The Miami Heat can join some very exclusive company Tuesday night.
The Heat complete the 20th set of back-to-back-to-back games when they visit the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s best game. They can become just the third team to win all three – and the first to do it entirely on the road.
Previously, only the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder have gone 3-for-3 over the most unforgiving portion of their schedule. The Bulls beat Detroit, won at Minnesota and defeated Washington, no great shakes. The Thunder swept a home-and-home with Houston and beat San Antonio, a bit tougher.
The Heat’s trilogy of terror has taken place during a six-game road trip, and Miami has obliterated its opponents. It began with a 107-87 win at Atlanta on Sunday night and continued with Monday’s 114-96 rout at Milwaukee.
Now the Heat are looking to improve to 4-1 overall on their trip as they visit the Pacers, who are starting a back-to-back-to-back set of their own. Indiana visits Cleveland on Wednesday and hosts New Jersey on Thursday. The timing couldn’t be worse.
Arguably the most surprising team in the NBA this season, Indiana got off to a 17-7 start with wins at Boston, the LA Lakers, Chicago and Dallas. But the Pacers have suddenly dropped three in a row, and poor defense is to blame.
A week ago, Indiana led the NBA in opponents’ field-goal percentage, a truly meaningful stat that directly 
correlates to winning. But the Pacers have allowed each of their last four foes to shoot better than 46 percent from the field and have fallen to sixth in that category.
A porous defense is not the way to slow down LeBron James, who is coming off perhaps the most efficient game of his career as he strafed the Bucks for 35 points on 16-of-21 shooting. Just for good measure, James had 33 and 13 assists when Miami – without an injured Dwyane Wade – mandhandled Indiana, 118-83, on Jan. 4.
Over the last week, the Pacers have forgotten the principles of the “smashmouth basketball” coach Frank Vogel had them playing earlier this season. Indiana needs to rediscover that mentality as soon as possible.