Nate Taylor

IndyStar

MIAMI – If there were a time for the Indiana Pacers to get greedy, Monday’s game was it.

The Miami Heat, inside the AmericanAirlines Arena, have humbled the Pacers for years, whether in the regular season or the Eastern Conference finals. Paul George did his best to try to make sure that Monday was not anther chapter in horrible Pacers moments in Miami.

George performed with the intent of not just beating the Heat, but capping what could serve as a pivotal three-game stretch in the season. George’s efforts as a dynamic scorer were just enough to get the Pacers to the precipice of another victory.

All Monta Ellis needed to do was to make two free throws with one second on the clock. Ellis made one. That gave the Heat new life. And in this building, in this house of horrors, that’s more than enough to haunt the Pacers, who fell in Miami, yet again, to the overtime score of 101-93.

“It’s the same story every time we’re here,” George said. “We controlled the game for so long and then it’s always late in the game when it gets away from us. That’s always been the story of really our history here.”

George, in one of his best all-around performances this season, led the Pacers with 31 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. George’s best sidekick on this night was Myles Turner, the 19-year-old rookie, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds.

Instead of winning the season series over the Heat 3-1, the Pacers let another game, another opportunity slip through their fingers. A win would have given the Pacers a potential tiebreaker over the Heat that could have been critical in the logjam that is the Eastern Conference standings.

An ugly statistic that grew after Monday’s game was the Pacers’ performance in the second game of back-to-backs. They are now 0-6 in games where they had to play on the road without a day to rest.

George said he felt the Pacers were fatigued in overtime – and that was the reason the Heat quickly regained the lead and never relinquished it again.

“When you've got a team down and they slowly chip away, and they tie the ball game up and now they have the momentum with energy,” George said. “We’re not going to say the back-to-back is the reason why, but it plays a big part.”

Ellis disagreed.

“That don’t have anything to do with it,” he said. “That’s part of the game. It’s not our first back-to-back of the season. We just have to do a better job of closing the game.”

Ellis had his chance. In the Pacers’ final possession of regulation, Ellis received the ball and drove into the paint before attempting a fadeaway jumper. Dwyane Wade fouled Ellis by slapping his arm.

“I went through my routine and just missed the free throw,” Ellis said. “We still had a chance in overtime. They made plays on the other end and they won the ball game.”

After Indiana beat Oklahoma City and Orlando, coach Frank Vogel asked his Pacers for one more victory. However, he asked his players to not look at Monday’s game as the final portion of a three-part mission.

“It’s easy to say we won two games, you know, and be complacent,” Vogel said before the game. He added: “We can’t feel good about what we’ve done. We can’t think about the back-to-backs. This is just one game and we’ve got to go out and win.”

The Pacers (30-26) began the game about as well as Vogel could have wanted. In the first six minutes, the Pacers’ execution on offense was near flawless. Passes were crisp, shots were taken with comfort in open space and the spacing was spectacular. That led to a 16-2 Pacers lead.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra countered with Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow off the bench. Even a few faint chants of “Let's Go Heat!” were voiced by the home crowd to encourage the Heat.

The Pacers did not maintain their level of performance and began committing turnovers. The Heat trimmed the Pacers’ lead significantly in the second quarter and gained control in the third quarter.

The Pacers were facing a Heat team without its best player, Chris Bosh. Since the All-Star break, Bosh has missed games because of blood clot complications, the same health scare that forced him to miss the entire second half of the season last year.

Without Bosh, the Heat looked to Wade to lead.

Wade, who missed the two previous games with a sore left knee, struggled in his first game back from the break. He finished with 16 points on just 4-of-21 shooting. More effective for the Heat were Goran Dragic (24 points) and Whiteside (19 points and 18 rebounds).

Yet the Heat in their final possession of regulation were able to get Wade free with a screen that put him in position to attack the basket without Ian Mahinmi or Turner in the paint to contest his shot. Ellis fouled Wade, who swished both free throws to give the Heat an 88-87 lead with 4.5 seconds remaining.

When Wade fouled Ellis on the next possession, it set the scene for the game’s climactic moment.

One second. Ellis with the ball. A chance for the Pacers to escape Miami with a victory.

“I’ll take that situation 100 times out of 100,” Vogel said.

Ellis blew into his hands. He calmly walked to the free-throw line. A roaring sellout crowd was his opponent. When Ellis missed his first free throw, the crowd lusted even more for a Pacers loss. But Ellis swished his second free throw.

Overtime arrived, and after another five minutes, another painful loss to the Heat was complete.

Call IndyStar reporter Nate Taylor at (317) 444-6484. Follow him on Twitter: @ByNateTaylor.

Knicks at Pacers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Fox Sports Midwest

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