Pacers vs. Heat: Pressure Is on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to Deliver

There aren't two athletes right now with more at stake than LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. All the pressure in the world rests on their shoulders in the series between Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers.

Let's start with the obvious—each are superstars, and each will always bear the burden of leading the Heat to victory. That's nothing new.

But they are accustomed to having a third running mate, Chris Bosh, who takes pressure off of them offensively and is a huge resource in the total offensive flow. Without him, we've watched the Miami attack devolve into "LeBron and D-Wade take turns scoring buckets."

It worked in Game 4, mostly because Indiana couldn't keep either of them out of the lane. But it isn't the most sustainable form of success.

And this team can't afford anything but success this year. Nobody could honestly consider last year a failure after they reached the NBA Finals despite only one season together. Sure, they choked in the Finals, but they still did remarkable things in year one of Miami Thrice.

This year, those excuses won't apply.

Even without Bosh, they should still be able to advance past Indiana. After Derrick Rose went down to injury and the Chicago Bulls were eliminated in the first round against the Philadelphia 76ers, the East became the Heat's conference to lose, and everyone knows it.

So if they lose to the Pacers, it couldn't be considered anything but a bitter, brutal failure.

I mean, wasn't this team built to win titles? Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, you know the rest.

Haven't they put this pressure on themselves?

And shouldn't two superstars like LeBron and D-Wade be able to guide this team to a championship with or without Bosh?

Perhaps that's why there have been grumblings this season that if the Heat don't win a title, or at least reach the Finals again, the Miami Thrice experiment could end. It seems irrational, but that will be the talk if this team fails to advance past the conference semifinals.

Can't you just hear the trade rumors now? Soon enough, we'll be sending Wade and Bosh to Orlando for Dwight Howard and spare parts, or we'll be talking about potential swaps between the Heat and the usual suspects like the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers, or LeBron will be heading back to Cleveland, or...crap, I've given myself a headache thinking about it.

All eyes are on LeBron and D-Wade. The Heat can't win if they aren't dominant, and if the Heat don't win they'll seriously fail to meet expectations, and if they fail to meet expectations the talk about disbanding the team will begin, and if talk about disbanding the team begins it will seriously sully each player's legacy.

And LeBron and D-Wade don't want that, especially not LeBron. He's just now getting past the villain label—the last thing he needs is another blemish in the "choking" category.

So if you think Game 5 in Miami is just a game, think again. There's a whole lot more resting on the shoulders of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets will gladly have another as well.