Suddenly the Indiana Pacers find themselves with home court advantage in a five-game series against the Miami Heat. Unlike heading into Game 1 in Miami, there appear to be more doubts on the Heat side of the equation than with the Pacers. A serious, sudden change, indeed.

Tonight the Pacers will enjoy a gold and raucous crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse looking for them to build on their win in Miami and take control of the Eastern Conference semifinal series. This Pacers team has never backed down from a challenge, but they usually respond better with their backs against the wall. Now they are on even footing with the Heat with a chance to skip a few steps in the normal maturation process of a NBA title contender.

I know it sounds crazy to say, but the circumstances surrounding this season have given the Pacers an opportunity and thus far they have seized it. The Bulls faded out of the picture after Derrick Rose went down. They took care of the Orlando Magic after Dwight Howard went down. Now Chris Bosh is injured for the Heat making things more difficult for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Oh, well. The Pacers were built as a deep team and able to manage minutes throughout the regular season, so they are still standing with plenty of energy to keep attacking the Heat for 48 minutes. Now they just have to do it.

Check out the links after the jump.

• Pacers Beat Heat In Game 2 - YouTube - Indy Cornrows
• Caught in the Web: Pacers Quickly Shift Focus to Game 3 | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Pacers' Bird Wins NBA Executive of the Year | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Vogel, Hill, and Granger on Larry Bird | video | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE INDIANA PACERS
• Pacers even series with Heat behind coach Frank Vogel's confidence | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Pacers try to keep home-court edge against Heat | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Pacers president: Larry Bird earns unprecedented trifecta as league's top executive, coach, player | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Pacers not getting caught up in the hype after their Game 2 win over the Heat - fox59.com
• Larry Bird is the NBA’s Executive of the Year | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports
• Pacers' Larry Bird is NBA Executive of the Year - AP
• Miami Heat: Heat backup PG Norris Cole has positive impact off bench in Game 2 - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
• Miami Heat’s playoff dogfight begins in earnest with Indiana Pacers - David J. Neal - MiamiHerald.com
• Miami Heat, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh commentary from Ira Winderman - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
• Pacers vs. Heat Game 3: Ticket prices on secondary market going up | Indianapolis Star | indystar.com
• Miami Heat’s supporting cast in a bind against Pacers - Miami Heat - MiamiHerald.com
• Exhausting LeBron | Eight Points, Nine Seconds
• Heat regroup, heading to take on confident Pacers - Yahoo! Sports
• Heat search for lift beyond James and Wade - Heat Index Blog - ESPN
• Indy company prints shirts for Pacers 'gold out'
• Explaining the Heat "collapse" | The Wages of Wins Journal
• Dwyane Wade flip-flops on celebration etiquette | The Basketball Jones | Blogs | theScore.com
• Greg Oden wants to play for the Miami Heat | Ball Don't Lie - Yahoo! Sports
• Essay: The Pacers Big Strength Might Be Going Little " Shaky Ankles
• The All-Time Worst NBA Slogans - SBNation.com