Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

As I predicted, LeBron James destroyed Paul George in Game 3 — and most of the damage came from the painted area.

LeBron James is 6-of-8 shooting against Paul George in Game 3 (5-6 in the paint)

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 27, 2013

James is an astounding 24-32 from inside the paint in this series against the Pacers. Just incredible — looks like those summer workouts with Hall-of-Famer Hakeem Olajuwon have paid off.

Indiana elected not to double team Lebron while he’s in the post — a strategy may have cost them Game 3 and the possibility of taking a lead in this series. Let’s not forget that LeBron is a 6′ 8” and 250 pound dominant force — and a 216 pound Paul George simply cannot contain him in the post area.

On NBA.com James said,

“I made a conscious effort to sit down in the post tonight, try to put pressure on the defense. Spo and the coaching staff wanted me to be down there and my teammates allowed me to do that.”

Roy Hibbert, where were you to to help protect your man, Paul George, and the rim? You were quoted in the Washington Post, as saying

“I always tell guys, if they get beat, don’t foul them, I’ll be there to clean it up,”

It didn’t seem like you were there to clean it up last night.

Frank Vogel faced immense criticism for taking out Hibbert in the Game 1, however with Hibbert on the court in Game 3, the result was the same — a Heat win. After the game Hibbert said,

‘We have to do a better job of helping Paul out,’ he said. ‘LeBron can’t get five or six dribbles to get a post move. They really spread us out, so I wasn’t able to get down there as much.’”

You think?????

LeBron finished with 22 points, while George was largely ineffective this game, only scoring 13 points on 3-of-10 shooting. George had to work hard defensively (he gave up about forty pounds to LeBron) and hardly had any energy left on the offensive end. Many were quick to label Paul George a superstar — but did Game 3 show that this instant reaction was simply prisoner-of-the-moment syndrome at it’s best (or worst)?

Game 3 might have been the Heat’s best game of the playoffs, so far. Major contribution from Udonis Haslem going 17 points on an incredibly efficient 8-for-9 shooting (Games 1-2 Haslem combined for a paltry 1-for-7 shooting and a meager 3 points) in only 23 minutes.

The Miami backcourt came alive — finally — as Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers combined for 32 points. The Birdman soared yet again going a perfect 4-4 from the field and chipped in nine points.

If LeBron continues to get help from his supporting cast, the Indiana Pacers won’t win another game, regardless of how well Paul George plays.

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

Right after the Miami Heat beat the Indiana Pacers on a LeBron James layup, which I’ve broken down frame-by-frame (I strongly urge you to read that article), everybody was trashing Frank Vogel for not having Roy Hibbert in the game.

Um, yeah, that’s why I woudln’t have sat Hibbert if I were Frank Vogel.

— J.A. Adande (@jadande) May 23, 2013

What was he thinking? RT @realskipbayless: Thank you, Frank Vogel.

— ESPN First Take (@ESPN_FirstTake) May 23, 2013

And my favorite tweet:

Why take Hibbert out? Why take Hibbert out? Why take Hibbert out? Why take Hibbert out? Why take Hibbert out? Why take Hibbert out?

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 23, 2013

Here’s Frank Vogel’s explanation:

Basically, Vogel was afraid of getting burned on a Bosh midrange jumper via a pick-and-pop, or a Bosh catch-and-shoot at the elbow (one of Bosh’s favorite places to shoot).  Roy Hibbert, while an excellent rim protector, is not the most mobile guy — and Vogel was (rightly) afraid of Chris Bosh’s ability to shoot the mid-range jumper, so Vogel put Tyler Hansbrough on Bosh.

Let’s not forget that Bosh is a bona fide All-Star caliber player in his own right, and that he can hit clutch shots as well (remember the game-winning three from the San Antonio Spurs game this year?).  You have to respect talent, and Bosh is very talented; Vogel respected that talent by putting a more mobile big man (Hansbrough) on Bosh.

On Miami’s final play, Hansbrough actually ended up switched from defending Bosh to defending Ray Allen due to Sam Young’s lack of defense and Ray Allen’s excellent movement.  So even if Hibbert was in the game, and was initially guarding Chris Bosh, he probably would have ended up guarding Ray Allen in the corner (like Hansbrough) and away from the play instead of protecting the rim.

Which brings me to my next point: Miami went really really small on their last play.  They had Norris Cole, Ray Allen, Shane Battier, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh out on the floor.  Obviously, Spoelstra’s plan was probably to screen for a shooter and get an open look in the last 2.2 seconds.  And essentially, this was true — Ray Allen and Norris Cole both came off LeBron James and Chris Bosh screens, respectively.  However, the Pacers guarded the shooters very well, partly because Hansbrough was able to switch with Sam Young and defend Ray Allen.  Hibbert would probably not have been able to make the switch, and even if he had, Ray Allen vs. Hibbert is a greater mismatch than Ray Allen vs. Tyler Hansbrough.

So the real culprit here is not Frank Vogel, but rather Paul George.  See Paul George did the one thing that he should not have done — he played LeBron too closely.  During the timeout Frank Vogel is probably telling Paul George something to the extent of

Look, let LeBron take a jumper; if he makes it, fine, if he doesn’t make it, that’s great.  But whatever you do, don’t let LeBron go by you because the Heat have (basically) a five good perimeter jump shooters spreading the floor, and there is going to be nobody behind you to help. 

But Paul George overextends himself, and because of the great set that Miami ran, there was no help defense, and the rest is history.  It’s easy to Monday Morning quarterback — to point out what when something goes wrong — but if Paul George had actually played some solid defense and LeBron had missed a jumper (or even if LeBron had made a jumper) nobody would be talking about how Frank Vogel is an idiot for not having Roy Hibbert in the game, they would probably be making bad “fourth quarter” jokes about LeBron.

Frank Vogel is a terrific coach. He’s taking way too much heat today (no pun intended). I would’ve had Roy in,but Vogel rationale was sound

— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) May 23, 2013