Heat vs. Pacers Game 3: Adjustments Erik Spoelstra Must Make

The Miami Heat—surprisingly—looked downright dumbfounded without Chris Bosh in the lineup on Tuesday night. They ended up losing, 78-75, to the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Heat point guard Mario Chalmers had a chance to send the game to overtime on the final play, but was off-target on a three-pointer.

Many are criticizing coach Erik Spoelstra for drawing up a game-tying, last-second play in which a mediocre player was the “first or second option” (h/t Brian Windhorst of ESPN).

Oddly enough, that play made perhaps the most sense of any all game. Many of Spoelstra’s other decisions should be drawing scrutiny. Remember, Chalmers dramatically hit a three in the 2008 NCAA national championship game to send it to overtime. He isn’t afraid of taking—and often making—the big shot.

The Miami coach should be taking more heat for not figuring out a game plan to pound the rock inside. Spoelstra had to know he was going against the ridiculously oversized Pacers without Chris Bosh in the lineup and needed to plan accordingly.

They were only able to get 22 of their 75 points from within five feet of the basket and were swatted six times from that same distance.

On the Heat’s second-to-last possession, Dwyane Wade attempted to drive for a layup but badly missed, allowing Indy to take a three-point lead that it would not relinquish.

Considering that Miami hit just one of their 16 attempts from beyond the arc, the struggles inside were magnified.

Spoelstra should have been switching personnel, calling different plays and finding a way to make the inside game work. The Pacers could ignore it and concentrate on closing out on the snipers before they could do any damage from deep.

Game 3 is at 7 p.m. Thursday on ESPN. Tune in to see if Spoelstra can make the necessary adjustments or if his team will get destroyed once again because of its inability to get near the basket.