Heat and Pacers Tangle in Regular-Season Finale
The Miami Heat takes on the Indiana Pacers in an NBA seeding game finale in Orlando on Friday afternoon.

The Heat (44-28) and Pacers (44-28) are already set to face off in the upcoming quarterfinal round as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds, respectively, so the fact they have to face each other in their last seeding game certainly carries some irony and also seems to portend a game with two makeshift rosters. Miami has gone 3-4 in their seeding games thus far, but with one of those victories coming over Indiana two games ago, they locked in a head-to-head advantage in the season series. The Heat's most recent stumble in Orlando came against the Oklahoma City Thunder, which edged them by a 116-115 score on Wednesday night. Tyler Herro led Miami with 30 points, adding six rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. Duncan Robinson supplied 19 points, three assists and two boards. Goran Dragic registered 16 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals. Solomon Hill contributed 10 points off the bench.

The Heat will list Jimmy Butler (foot), Dragic (rest) and Bam Adebayo (rest) as out for Friday's game. Derrick Jones (knee), Jae Crowder (knee) and Andre Iguodala (not injury related) will be listed as questionable.

The Pacers (44-28) will enter the playoffs as the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference after forging a strong 5-2 record over their first seven seeding games, with several of their early victories coming on the strength of spectacular performances from T.J. Warren, who's now dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis. Their most recent success came at the expense of the Houston Rockets, which they toppled by a 108-104 margin on Wednesday afternoon. Myles Turner and Justin Holiday co-led the Pacers with matching 18-point tallies while pulling down 12 and six rebounds, respectively. Edmond Sumner delivered 17 points, four rebounds, four assists and one block. Victor Oladipo and Doug McDermott each recorded 16 points, and Oladipo also posted six boards and dished out five assists.

The Pacers will list Oladipo (ankle), Warren (foot), Turner (wrist) and Domantas Sabonis (foot) as out for Friday's game. Goga Bitadze (knee) will carry a questionable tag.

Friday's game marks the fourth and final regular-season meeting between the teams. The Heat own a 3-0 series lead, having notched 113-112, 122-108 and 114-92 wins on Dec. 27, Jan. 8 and Aug. 10, respectively.
Posted on: 8/13/2020 9:35 PM
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