MIAMI (AP) — Miami took a big step forward. Indiana lost two forwards.
Suddenly, the road back to the Eastern Conference finals no longer looks daunting for the Heat.
LeBron James scored 30 points, Dwyane Wade added 28, and the Heat moved a win away from the NBA’s final four with a 115-83 victory over the hurting Pacers on Tuesday night.
The Heat lead the best-of-seven East semifinals 3-2, with Game 6 in Indiana on Thursday night.
James added 10 rebounds and eight assists. Shane Battier scored 13 points, Mario Chalmers had eight points and 11 rebounds, and Udonis Haslem finished with 10 points for Miami, which never trailed.
Paul George scored 11 points for Indiana, with starting forwards Danny Granger and David West adding 10 points apiece. Granger left with a sprained left ankle in the third quarter, and West left with what the Pacers called a left knee sprain at the end of that period.
Miami shot a franchise playoff-record 61 percent, best of any team in the playoffs this season. It was an 11-point game when Granger departed early in the third quarter, and the Heat outscored the Pacers by 21 the rest of the way.
After losing two of the first three games of the series, the Heat are in control once again — getting there after a wire-to-wire win Tuesday, with just one time where things seemed in some doubt.
The margin was as big as 37 points in the final moments.
Miami, which had gotten into quick deficits in each of the first four games, was the team that started hot in Game 5, running out to a 19-8 lead on the strength of three 3-pointers from Battier — who had been 2 for 19 from the field in the first four games of the series. Battier left his mark in many ways, even stopping a 3-on-1 Indiana break to set up a score by Wade at the other end.
But much like the Heat did in Game 4 when Indiana threatened to turn things into an early runaway, the Pacers settled down in a hurry.
The Pacers made Wade see blood early on, a couple of early flagrant fouls reminding everyone that these teams don’t seem to like each other much.
Tyler Hansbrough struck first, hitting Wade on a play where the 2006 NBA finals MVP wound up with a cut over his right eye, similar to what Haslem received at Indiana in Game 4. So Haslem retaliated against Hansbrough not long afterward, earning a flagrant-1 foul that left the Pacers saying it should merit a flagrant-2 and automatic ejection.
Even after facing the big deficit, Indiana even had two shots to tie or take the lead late in the first half, the second of those a 3-point try from Granger with 3:03 remaining.
It didn’t go down. He did.
Granger landed on James’ foot after the shot, spraining his left ankle and leaving the game. The Heat outscored Indiana 8-2 the rest of the half, with James — who had been guarded by Granger for much of the series — scoring seven of them.
He opened the burst with a 3-pointer, stole the ball from West and dunked for a seven-point lead with 26 seconds left, then capped the half by coming up with a defensive rebound, passing to Wade, getting the ball back just before the halftime horn sounded and laying it in to send Miami into the break with a 49-40 edge.
Granger tried to play in the second half, lasting about 3 minutes before realizing his ankle wasn’t going to let him continue. X-rays were negative, which was about the only piece of good news for Indiana.
By then, Indiana was ailing, and Miami was rolling.
So now the Heat are one win from the East finals, after a series filled with twists and turns.
There was Indiana coach Frank Vogel’s accusation before the series started that the Heat were floppers, Chris Bosh’s lower abdominal strain that sidelined him midway through Game 1, James and Wade missing key chances late in the Game 2 loss, Pacers reserve Lance Stephenson’s “choke” sign toward James in Game 3 and then the 40-point, 18-rebound, nine-assist effort from James in Game 4.
And now a blowout — followed by a chance for a Heat close out on Thursday.