What won't happen to the Pacers today

Basically, this:

Or this:

Or even this:

In short, Marcin Gortat won't happen to the Pacers today.  And, in other terms, post-play won't happen, unless Spo mixes things up on them and goes real big--like, puts Oden in there.  That's not happening.  Or if it does, it will be for defensive, not offensive reasons.

And this is what will make the Pacers dangerous for the Heat, then, as many have been pointing out.  The Heat are simply not a big post-up team, but that might actually be the best way to defeat the Pacers, because they're so good at clogging the paint and have Hibbert--the LeBron stopper.

The most post-up work we'll probably see is Bosh at the high post, trying to space the painted area--something I do think will be very effective.  But we won't see him rolling much to the basket in a way that cuts off the help and slices through Indiana in the same way.  Haslem will get some work, but it remains to be seen just how much.  It could go any which way. But I have a feeling they'll want to keep the ball in Chalmers' or Cole's hands (Wade has his work cut out for him this series, and may be stopped--then again he too could go off like nuts if he finds a way to beat Lance) and those of James.

LeBron too has been posting up more this year and getting more comfortable working closer to the basket, even when mismatches aren't as huge as we'd probably like for him.  But I doubt that will factor into this series as much as it did against the Nets.

More likely for him will be the situation we see last here, in which Gortat sinks a beautiful turnaround near the baseline.  Even this, however, won't happen as damagingly to the Pacers, who in this situation simply don't have the same sort of coverage they might have if LeBron is down there--not to mention the fact that the way James would end up in that spot is not through a pass into the post.  It will be the result of a failed drive to the basket, and probably happen completely off the dribble, and with a floor spaced in a way that allows greater containment and a double-team or trap.

In short, the Pacers face less of a threat in this series in certain ways than they did with the last one.  The Heat, however, are going to be coming at them at a pace they haven't seen in the regular season.

So, a hat tip to Gortat for playing arguably the best post-game of this postseason so far.  And a bit of a requiem here for post play in general.  There is, indeed, Hibbert on offense.  But I'm just not sure what to expect there, both because of his own performance issues (his jump hook looked on in the last series), and (mostly) because I have a suspicion that the Heat will contain him somehow.  We'll know a little better whether to expect.  But I have a suspicion that we'll have to wait for Timmy and Splitter do big things in their next series to see the sort of post-play highlights Gortat gave us.  With Ibaka out, there may be more than a few.