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NBA Game Previews for Thu, May 24

8pm ET: Heat at Pacers, Game 6 -- The AP reports: Udonis Haslem insists he meant no harm. The NBA deemed otherwise, and the Miami Heat will be without one of their co-captains when they try to close out the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night. Haslem was suspended for Game 6 of the Miami-Indiana Eastern Conference semifinal series, a matchup where emotions boiled over in a runaway Heat victory on Tuesday night. The NBA also said Miami reserve center Dexter Pittman will miss three games in response to his flagrant foul against Indiana backup guard Lance Stephenson in the final seconds of Game 5. Indiana's Tyler Hansbrough was not suspended, although the league upgraded his foul against Miami's Dwyane Wade to a flagrant-2 on Wednesday - which, if called that way during Game 5, would have brought an automatic ejection. Hansbrough struck Wade in the head, opening a cut over his right eye. Moments later, Haslem committed a flagrant foul against Hansbrough, clearly in response to the play against Wade... The Heat lead the series 3-2, after a 115-83 win Tuesday night in a game that had the three flagrant fouls on the court, accusations of dirty play afterward and finally with Pacers team president Larry Bird telling The Indianapolis Star that his team was ''soft'' in Game 5... Wade sounded somewhat amused that Granger - who's been whistled for three technicals in the series - was one of the Pacers suggesting Haslem and Pittman should be suspended. Wade and Granger have had words during the series. ''We're not in here crying about the fouls,'' Wade said. ''They fouled us. ... We're moving on to Game 6. We're not going to worry about what happened in Game 5. For us, it's about moving forward.'' ... West said on Wednesday that if Indiana wants to force a Game 7 in Miami, it simply needs to play better on both ends than it did on Tuesday night.



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NBA Game Previews for Wed, May 23

8pm ET: Celtics at 76ers, Game 6 -- The AP reports: Before coach Doug Collins had his Philadelphia 76ers look ahead to Game 6, he had them rewind the tape to a dusty Game 7. He slipped in a highlight video of Sixers vs. Celtics, Game 7, 1982 Eastern Conference finals. Julius Erving and Larry Bird. Andrew Toney and Maurice Cheeks. Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. The Sixers blew a 3-1 lead in that series and were forced to win Game 7 on the road to reach the finals - which they did. The Sixers trail this season's East semifinals 3-2 entering Wednesday's Game 6 in Philadelphia. But Collins wanted to push the point that winning another Game 7 on the road can be done... Twice this series, the Celtics have routed the Sixers, including a dominant end to Game 5 that has them in control and a win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. The Sixers led by six points early in the third quarter before Boston scored 14 of the next 16. The Celtics closed the third with a 10-2 run over the final 3 minutes, and outscored the Sixers, 28-16, in the frame. The Celtics also scored 16 of the first 22 in the fourth quarter to put it away... The Celtics did not practice Tuesday. Pierce had 16 points, and was a perfect 9 for 9 from the free throw line. Brandon Bass scored 18 in the third as part of a career playoff-high 27. And Kevin Garnett added 20 points, while Rajon Rondo had 13 points and 14 assists for the Celtics... Rondo, in fact, has been a thorn in the Sixers all series. He's been the leader coach Doc Rivers wanted, often barking at his teammates and demanding they get into the right spots. He finds players in the right position where they don't have to do much after they catch the ball: Shoot or dunk.



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NBA Game Previews for Tue, May 22

8pm ET: Pacers at Heat, Game 5 Preview -- The AP reports: On the plane ride home from Indiana, Miami guard Dwyane Wade was watching a LeBron James highlight tape. It was otherwise known as Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Heat were still marveling Monday at James' effort the previous day in Indiana, when the NBA's reigning MVP had 40 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists - ''video game-like,'' was how Wade described it - to help his team knot its East series with the Pacers at two games apiece. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Miami, and the Heat know they probably can't expect James to fill the box score that way again anytime soon. After all, no one had done that in a playoff game since Elgin Baylor, 51 years ago. But if nothing else, the home-court advantage is back with the Heat, who trailed by 10 points in the third quarter Sunday before the game - and maybe the series - swung Miami's way, with James doing the conducting... But clearly, the Pacers saw the MVP's best on Sunday. James and Wade scored 38 consecutive Miami points in one stretch. A series with plenty of bravado to that point - Indiana's Danny Granger has gotten technicals in three straight games, Pacers reserve Lance Stephenson riled the Heat by making choking signs that were captured by television cameras in Game 3 and Heat forward Juwan Howard approached Stephenson before Game 4 to let him know Miami didn't appreciate the gesture - was taken over by a star. Wade finished with 30 points and nine rebounds, a huge bounce-back effort after his disaster of a Game 3. Udonis Haslem scored 14 points and needed only six field-goal attempts to get there, then needed nine stitches to close a gash over his right eye... The Pacers did their part to help Miami's comeback on Sunday. Roy Hibbert finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, but the 7-foot-2 center also was slowed by foul trouble, as was forward David West. That, and Indiana's defense slipped at the absolute worst time: The Pacers entered Sunday having allowed only nine 30-point games all season, but by day's end, that list had 11 entries with James and Wade both getting there.



