The NBA suspended Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem for Game 6 and Dexter Pittman for three games for their flagrant fouls in Tuesday's Game 5.

Indiana Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough had his Flagrant 1 foul increased to a Flagrant 2 but was not suspended. In other words, the NBA handled the situation like most neutral observers thought they should. This fact may be the most shocking thing to happen in this series. Radio voice of the Pacers nailed it with his tweet on the league's decision.

I guess, I was hoping for this reasonable decision but was expecting the worst. As it turns out, the irrelevant Pittman got off with a pretty light sentence and I'm sure he winked at his teammates when he heard the news. But really, whether Haslem and/or Hansbrough playing or not playing in Game 6 is not going to be the deciding factor.

Plus, things won't be any less chippy with Haslem on the sidelines considering the suspension will likely moveJuwan Howard into the playing rotation for the Heat. Howard, of course, has been trying to involve himself in this series by taking on the Pacers' 12th man on the bench. Now he can actually try to make an impact.

By the way, radio voice of the Pacers, Mark Boyle nailed it with his tweet on the league's decision.

Stu Jackson actually got it right. This is The Association equivalent of Wile E. Coyote actually snagging the road runner.

— Mark Boyle (@Mark_J_Boyle) May 24, 2012

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The Indiana Pacers endured another flurry of furious play from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. The pair "only" combined for 58 points in their Game 5 win but that was all they needed to put the game on ice in the third quarter.

Following the game, Larry Bird dropped some hard words on his team, telling Mike Wells the Pacers went soft.

"I can't believe my team went soft," Bird said on the phone. "S-O-F-T. I'm disappointed. I never thought it would happen."

In a game with some hard fouls ranging from vicious to moronic, I'm sure Bird was more exercised by how mentally soft his team went as opposed to physically soft. The Pacers were simply pushed out of their comfort zone by the Heat. You could see it from the opening tip, the Pacers just weren't sharp and were careless with the ball. The execution on offense was weak and the effort to execute (meh, I'll just fire a three...) even weaker. Once again, the Pacers were crushed on the boards (49-35) which helped fuel Miami outscoring the Pacers in fast break points 22-2.

Forget the flagrant fouls and trash talking, this is about taking care of business in a grown man's playoff game on the road. That takes some mature, mental toughness and the Pacers didn't have it. Things were too easy for the Heat.

Now the Pacers have one life left in their post-season run. Assuming David West and Danny Granger are ready to go, I'd expect a much stronger all-around effort in Game 6 on Thursday. Bird just demanded it.

Check out the links after the jump.

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Indiana Pacers fans have a lot to be frustrated about after watching their team lay an absolute egg against the Miami Heat. It was a game they never really had a grasp on, and eventually, it turned into the blowout it kind of felt like it was all right. In a pivotal Game 5, the Pacers played about as poorly as they could while the Heat played their best game of the series. In a sense, it was a perfect storm to result in the 30-point blowout it ended up being.

The Pacers always seemed just outside of the game, as the Heat, led by Shane Battier, gave them their best start of the series, but Indiana remained close despite pitiful shooting and poor offensive execution while the Heat seemed primed and focus. The fight for the Pacers, helped along by Danny Granger and Leandro Barbosa helped to keep the game within striking distance after a quarter while the Heat were hitting just about everything they threw at the basket.

It was fair to feel fortunate with where the game stood despite how much better the Heat looked when the second quarter began. However, the game started to get chippy. Tyler Hansbrough was called for a flagrant foul when he came down on Dwyane Wade when making a play for the ball, but on the very next play, Udonis Haslem made a baseball retaliation play by hammering down on Hansbrough.

The immediate reaction was that of an ejection, but Haslem remained in the game on a Flagrant 1, inciting an immediate uproar that Haslem shouldn't have remained in the lineup. Regardless, Haslem remained and the Pacers fought on, responding to each run the Heat forced the best they could. The high water mark of the night was Roy Hibbert spotting up and hitting a three pointer as the shot clock expired to cut the lead to two.

The play was fun to see and all, but it helped outline the struggles the Pacers faced all night offensively as they were simply unable to get through the Miami defense to involve Hibbert or David West in the paint. The Pacers, in settling for long jumpers, paid a big price when Granger came down on LeBron James's foot, spraining his ankle with the game in reach.

The team's immediate response shifted the tide of the game as the discombobulated Pacers were unable to focus; the Heat closing the half on a 9-2 run as the Pacers went down 9 at the half. From there, it all snowballed as the LeBron James and Dwyane Wade Highlight Show went full effect in the third as Granger made a short effort before going down again and limping off the floor and not finishing it out.

There wasn't anything left to really mention from the rest of the game. Paul George had a short stretch at the beginning of the fourth quarter and David West left the game with a sprained knee himself. West would've been able to return, but with the game being the blowout it was, there was no need for him to play.

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The Indiana Pacers don't lack for confidence as they head to Miami for Game 5 with the Miami Heat. Despite letting Game 4 slip away in a tornadic flurry play by Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, the Pacers are looking at what they can do better to execute the game plan that has put them in position to win all four games.

As David West mentioned yesterday, the Pacers don't have much margin for error against the Heat and they need to keep making Miami work to beat them.

