Pacers and Heat Open Quarterfinal-Round Series
The Miami Heat take on the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal-round series in Orlando on Tuesday afternoon.

The Heat (44-29) come into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 4 seed, earning that slotting despite going just 3-5 in their seeding games. That included a pair of contests against these same Pacers, with a 114-92 win in the first encounter clinching the head-to-head advantage for Miami in the season series. The Heat's final tune-up for the postseason also came against coach Nate McMillan's team Friday, when both teams used makeshift rosters in a 109-92 win for Indiana. Kendrick Nunn led the Heat with 23 points, adding four assists, two rebounds, three steals and one block. Solomon Hill followed with 21 points that he complemented with seven boards, three assists and one steal. Tyler Herro poured in 16 points. Meyers Leonard and Udonis Haslem saw some rare playing time while manning power forward for the day, with Leonard posting nine points and seven rebounds and Haslem furnishing seven points and eight boards.

The Heat are likely to list Jimmy Butler (foot), Jae Crowder (knee) and Derrick Jones (neck) as questionable for Tuesday's contest.

The Pacers (45-28) enter the postseason as the No. 5 seed, and they built up some momentum during seeding games by forging an impressive 6-2 mark. They'll head into Tuesday with some key health-related question marks (listed below), however. Indiana's most recent time on the court came in the aforementioned 109-92 victory over the Heat on Friday. Doug McDermott led the Pacers with 23 points, a figure he supplemented with four rebounds and one steal. Malcolm Brogdon supplied 16 points, six rebounds and six assists. Alize Johnson, Justin Holiday and Aaron Holiday all turned in matching 11-point tallies, with Johnson adding 17 rebounds and Justin Holiday pulling down seven boards. JaKarr Sampson collected 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

The Pacers will likely list T.J. Warren (foot), Myles Turner (wrist) and Victor Oladipo (ankle) as questionable for Tuesday's game. Domantas Sabonis (foot) remains out. Warren was notably able to practice Sunday with the plantar fasciitis he's attempting to manage.

Tuesday's game marks the fifth meeting overall between the teams this regular season and postseason. The Heat owns a 3-1 series lead, having notched 113-112, 122-108 and 114-92 wins on Dec. 27, Jan. 8 and Aug. 10, respectively.
Posted on: 8/17/2020 12:56 PM
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