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NBA Game Previews for Mon, May 21

7pm ET: 76ers at Celtics, Game 5 Preview -- The AP reports: The Celtics player who needs a break the most this postseason isn't 34-year-old Paul Pierce, who's nursing a knee injury. Or 36-year old Ray Allen, who's got bone spurs in his ankle. Or even Kevin Garnett, who turned 36 on Saturday but is playing like he did a decade ago. It's Avery Bradley, 21, who is determined to stay on the court despite a left shoulder that has popped out of its socket four times so far during the season... A first-round draft pick who did not appear in the playoffs as a rookie last year, Bradley moved into the starting lineup when Allen was injured and remained there even after the former All-Star returned. Bradley dislocated his shoulder in Game 3 of Boston's first-round series against Atlanta, but has not missed a game because of it... With two days off between the fourth and fifth games, Rivers gave his aging team the day off on Saturday before returning to practice on Sunday. Bradley did not participate in the workout, but Allen was on the court shooting jumpers 30 minutes early and Garnett joined him soon after... Sixers forward Andre Iguodala said having the extra day probably helps the Celtics ''because they have a lot more miles on their bodies.'' ''One game, day off, one game, that was to our advantage,'' guard Elton Brand agreed. ''They have a lot of veterans on their team that can use the rest. Helps us but going to help them too.''

9:30pm ET: Lakers at Thunder, Game 5 Preview -- The AP reports: After chasing championships for so many years with the Los Angeles Lakers, Derek Fisher now finds himself standing squarely in their way. Fisher joined up with the Oklahoma City Thunder after getting traded away by the Lakers during the season, choosing to buy out of his own contract with the Houston Rockets and sign with a team he thought had a chance of winning the NBA title. Fisher has already won five championship rings with the Lakers, but now his new team is a victory away from knocking Los Angeles out of the playoffs. The Thunder get their first chance in Game 5 Monday night in Oklahoma City. Fisher has had to put his personal friendship with Kobe Bryant on hold during the series. The two greeted each other the first time Fisher came off the bench and checked in during Game 1 but otherwise are adversaries as long as the Western Conference semifinals go on. ''As much history as we have, there's no holding back in terms of trying to advance to win the championship,'' Fisher said. ''Personal friends or brothers or however close you are to somebody, it's about winning. He knows that better than anybody.



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NBA Game Previews for Sun, May 20

3:30pm ET: Heat at Pacers, Game 4 Preview -- The AP reports: Down 2-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the ready-to-rumble Indiana Pacers, the Heat were back on the floor Saturday after staying away from Bankers Life Fieldhouse for a day to decompress following their stunning 94-75 loss, a defeat amplified by the clash between Wade and Spoelstra during a timeout in the third quarter... Wade, who scored just five points on 2-of-13 shooting and had five turnovers in Thursday's blowout, insists that any apparent problems with Spoelstra were overblown. He downplayed their fiery spat... With an aggressive approach on both ends of the floor, the Pacers have won the past two games to put the Heat in an unforeseen hole and place their title hopes in serious danger. A win on Sunday would put Indiana up 3-1 and send the panic meter to code red in south Florida... Granger and James have had altercations in the past two games, with their teammates stepping in to separate them before either could do anything they'd regret. Granger was called for a technical Thursday after he pulled James' jersey on a breakaway and then took exception to an elbow extended toward his face... James brushed aside Granger's tough-guy talk as an opponent playing mind games.

10:30pm ET: Spurs at Clippers, Game 4 Preview -- The AP reports: The San Antonio Spurs showed more than enough veteran poise to move to the brink of another sweep in the Western Conference playoffs. The Spurs will be out to stretch their overall winning streak to 18 games and advance to the conference finals in Game 4 of their semifinal series Sunday night on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers. Los Angeles jumped out to a 22-point lead after one quarter Saturday and seemed poised to get back in the series by winning Game 3. By the midpoint of the third quarter, San Antonio had roared back to take the lead by using a devastating 24-0 run in that period. The Spurs went on to win 96-86... The Spurs remain the only team without a loss in the postseason after winning their final 10 regular-season games. Blake Griffin had 20 points by halftime, finishing with 28 and 16 rebounds. He and the rest of the Clippers went south in the decisive third quarter, getting outscored 26-8... Tony Parker had 23 points and 10 assists in Game 3 for San Antonio. He's averaging 17.3 points and 8.7 assists per game in the series, but shooting just 35.4 percent.

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