"We've got to be more precise," Pacers forward David West said. "We allowed too much freedom. I don't think they felt us enough when it came to their comfort level."

Also, the Pacers are doing it right with the viewing parties for Game 5 tonight by taking the whole area into account with five different viewing parties all over town. Here's the list:

• Downtown - Just a few blocks from Bankers Life Fieldhouse at the Colts Grille, 110 West Washington St. Map
• Broad Ripple - Brothers Bar & Grill, 910 Broad Ripple Avenue Map
• South side - That Place, 8810 South Emerson Ave. Map
• Northwest side - Traders Mill, 5650 West 86th St. Map
• North side - Scotty's Brewhouse, which will host Boomer, is at 3905 East 96th St. Map

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With the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers tied up 2-2 heading into Game 5, several factors have come into play to determine the winner of each game. The rebounding advantage has been a big factor for the winner in addition to foul trouble for the Pacers. Another area to keep an eye on is Indiana's transition defense.

Miami stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade may have to pick their spots more now than they did in their younger days but they can still flat out embarrass opponents in the open court. When they gather steam in transition, everyone in the building moves toward the edge of their seat in anticipation of something that will end up with one of them staring down the rim while finishing the break with authority. The play is still only good for two points, just like a simple layup, but the ferocity and disregard for anything trying to derail what appears to be a runaway train in transition can be downright demoralizing.

So limiting those opportunities for the Heat to get out in the open floor and build up that head of steam is one of the things the Pacers have to key on, as they did in their two wins in the series. They simply have to continue to get back to try to slow down the Heat with no concerns about looking silly trying their best to slow down that train.

Now it helps if the Pacers make more shots and control the glass. Long rebounds lead to fast breaks and for the Heat that turns into fast points. According to mysynergysports.com, the Heat made nearly 60% of their shots in transition during the regular season and scored 1.13 points per possession, which is pretty average on paper (for comparison's sake, the Pacers shot a little worse on fewer attempts during the season, but scored 1.15 ppp in transition), but again, they don't include the numbers for will-killing momentum swings.

In their Game 1 win, the Heat outrebounded the Pacers 45 to 38 and scored 1.1 points per possession in transition. In their Game 4 win, the Heat outrebounded the Pacers 47 to 38 while scoring 1.33 ppp in transition. Now let's compare that to the Pacers' wins in Game 2 and 3. In Game 2, the Pacers won the rebound battle 50 to 40 while limiting the Heat to 0.71 ppp in transition. Much of the same in Game 3 as the Pacers held the edge on the glass 52 to 36 with the Heat again scoring just 0.71 ppp in transition.

In Game 3 in particular, the Pacers did a good job of disrupting Miami's transition opportunities and in doing so in a raucous Bankers Life Fieldhouse, not only prevented the points but threw some of that demoralizing momentum back in the Heat's face. Here's a clip of a few key plays from Game 3 (yes, Game 3 not 2) which show the type of effort the Pacers must maintain in transition defense for the rest of the series.

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Three times today I heard from people I know locally who aren't big basketball fans nor follow the Indiana Pacers on any level who all said they watched the Pacers' game on Sunday afternoon.

Two admitted they had no idea it was on and stumbled across it, but hey, they kept the game on to see what would happen. Well, it appears my anecdotal evidence paints a similar picture to what happened all around Central Indiana as the Indianapolis Business Journal reports (via IndyPacers) that local television ratings for Game 4 yesterday far exceeded expectations.

Sunday's game, which aired on WRTV-TV Channel 6, drew an 18.2 rating, according to New York-based Nielsen Media Research. That means about 195,200 central Indiana households tuned in. Nielsen reported that 36.1 percent of central Indiana households watching TV from 3:30 p.m. to just after 6 p.m. were tuned into the game, which the Pacers lost, 101-93.

Those are numbers that rival viewership for Indianapolis Colts regular-season games.

Considering the Fieldhouse was filled to the brim and it was a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon with plenty of baseball (where the rest of my fam was during the game), softball and soccer tournaments going on, those are impressive numbers, indeed.

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The Indiana Pacers were simply overwhelmed in the second half of their Game 4 loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday by an epic performance from LeBron James supplemented by a monster second half from Dwyane Wade. The pair scored 70 points on 50 shots, the most points they've combined to post in a playoff game in the past two seasons.

If there is any good to be gleaned for the Pacers it's that LeBron's 40 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists wouldn't have been enough to beat them. In fact, even throwing in Wade's 30 points, they still needed Udonis Haslem to rise to the occasion down the stretch and make some big mid-range shots.

I've heard more than once in the time since the game ended that Danny Granger's technical for jawing with Wade was what sparked the dynamic guard's second-half excellence. But according to Wade, he already had sparked his game just prior to the technical when he drained a tough, step-back three pointer with Paul George right in his face followed by LeBron finding him zooming along the baseline for a big dunk. Those two plays turned what had been a 1 for 8 shooting performance in the first half into a 3 for 10 effort as Wade eventually made 12 of his last 15 shots.

The Pacers made the Heat work for their big game and they have to continue to do so if they want to win this series. With only one day off between games now fatigue should be the Pacers' ally.

Check out the links after the jump, including some post-game reaction from Paul George, David West, Wade and James.

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