Pacers 78, Heat 75

MIAMI -- The Miami Heat got some of the best of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, but a two-man game for a team built around the premise of a Big Three wasn't enough Tuesday night.

With a more balanced attack, the Indiana Pacers defeated the Heat 78-75 at AmericanAirlines Arena to tie this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series a 1-1, with Game 3 Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

While James led the Heat with 28 points and Wade added 24, the Heat simply lacked enough with forward Chris Bosh sidelined by a lower-abdominal strain sustained in the Heat's Sunday Game 1 victory.

Forward David West paced the Pacers with 16 points, supported by 15 from point guard George Hill and forward Danny Granger scoring 11.

The game appeared to turn when Wade, out of frustration, committed a flagrant foul on Pacers point guard Darren Collison with 9:27 to play in the fourth quarter. Collison's free throws put Indiana up 65-56.

Play grew even more intense from there, with James and Granger call for a double-technical with 7:25 to play, after a James layup drew the Heat within 65-62.

The Heat then closed within 69-67 on a James free throw with 5:33 to play, and a bank shot by Wade with 4:11 to play gave the Heat at 72-71 lead.

It stayed close from there, with James missing inside and the Heat then fouling Pacers forward Paul George with 1:20 to play. George, however, missed both free throws, to leave Indiana up 76-75.

James then rebounded an errant Wade jumper and was fouled by Pacers forward Granger, who fouled out on the play. James, again playing without time off in the second half, missed both free throws, to drop to 8 of 13 from the line and push the Heat to 20 of 29 from the line.

That left Indiana in possession with 53.1 seconds to play, up one.

The Pacers then secured an offensive rebound, with center Roy Hibbert fouled and sent to the line with 32 seconds to play. He then continued the run of errant foul shots, missing the first, but making the second for a 77-75 Indiana lead.

From there, Wade was short on a layup, as James opted to pass three times on the possession. After being fouled, Hill made only one of two free throws to put the Pacers up 78-75.

The game ended with Heat guard Mario Chalmers off on a 3-pointer.

The Pacers outscored the Heat 28-14 in the third period, the most the Heat have allowed in a period and the fewest the Heat have scored in a quarter this postseason.

The Heat apparently took a page from the Pacers' first-half playbook to start the second half, opening the third quarter shooting 1 of 12, as the Pacers went on a 16-3 run to move to a 53-46 lead.

Indiana just kept going from there, first pushing their lead into double-digits for the first time in the series and then taking a 61-52 lead into the fourth quarter.

After shooting 0-for-6 on 3-pointers in the series opener, the Heat stood at 1-of-11 on 3-pointers through Tuesday's first three periods.

Despite horrific early shooting struggles, the Pacers had a strong close to the second period to move within 38-33 at halftime, after the Heat had pushed to a nine-point second-period lead.

After scoring 10 first-quarter points, Heat forward James added just two more in the second.

Wade got his first rebound of the series early in the second quarter, with a conversion by Shane Battier later in the period being the Heat's first 3-pointer of the series.

The Heat were forced to go to backup point guard Norris Cole, who did not play in Game 1, due to early foul trouble for Chalmers. Cole's dunk in transition helped the Heat push to their nine-point lead, their largest to that stage, late in the second period.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra expanded his rotation because of the injury absence of Bosh, also playing James Jones in the first half, after also holding him out of the opener.

Moving to a small lineup, with James shifted to power forward, the Heat closed the first quarter on a 12-1 run to take a 21-17 lead into the second period. The Pacers missed their final seven shots of the first quarter, going scoreless over the final 5:33 of the period.

The Pacers opened 3-of-5 from the field, and then missed 14 of their next 17 shots over the first 12 minutes.

Coming off their Game 1 shooting struggles, Pacers wings George and Granger struggled again at the outset, with George 0-for-5 in the first period and Granger 1-for-4.

NOTES: With Bosh out with a lower-abdominal strain, the Heat replaced him in the starting lineup with Ronny Turiaf. Turiaf had started all four games in the playoffs for the Knicks last season, before watching this season's opening round from the bench . . . With Bosh out, James said there could be a benefit to him getting more time in the series at power forward. "It helps at times, because I'm able to be down there and get more rebounds and I can start the break," he said. "But it's definitely more taxing, more tiring at times." . . . Even with Bosh out, the Heat elected to keep Eddy Curry on Tuesday's inactive list, where he has resided the entire postseason. Guard Terrel Harris instead was activated for the Heat . . . Pacers coach Frank Vogel said the defensive assignment on Wade and James, respectively, will naturally consume additional energy from George and Granger. "Paul and Danny both understand that they have major defensive responsibilities in this series, and it is going to limit them some offensively," he said before Tuesday's game. "We are just looking for efficiency out of them."