Turnovers erase Miami Heat’s balanced performance versus Indiana

Ejections, injuries and a dogfight to the finish, highlighted the Miami Heat’s late fallout in an 110-102 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

Despite any separation that the Miami Heat were able to create, the Indiana Pacers gave them no breathing room; the Pacers just had to keep the game within reaching distance, before they took over in the last minute of the game.

In a sport ruled by back and forth runs, the trends were visible throughout the night.

Miami answered a 33-point second quarter, with 21 points in the infamous Heat style third quarter.

The only thing that was consistent were the referees’ use of their whistles.

Miami was on high alert of their players being in foul trouble, only a few minutes after the tip. One-by-one it was clear that the Heat’s starters might not be around during vital parts of the game, due to so many fouls called.

Still, even with some of Miami’s key players on the bench, Indiana was unable to capitalize on their free opportunities from the charity stripe, shooting just 59 percent from the line.

Kelly Olynyk took the biggest blows of the whistles though.

An elbow to the face from Thaddeus Young in the second quarter, resulted in a flagrant two and the ejection of Young. In the fourth, Olynyk had to leave the game after taking Tyreke Evan’s knee to the midsection.

With an 11 point lead in the second quarter, there was a feeling that as soon as Miami cooled down, the Pacers would be right back in it.

And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened.

Already playing short-handed without Goran Dragic or Dwyane Wade, it took a lot of balanced scoring to fight past early foul troubles. Seven Heat players were in double digit’s, led by Olynyk’s 20 points.

Down the stretch, in the fourth quarter, it was Josh Richardson who put to rest early shooting struggles and foul troubles, to give Miami a push.

That push fell just short of covering up 24 turnovers, as they proved to be too costly. Richardson’s 18-point effort was erased with two turnovers in the last 22 seconds of the game, taking away any opportunity of Miami coming away with the win.

In the end, Miami played 44 solid minutes of basketball.

And In the NBA you need 48 minutes of that effort.

As the Pacers stuck around, it took only three minutes and 50 seconds of better basketball to make the difference and steal this one.

A 16-2 run by Indiana to end the game, finished off the Heat’s two-game win streak, as Miami fell 110-102.

The Miami Heat will host the Washington Wizards tonight at 8 PM ET.