2012-13 NBA Regular Season
(23-9)	@	(20-14)
January 8, 2013 - 7:00 p.m. ET
Bankers Life Fieldhouse - Indianapolis, IN
TV: Fox Sports Indiana ---- Radio: AM 1070 The Fan
Probable Starters
Mario Chalmers	PG	George Hill
Dwyane Wade	SG	Lance Stephenson
LeBron Jamesy	SF	Paul George
Udonis Haslem	PF	David West
Chris Bosh	C	Roy Hibbert

The Indiana Pacers host the defending NBA champion Miami Heat on Tuesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Heat continue to set the pace in the Eastern Conference even if they appear to be on cruise control of late. Last season the Pacers seemed to surprise the Heat with how well they played them all year and then in the playoffs. In fact, the Pacers forced Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to raise their play in the playoffs to a championship level and that they did.

The Pacers should still have a front court advantage as the Heat struggle to rebound without much front court depth. Poor guys, that just forces them to rely on LeBron to guide the team.

LeBron appears to be putting on his best MJ impression, trying to gin up some disrespect to go out and attack the Pacers. In comments from Miami's shootaround today, James was quoted talking about quotes from the Pacers about how close they were to beating the Heat last year, as quoted here.

"They took a 2-1 lead and were really excited about what was going on and they were talking a lot," he said. "They felt like they were the better team, we took control of the series."

James said he continued to take note.

"But they've been talking a lot," he said. "I read a lot of clips they had before the season, said they were better than us and they should have beat us, so we'll be ready."

Hmm, pretty sure LBJ couldn't name names with those egregious quotes which were they approaching egregious would've been made in the context of a question along the lines of: Have you gotten over the loss to the Heat after taking an early lead in the series?

Plus, the main person making quotes about how disappointing the series loss was and how the team felt they could beat the Heat was Danny Granger who is on the sidelines injured tonight. So now we'll see how vicious LeBron's fantasy world is compared to Michael Jordan's. Hey, nice to know the Pacers have their attention...still.

For more on the Heat, check out Hot Hot Hoops. Also, leave your thoughts and observations on the game in the comments.

Want to go to some upcoming Pacers games? Indy Cornrows is your source for Indiana Pacers tickets.