Indianapolis, Indiana. Most of you know I have been hard on Frank Vogel, but after watching him in yesterday’s game, I have no complaints about him or the players that wear yellow and gold. While I know it’s only the first game of a possible seven game series, the Indiana Pacers looked so good against the defending champs yesterday. Lebron is Lebron. The Heat are going to make adjustments, but that’s what basketball is all about. On the other side, it’s up to Frank to counter Eric with his adjustments. I like what I saw yesterday from the blue and gold, and as far as the Heat, I would expect that they would be better in game two. The Pacers have nothing to lose, but the Heat are the ones with things to lose, because they have the word champion in front of them. Indiana is playing with house money, if you will. I think that because they have no pressure. I am not saying that being number one has no pressure, but they are not the champs, and are not the ones being hunted like the Heat. The Heat are trying to build a dynasty.
Meanwhile, the Pacers are looking for their number one championship in the NBA. I am not saying that the Pacers won’t run into trouble against the representative from the West if they make it out of the East, because this series in long from being over. One game does not make a series, but seven games make a series, and four wins also make a series. It matters how you play in the rest of the series. What you have here is a team that knows how to win a championship. They have done it two times and are trying to do it again for a third time. Meanwhile the Indiana Pacers have gone to the Eastern Conference finals three times, but that is as far as the road has taken them. Pacers fans, I don’t think that’s good enough, and I won’t until you have hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy above your head. Until then you have no right to be called champions! The fans have no right to consider themselves champions until their basketball team has lifted that trophy over their head, which they haven’t done since the ABA days when Bobby Leonard was the coach of the Pacers.
