“I Was Pissed, I Was Hurting”: Former Miami Heat Player Recalls Team’s Struggles Against Paul George’s Indiana Pacers

In 2010, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade teamed up in Miami Heat. They were expected to win right from the start due to the sheer quality of just their trio. In their first season, they reached the NBA Finals only to lose to the Mavericks. Then, in the next season, they redeemed themselves by winning the title. But they weren’t settled with that. They wanted to follow it up with another title. So they marched into the next season, hoping to replicate their success.

In his newsletter series called the Last Chip, Bosh writes about “stories and lessons from behind the scenes of The Big Three’s last championship run.” In his piece from last week, he talked about their rivalry with the Pacers. While talking about the number one rivals of the Miami Heat, the Boston Celtics are the first team that comes to mind.

Miami Heat and their rivalry with the Indiana Pacers

Bosh says they not only hated the opposition players but their fans too. From players blowing in their ear to getting hit by flagrant fouls, the Heat faced it all from the Pacers.

With a 4-0 win against the Milwaukee Bucks and a 4-1 win against the Chicago Bulls, the Heat eased into the 2013 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. They were now up against the Pacers. Game one was close. After heading into overtime, LeBron James displayed some fantastic IQ to deceive Paul George and set the buzzer-beater layup to win the game.

The next four games went back and forth and Miami were up 3-2 heading into Game 6. They failed to continue their momentum as they ended up losing 77-91. They shot a shoddy 36% from the field and lost the plot in the second half.

Game 7: All on the line

With the series on the line, they headed into Miami to finish off the series. Bosh revealed he was not happy at that time. “I was in a bad place back then. I was pissed, I was hurting, with a bum ankle that I turned in Game Four, and I was playing like crap.”

Bosh had underperformed throughout the series, and he admitted in a press conference that he was playing badly and apologized to the city of Miami. After landing back in Miami for Game 7, they had to rest for a day according to coach Erik Spoelstra. But Bosh knew resting wouldn’t help him. He knew he had to work on his game and get back to his best.

“I had to get to the gym,” Bosh wrote. “So I called Juwan Howard (in the suit in the above picture). Juwan had been on our team over the past few years, but he’d spent that postseason with our coaching staff. He played me one-on-one with the same physicality I’d felt from the Pacers all series. Slowly, my confidence started seeping back, as I regained reflexes I hadn’t been using.”

Despite his stance on resting prior to game day, Bosh says Coach Spoelstra was overseeing him the whole time. “And for all Spo’s talk about the importance of rest days, he was right there in the gym with us, nodding his head as he saw us regain our mojo.”

When the game began, Pacers were up 21-19 by the first quarter, but after that, the blowout began. It got to a point that Bosh wrote, “These guys? Pshhh.”

After a brilliant defensive display, the Miami Heat sealed the Eastern Conference title, beating the Indiana Pacers 99-76. Bosh didn’t have the best offensive game, but defensively it was a vintage performance from him. He had eight rebounds, one steal, and three rebounds as he returned strong after a series of bad games.

This set up them perfectly for their next challenge in the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.