LeBron James and the two-time defending champions Miami Heat have rolled through the first two rounds of the playoffs and now face the familiar, but unpredictable, Indiana Pacers as the last hurdle to another NBA Finals.
Miami, who have lost one game this postseason, are looking to become the first team to win three straight NBA titles since the Los Angeles Lakers in the early 2000s, but the brawny Pacers could present a challenge.
Indiana are to host Miami in today’s opener of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals by virtue of finishing first overall in the East with a 56-26 record, two games ahead of the second-place Heat.
However, which Pacers team show up at Bankers Life Fieldhouse is the question, after a regular season that saw Indiana soar to lofty heights, only to sputter at the end of the campaign.
Indiana, who last year pushed the Heat to seven games in a grueling East Final, looked like world beaters for much of the season as smooth forward Paul George, a dogged defender with a silky jump shot, raised his game.
They charged out to a 46-13 mark, yet turned lackluster toward the finish, losing 13 of their past 23 games and then struggled to beat the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks in seven games in their opening playoff series.
Rumors swirled about Frank Vogel’s future as coach as the imposing Roy Hibbert went into a funk and seemed to disappear, quite a trick for a 2.18m center.
Hibbert, who averaged 22 points in last year’s bruising playoff series against Miami and their smaller front line, was held scoreless in two games and averaged a mere five points a game in the Atlanta series.
The big center came back to life with 28 points in a Game 2 win in Indiana’s six-game series triumph over the Washington Wizards in the second round.
The younger, deeper Pacers will need more of that kind of performance to end the run by the Heat, whose leading man James is averaging 30 points a game in the playoffs, including a 49-point outburst against the Brooklyn Nets in round two.
“We’ve been through a lot,” veteran Pacers forward David West said after scoring a game-high 29 points in their series-clinching win over the Wizards on Thursday.
“This group has stayed strong. We trusted in one another even when we had some internal turmoil,” he added.
“It’s only going to get tougher. We’ve been talking about this series all year,” West said about getting another crack at Miami. “We’re going to need everything from everybody.”
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Chess great Magnus Carlsen on Friday quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after governing body FIDE barred the Norwegian from participating in a round at the tournament for wearing jeans. FIDE said in a statement that its dress code regulations were designed to “ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants.” It issued Carlsen a US$200 fine and gave him an opportunity to change into the correct attire, which the world No. 1 rejected, it said. Carlsen said he had a lunch meeting before the round and had to change quickly. “I put on a shirt, jacket and honestly like
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