Heat vs. Pacers: Miami Can't Afford to Worry About Danny Granger's Shenanigans
The Miami Heat have bigger fish to fry than Danny Granger.
That is, if LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the LeWadettes are truly intent on and capable of capturing their first NBA title as a group, with or without the services of Chris Bosh.
In the meantime, it appears as though LeBron and Wade have already taken Granger's bait. The Indiana Pacers' leading scorer has been something of an instigator in these Eastern Conference Semifinals. He's seemingly gone out of his way to confront James and Wade after fouls, for which he's been assessed a technical foul in each of the last three games.
Said Granger of his scare tactics to ESPN's Brian Windhorst:
""I think there is a line and I'm tip-toeing it. That's a product of the chip on my shoulder and we have on our shoulder as a team of not being respected..."
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Not that Granger and the Pacers should busy themselves campaigning for respect on any level at this point. They've split the first four games with the preseason title favorites and would probably be up 3-1 in the series if not for Herculean efforts by James and Wade in Game 4.
Indy's biggest concern is winning two out of the next three games against Miami, though Granger's macho-man mentality may well be a latent piece of the puzzle.
LeBron isn't so convinced, or at least doesn't want people to think he is, telling Windhorst:
""Whatever he's trying, it is not working. He's said he's not scared of LeBron, I want to let him know. I guess he's doing it for his own psyche. It's stupid."
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Wade, on the other hand, came off as a bit more bothered in his comments on the matter:
""I'm all for standing up for your guys, but certain things you just can't keep doing. My message to Granger was that you just can't keep running up into people's faces for altercations. We're not fighting on this basketball court, so let's not act like we're going to fight. We can be physical and do all that, but certain things got to stop. Are you out here to play basketball or are you out here to be a tough guy?"
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Maybe it's both. Maybe Granger is playing the "tough guy" role for "basketball reasons." Maybe it's a strategy to deliberately distract his high-born opponents from the task at hand, not unlike starting a row on a hockey rink. Maybe Granger's trying to draw attention to himself as a means of making life easier for his teammates. That certainly could be the case after reading Granger's comments regarding hist latest face-to-face with Wade:
""I run to the defense of my teammates so often. Sometimes they're in the wrong, sometimes they're in the right. But I'm blinded by the fact that they're my teammates so I just automatically run to their defense."
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The Heat can say what they want about Granger's tactics. They can cry foul or try to take the high road or anything in between.
None of it changes the fact that they're in danger of going 0-for-2 in championship runs since Pat Riley assembled the Super Friends on South Beach.
Miami still has the upper hand in this series. The Heat own home-court advantage for however long they should survive in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and they boast the two best players in this series by a long shot.
But if either should fall into Granger's trap, then Miami's march to the top may be overwhelmed by Indy's depth, defense and determination.
