Lebron James should be over that point of what people are saying about him.  Remember that stupid decision to make “The Decision?”  We didn’t hear much peep out of him then. It took a year or so for him to FINALLY talk about it. Now Coach Vogel says this, and Lebron James feels the need to respond.  Why respond back? You’re the best player in the game right now, you know what kind of team you’ve got.  Guess what they say?  Actions speak louder than words.  If Lebron James goes out and gets his 30 points 10 rebounds 7 assists and wins game one, then he could say oh we’re just another team.  He could talk all he wants.  But at this point, when no games has been played, it’s just a lot of hot air.

I don’t care for Coach Vogel saying much either as that’s not in his coaching style.  Last season, he called out the refs and got fined.  But I don’t think he’s the type to really call out a team like that.  He’s not even called out his own team after bad bad performances, so why is he going to poke a stick at the Miami Heat.  There is already plenty riding on this. But for the Pacers it’s a win win situation.  If they come out and upset the Heat in this series, they win.  If they put up a battle, and win a couple of games, they “win” by people saying they put up a good fight.  For the Heat, it’s all on the line as they need to look dominant or people will start talking about them.  Then we’ll see plenty of words spoken.  But for now, it’s not even game one, so let’s just leave the talking alone, get to Wednesday, and play out game one.

He doesn’t need to get 25 points and 10 boards against the Heat, but he’s got to be in attack mode when the opportunity presents itself. I think he’s got to be around the boards as well since the Heat aren’t a good rebounding team.  All of the Pacers would be well served to be attacking the glass for a rebounding. They’ve had a big advantage in that category when playing the Heat this regular season, and that could be the deciding factor in the next round.

It’s amazing to see the transformation Lance Stephenson has made just in the past couple of seasons.  We did see him get into some trash talk last year in the playoffs against the Heat, and I know we won’t see that again.  Lance has come a long way since looking like he didn’t belong on this team. Now he’s playing at the level that Larry Bird believed he would be at when he signed him to a long contract. I know I was so against that because I didn’t see anything good from Stephenson.  But then last season, there were those brief moments, where I started to realize, this guy does have something. He was making passes that probably had no business being passes.  This season, he gets bumped into the starting lineup and looked like a starter.  He brings all that ball of energy to the starting unit, and really feeds off doing well.  Last night, you could just see the confidence building up in Stephenson, and just imagine if that can continue.  He got the nickname “Born Ready”, but I believe a better nickname is just ready.  He’s ready for the Heat.  He’s ready for a break out moment.  He’s ready to be Ready.