Is It Officially Time for Miami Heat to Slam Panic Button vs. Indiana Pacers?

This is not the time for the Miami Heat to panic.

They've been here before, their momentum waning and the outside world waiting—some hoping—for them to fail.

Miami was here just last season with the Indiana Pacers. It wasn't the Eastern Conference finals, but the Heat found themselves down 2-1 in the second round. Indiana had them on the brink of implosion. They were supposed to be done.

The Heatles were also here with the Boston Celtics last year. A 2-0 lead was squandered and Boston knotted the series up at two games apiece. Then the Celtics took a 3-2 lead. Three straight losses meant the Heat were done.

But they weren't done. Miami emerged victorious in both those series. The Heat didn't panic down 2-1 to the Pacers nor did they panic when they were down 3-2 to the Celtics. And they're most certainly not going to panic now that they're tied 2-2 with Indiana.

Why should they? They're the Heat. LeBron James is still the greatest player in the world and they're still the reigning Eastern Conference and NBA champions. 

Oh, and did I mention they've been here before?

South Beach's showing against the oft-inconsistent Roy Hibbert has been admittedly regrettable. Allowing him to bulldoze his way toward 22.8 points and 12 rebounds per game is nothing to be proud of.

Neither is Miami's showing on the glass. 

Not only are they being out-rebounded by an average of 10 a night, but they're permitting the Pacers to grab more than 15 offensive boards. More than six of those are being brought down by Hibbert.

Indiana has been able to snag an offensive rebound on 39.4 percent of its misses through the first four games of this series. The Denver Nuggets led the NBA during the regular season, grabbing 31.4 percent of their misses. The Heat have somehow managed to let the Pacers do even better.

Which is absurd. Beyond absurd, even. It's incomprehensible. How can they be expected to advance through to the finals like that? Especially when we're not even done pillaging through their palpable defects yet.

There's also LeBron's struggles when Hibbert is in the game to consider (it all seems to come back to him). He's being forced to defer more than 60 percent of the time on drives when Hibbert is in the game. When he does shoot, he's only connecting on 33.3 percent of his attempts. 

Finally, the Heat collectively have been unable to find their touch from beyond the arc. They were second in the league with a 39.6 percent clip during the regular season, but have hit on just 34 percent of their deep balls in the playoffs. Against the Pacers they've been worse, connecting on just 33.8 percent of their treys.

The Heat haven't played their best basketball by any means against the Pacers. Some of what Miami has done has been ugly and categorically unwatchable.

Still, this is no time panic. It's no time to remain complacent, but it's certainly no time to panic.

We're not finding out anything about the Heat we didn't already know. Their lamentable three-point clip is something of a surprise, though each of their opponents—Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and Pacers—ranked in the top 10 at defending the three entering the playoffs. So even that's not shocking.

These Heat are who they are. Superior on paper, yet fallible in real time. 

They aren't going to rebound well—especially against the Pacers—or win many battles in the paint. They're undersized. Drastically undersized. Chris "Birdman" Andersen didn't solve that problem on his own.

Dwyane Wade's turbulent outings aren't likely to go anywhere either. The embattled shooting guard is still nursing an ailing knee. That he's on the court able to run the floor and contribute at all is a gift in itself.

Too often we neglect to acknowledge that the Heat aren't perfect. A point-forward named LeBron doesn't make them unbeatable. Last year's title run was never meant to guarantee the Heat would have it easy now. The fact is, they don't.

Indiana is bigger, stronger and more prone to throwing their weight around. James and company were always going to take a beating. This series was never going to be over in four games. On some level, the Heat themselves knew that. They knew that last season in the second round against Indiana and they know it now.

None of their recent struggles changes anything, though. They're still the favorites to pass the Pacers and they still plan on procuring that second straight NBA title and basking in all the dynasty talk that comes with it.

It's all still possible. That Larry O'Brien trophy is still well within reach and the Heat remain the same team that won it last year.

This isn't a time to wallop on the panic button; it's a time to reflect on the Heat and all that they've done.

And all they're still able to do.

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*All stats in this article were compiled from Basketball-Reference and NBA.com unless otherwise attributed.