Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Brace yourself for war, Heat Nation — the first shots have been fired between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers even if Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals doesn’t start until tomorrow.

According to ESPN’s Mike Wallace, Frank Vogel said the Heat “are just the next team,” in the Indiana Pacers’ way of reaching the NBA Finals.

This isn’t the first time Vogel has had something controversial to say about the Miami Heat; last year he was fined $15,000 for calling the Heat “the biggest flopping team in the NBA.”

LeBron James responded to Vogel’statement:

“We’re not just another team,” James said. “I don’t understand what he’s saying. But we’re not just another team. That’s not true. He said we’re just another team in their way. We’re a great team. If we’re just another team, you really don’t prepare for just another team. You have to prepare for us.”

If Vogel and the Pacers want any chance of beating the defending champions — they should keep quiet and stop creating bulletin-board material.  James did say the Heat wouldn’t need any extra motivation and they would be ready for the Pacers come Wednesday night — but after Vogel’s statements, you can be sure that LeBron and Co. will come out fired up.

Everyone has been pointing out that Indiana won the regular season series 2-1 but people keep forgetting that Miami had to play in Indiana twice while Indiana played in Miami once.  The home team won each game during the regular season, so the Pacers’ 2-1 “advantage” over the Heat says less about how much better the Pacers are than the Heat, and more about how important home court advantage is between these two teams — and luckily, the Miami Heat have home court advantage in this series.

Vogel’s chatter reminds us of one thing: this series will be a dog fight — and will be decided on the court —  not in the media. I expect the series to be extremely intense and extremely physical  The Pacers will try to emulate the Chicago Bulls blueprint – but let’s not forget where that got them — the Bulls were sent home after five games.

Talk is cheap, Frank Vogel — if the Miami Heat don’t slip up in Game 1 again, the Heat will win this series in five.

Eric N. Ellington covers the Miami Heat for Fansided.com. You can follow him @EricNEllington

Each team has a five-man lineup that has played a large chunk of playoff minutes.  They are

1. Bosh, Chalmers, James, Haslem, and Wade for the Miami Heat
2. George, Hibbert, Hill, Stephenson, and West for the Indiana Pacers
3. Allen, Conley, Gasol, Prince, and Randolph for the Memphis Grizzlies
4. Duncan, Green, Leonard, Parker, and Splitter for the San Antonio Spurs

NBA Stats has a ranking called “Net Rating”, which basically measures the effectiveness of a five-man lineup.  More specifically, “Net Rating” is the point differential per 100 possessions i.e. how much one lineup outscores their opponent.   Here are the Net Ratings for each team’s main five-man lineup:

The main thing to observe is the dominance of Miami’s main lineup and also the success of Indiana’s main lineup.  Both the Heat’s and the Pacers’ lineups outscore their opponent’s by more than 15 points per 100 possessions when they play.  This is very impressive, especially considering that the Spurs’ best lineup only outscores their opponent by a paltry 1.3 points per 100 possessions.  As I’ve stated over and over again — this Heat-Pacers matchup is going to be really really really entertaining.

On the flip side, the lack of dominance of the Spurs’ lineup says a couple things.  One, it really says how balanced the Spurs are, and how deep San Antonio really is — especially after they shellacked the Grizzlies in Game 1.  Basically, when the San Antonio starters play, they don’t really outscore their opposition, which in turn implies that it is the non-starters that really turn the tide for the Spurs.  The other thing this lack of dominance reflects is how old the Spurs Trio has gotten.  Duncan might be the same (i.e. the best power forward ever), and Parker has had terrific seasons the past couple of years, but the Spurs’ age has slowly caught up to them — and it shows.

One last thing:  Yes, the Miami Heat’s statistic is slightly inflated because they played the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round (let’s not forget that the Spurs played the hapless Lakers in the first round too) but putting that aside, the Heat starters are still outscoring their opponents by more than 20 points per 100 possessions.  That’s ridiculous, whether you’re playing the Milwaukee Bucks or the Chicago Bulls.