LeBron James and the Miami Heat have a chance to end the playoff run of the Indiana Pacers tonight at 8:00 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indiana. The game will be televised on TNT and can be live streamed here for free. Heat fans can listen to the game at 560 WQAM, while Pacers fans can tune in to 1070 The Fan.
The Heat will have to do without shot-blocking center Chris "Birdman" Andersen for his hard foul and ensuing shove of Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough in Game 5. According to a league statement, Andersen has been suspended because he "knocked Hansbrough to the floor, escalated the altercation by shoving Hansbrough, and resisted efforts to bring the altercation to an end."
After Indiana's Game 5 defeat, Hansbrough said little about his spat with the Birdman, simply saying it "wasn't a basketball play."
On top of losing their best defensive big man, Miami will need to contend with a desperate Pacers squad with their backs firmly pressed against the wall. Pacers head coach Frank Vogel expressed deep faith in his team's ability to pull the series out, despite tall odds.
"There's a reason I'm confident. I like to tell these guys that I'm not an optimist. That's what my image is. I'm a realist. And when I look around at what I see in the room when I'm talking to this team, and what I see on the court, and the level of execution that we're capable of ... it gives me real confidence in this basketball team. Our guys understand it's not just happy talk."
James, though, said Indiana is not the only team with supreme urgency. "We're desperate, too," James said. "We're desperate to get back to the NBA Finals. So both teams are desperate in their own sense of they're trying to keep their season alive and we're trying to advance."
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