RECAPPING GAME 3 OF THE NBA CONFERENCE FINALS

1 Pacers at 2 Heat (series tied 1-1)

Down by 15 points early the Heat could’ve givenup… instead now they’re just 2 wins away from the NBA finals.”A lot of our situations that we’ve been through where we’ve struggled have been against this team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s what they do to you. They’re very good. It’s a function of their defense. But we had no choice but try to re-gather.”

And they did.

Down 37-22 the Heat, led by Lebron (26 Pts, 5 Reb, 7 Ast, 9-14 FG, 7-9 FT) the Heat made a furious rally to come back and win 99-87. “Tough loss for our guys,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “Thought we competed pretty well, came out of the gates really strong, got off to a good start and then didn’t manage our foul trouble well and didn’t manage picking up their defensive intensity well.””Tough loss for our guys,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “Thought we competed pretty well, came out of the gates really strong, got off to a good start and then didn’t manage our foul trouble well and didn’t manage picking up their defensive intensity well.”

COOL STAT!: In the last 6:22 of the first half the Pacers had more turnovers (6) than Points (5). In the Second half Lebron, Wade, and Allen had more points (47) than the entire Pacers team combined (45).

1 Spurs at 2 Thunder (Spurs lead 2-0)

Just 3 days after he was moved to day-to-day Serge Ibaka came back. The power forward scored 15 points in a crazy return from what was thought to be  season-ending left calf strain. “When you talk about a teammate, that’s everything you want in a teammate,” Thunder small forward Kevin Durant said. “I gained so much more respect for Serge for sacrificing himself for the team. Regardless of what happened tonight, that’s something you want beside you.”

Led by Ibaka, Durant, Westbrook, Jackson and Adams the Thunder crushed San Antonio  106-97. “I knew that we were a better team than losing by 30,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “It’s not us. It was us that night, but we’re a much better team than that. I have a lot of respect for San Antonio, but they’re not that much better than us.” Game 4 is Thursday in OKC.

Manu Ginobli had  23 Points and Tim Duncan added 16 Points and 8 Rebounds for the Spurs in the loss. The key to the win for OKC really was rebounding, the Thunder dominated on the boards 52-36.”I was very disappointed that we didn’t come out with more of a foot-in-the-neck sort of attitude,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “They killed us on the boards, they beat us in 50-50 balls and that’s very disappointing to me.”