

Lance Stephenson was just an idiot in this game. Bill Simmons described him as having played like an "ass" at half time and said that if he had done that to Larry Bird (given the recent comparisons between Bird and LeBron), Bird probably would have punched him by now. Loved Shane Battier taking him out on a screen. I've got a feeling he won't be a Pacer next season. While he has some serious game, his antics are just too much of a distraction. When asked in the press conference if he wanted to play with Stephenson next year, Paul George said "you know, I don't know..."

Great self control here by LeBron. Plenty of players would have reacted differently...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtZIKdJJTjg

Battle hardened Vs Battle weary, a tough balance to find when the bottom seeds in the west were so good.

When asked in the press conference if he wanted to play with Stephenson next year, Paul George said "you know, I don't know..."

No shit?

JVG made the comment that the Pacers wouldn't have got through any of the losing first round West teams (Houston, Dallas, Memphis and Golden State) in seven games. They barely got through the worst seed in the East...

Noah is a bargain compared to Hibbert. Smarter, more committed and more adventurous. When Oden came in at the end and barely looked like a competent NBA player, well, sometimes Hibbert's looked at that level. Bogut (ignoring injury) is a vastly superior player at this point to Hibbert.

Stephenson was on under $1m this year. Incredible. No doubt he'll get more next contract, but it'd be a risky play for any team. On one hand, the Pacers just made it to the conference finals and took two games off the Heat with no bench, one nutbag and one soft and hapless centre but on the other, reasonable point guards are few. Teams are having to pay up (Lin, etc) and hope they come good (Dragic) or struggling through whatever they can get (Felton, etc).

And Pacers have no first round draft pick, or depth to work with. Wonder if they were expecting more from Turner? He averaged 17 PPG with the Sixers. Should've kept Granger the way things turned out.

Lance stephenson is like a crazy ex gf, there are some things to really like, but then you're scared to go near her when she has a pair of scissors in her hands.

Just to clarify Isaac, I didn't actually hear Paul George say that, but it was reported by the Sportscenter Anchor that he did which is good enough for me...

Completely agree how overvalued Hibbert is compared to those other centers mentioned. It's mind boggling just how bad he has become in a year. In the equivalent series last season I remember feeling embarrassed for Chris Bosh as Hibbert was owning him and I thought to myself that the Heat have to get someone else to compete with this guy next season. What a complete turn around! The guys got some serious confidence issues he needs sorting out.

No doubt Stephenson is massively underpaid. Bill Simmons suggested maybe putting him on a one year contract to manage his risk, but if another team offers him a longer deal surely he'd take that? The Pacers do have some serious issues with no bench and a sometimes superstar in Paul George, not to mention the other shortcomings you talked about above. They really need another guy who can create his own shot consistently. You'd think the East will be better next season with some of the younger teams, eg Washington improving and the Bulls with Derek Rose back, so the Pacers will need to make the right moves to go deep into the playoffs.