The referees for tonight’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals are Danny Crawford, James Capers and Marc Davis. Their assignment is to call two fouls on Roy Hibbert within the first 90 seconds.
Just kidding.
But let there be no doubt the Miami Heat will do their best to attack the basket and draw fouls on Hibbert tonight as the series shifts back to Miami tied 2-2, because the Heat’s best plan of attack is to neutralize the one player who has been the most dominant player in the series thus far. And with all due respect to LeBron James, that player has been Hibbert — the Pacers’ 7-foot-2 center.
James has scored only one driving layup during the entire series when Hibbert has been on the floor (Flashback to Game 1, when Frank Vogel took Hibbert out for the final possession, and James beat Paul George one-on-one for the game-winner. That episode provoved a considerable amount of debate.)
Hibbert is averaging an astonishing 6.5 offensive rebounds and has posted 20-10 games in the last three outings.
So while one focus for the Heat will be to try to get Hibbert in foul trouble, another will be to get some kind of sustained offensive production from Ray Allen (5-for-17 from 3-point range in the series), Shane Battier (2-for-13 from the arc) and/or Dwyane Wade (point totals of 19, 14, 18 and 16 from a player who averaged 21.2 ppg this season and 24.7 for his career).
We have already had our one instance of Udonis Haslem being an unstoppable force, so don’t look for lightning to strike twice there.
More on the biggest game of the season, thus far, in this preview video with CineSport’s Noah Coslov: