Heat vs Pacers

Chris Baker previews Wednesday's NBA game between the Pacers and Heat, including betting odds and a prediction.

This Pacers team is allowing great-looks but they have been fortunate that they have allowed just the 18th highest effective field goal percentage to opponents. The Heat rank ninth in offensive 3-point attempt rate (37.5%) on the season so I expect their offense to begin to positively regress as they start making their threes more often. This is a huge problem when facing this Pacers offense as they are constantly looking to find shooters and almost always have five shooters on the court at any given time. The content on this page is for informational purposes only. It’s clear that they don’t really have the offensive talent to compete for a championship this year and I think that’s why we are hearing them in trade rumors fairly consistently. We may be compensated for the links provided on this page. [Lakers](https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/odds/los-angeles-lakers) and a win over the Sacramento [Kings](https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/odds/sacramento-kings). They’ve played eight straight games where they shot below the 50th percentile of effective field goal percentage, according to Cleaning the Glass. They are getting great shots they just haven’t been falling at the clip they were to start the season. Overall, they’ve now played the fifth-most difficult schedule of opposing defenses and rank 24th in offensive rating. Miami is a team many expects to be active at the deadline. What the Pacers do is anyone’s guess.

If the New York Knicks were the rival of the Indiana Pacers in the 90s, then the Miami Heat were the biggest nemesis to the Indiana Pacers in the 2010's.

However, the Heat again spoiled the Pacers plans at a title. The 2020 playoffs were a crazy time for the Indiana Pacers. But as it was, Victor Oladipo was coming off of an injury (and asking to play with the Heat?), Sabonis was struggling with injuries, and the Pacers were a shell of the team that had been competitive with the Heat all season. The Pacers would get another crack at the Miami Heat in the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals. While the Pacers no longer were a long-shot upstart team, they were still the underdogs. Additionally, the rise of electric guitar-playing Lance Stephenson seemed to really bother LeBron James, sparking a decade of internet memes.