Pacers vs. Heat: Flagrant Fouls Heighten Tension in Chippy Playoff Series

It isn't hard to tell that the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat aren't too crazy about each other. It's been a rough series, physically and mentally, for both teams, and things just heated up even more in Game 5.

The Pacers haven't been backing down to the superior Heat, but they got walloped in their 115-83 loss. That wasn't the storyline after this one, though, as Game 5 saw three flagrant fouls.

The first occurred early in the second quarter when Tyler Hansbrough came down hard on what appeared to be the back of Dwyane Wade's head as Wade drove into the lane with his back to Hansbrough. LeBron James was clearly upset about what he considered a hard foul, and he jawed at the referee while Wade lay motionless on the ground for a few seconds before rising to his feet.

After some prodding from James, coach Erik Spoelstra and the Miami crowd, the refs congregated and rightfully called Hansbrough for a flagrant foul.

The Heat obviously didn't appreciate Hansbrough's hard foul, so Udonis Haslem took action. Not even a minute later, after Hansbrough received a pass near the elbow from Paul George and drove towards the hoop, Haslem came down with two hands on Hansbrough.

His left hit Hansbrough near the collarbone and his right forearm clobbered Indiana's power forward in the face. The UNC alum showed no fear as usual and sprung right back up to his feet, looking in Haslem's direction.

That one definitely should have been called a flagrant 2, and received the automatic ejection that comes with it. It was clear that Haslem was exacting revenge, not just for the foul on Wade, but also for the foul earlier in the series that left him with a cut above his right eye. A flagrant 2 foul is defined as contact committed against a player that is unnecessary and excessive, as per the NBA rulebook. That was obviously both of those things.

The third and final foul was the worst of the three. With 20 seconds left, A.J. Price hit a jumper, and as Lance Stephenson was coming in for a possible rebound, Dexter Pittman threw his elbow into Stephenson's throat. Somehow the refs only charged Pittman with a flagrant 1 foul despite the blatant elbow that could have done serious harm to Stephenson.

It will be interesting to see what comes of these fouls, as the league will surely look into the two on the Heat and possibly the foul on Hansbrough.