Indiana was having an insane offensive ratings on this series via a non-orthodox way, as it wasn't being done via a good offensive flow, but due to a tremendous domination in two key areas: offensive rebounding and free throws. On the first four games of this series, Indiana averaged 35.3 FT attempts and 15.3 offensive boards per game, while grabbing 56.4% of the boards on each game. But I have to give merit to Miami on Game 5, as they limited Indiana on these two key areas, so no wonder that the Pacers scored just 79 points! Indiana had just 15 FT attempts and 6 offensive boards! They still won the boards battle, but marginally as they grabbed 50.3% of the total rebounds! Indiana keeps having a tremendous edge down low with Roy Hibbert and David West, but Miami did a good job in limiting post up plays from the Pacers. On the first four games of the series, Indiana averaged a volume of 17.9% on post up plays, but the volume decreased to 12.9% on Game 5.
Offensively, Miami is currently playing with two banged up players in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It is tough to watch Wade play right now because he seems disinterested at times in the game! After Indiana's defensive disaster on Game 3, the Pacers decided to protect even more the paint, while giving some space on the outside and that happened on Game 5 as well. Miami took advantage of that with mid range/long jumpers with Lebron James dominating the game. It seemed like Lebron was playing in Cleveland again, as he had to carry the team on his own, with Miami being effective on offense thanks to him and not due to a good team effort. During the decisive third quarter, Miami shot 4-5 FG at the rim vs 6-7 FG on mid range jumpers and 3-6 on three-pointers!
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