The Miami Heat put together their best performance of the playoffs on Sunday night as they thumped the Indiana Pacers 114-96 and took a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Miami shot 54.5 percent at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where opponents have had great difficulty scoring. The Pacers held the opposition to 87.2 points, 41 percent shooting and 30 points in the paint at home this season. It was hard to envision the Heat losing consecutive games, something they haven't done in four months, but it was surprising to see them win Game 3 in the matter they did.

Given Indiana's sometimes anemic offense, a double-digit loss seemed inevitable at some point during the series. It's alarming that they were dominated in this one despite scoring more than enough to win when they control the pace and click defensively.

They weren't awful on that end of the floor, despite the eye-popping numbers Miami put up, but there were parts that needed tightening. Frank Vogel might need to relent and give Paul George some help on LeBron James, especially when the latter backs the former down with a handful of dribbles. LeBron is unstoppable in that position. You might as well double and make someone else beat you...

Ironically enough, it was "the rest" of the Heat that beat the Pacers.

Rather than settle for LeBron and Dwyane Wade jumpers as they did in the first two games, Miami took what Indiana gave them in the first half. Udonis Haslem finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, with 13 points coming in the first two quarters on open looks. Chris Bosh scored 12 of his 15 points in the first 24 minutes.

Haslem's jumpers (he was 8-for-9) cut deeply into Indiana's defense. If he's hitting midrange shots, the Heat can space their offense to an unguardable level. With a 70-56 lead built heading into the half, the Heat gave LeBron and Wade the keys to seal the deal.

Roy Hibbert made a three-point play at the 5:45 mark of the third quarter to bring the Pacers to within seven (78-71), waking up the Indianapolis crowd in the process. The Heat closed the quarter on a 13-5 run and were never threatened in the fourth. 

Hibbert's Huge Numbers

Roy Hibbert put up huge numbers in the loss, 20 points and 17 rebounds, but the stats were misleading. He was 4-for-12 from the floor (12-for-15 from the line) and the Pacers didn't establish much of an inside game early on.

The inside-out attack they had going down in Miami wasn't on full display. The Pacers dominated the Heat in Game 2 with screen-and-rolls involving Hibbert rolling towards the basket. Those plays often led to Hibbert taking easy shots over much shorter players (he was 10-for-15 on Friday night). If not, passing eventually got Paul George, George Hill or Lance Stephenson an open three.

In terms of Hibbert's defense, the Heat did their best to minimize how often he could alter shots by dragging him out of the paint. That worked as well as Spoelstra could have planned with Bosh and Haslem combining to shoot 14-for-19 from the field.

I wouldn't be surprised if Frank Vogel makes a defensive adjustment prior to Game 4 that involves trying to funnel the Heat offense towards his center. The danger with that would be Hibbert's ability to stay out of foul trouble, but the officials have given him the benefit of the doubt often because he has gotten so much better at going up vertically.

If Hibbert can stay on the floor, the Pacers would be much happier to have the Heat take contested shots at the rim than hit jumpers at the rate they did in Game 3.

The LeBron Effect

Hibbert continues to discourage penetration with his size, but LeBron James had a profound defensive effect on this game without tallying a single steal or block.

He wasn't dominant offensively, going 8-for-17 from the floor, but used his body against George so much so that the Indiana forward seemed to lack any energy on the other end of the floor. George finished the game with 13 points on 2-for-10 shooting in 42 minutes of play. He took just three shots in the first half and had five turnovers.

There may be two factors at play here. After shadowing Carmelo Anthony in the semifinals and now LeBron for three games, George doesn't have much left in the tank. Near the top of his offseason priority list will be to add some upper body strength, which would help when guarding the LeBrons of the world, but no amount of training can prepare you to play so many minutes.

George is averaging close to 42 minutes per game in the postseason, nearly seven more than his fellow starters. It's hard enough to cover LeBron when he employs his strength, let alone on what are likely two very tired legs. Only seven players logged more minutes than George during the regular season and during the playoffs he leads Marc Gasol (second place) by 58 minutes.

Miami's First Half Offense

The Heat were almost flawless in the first half. They committed just one turnover and finished with a grand total of five. Refusing to give away possessions, Miami shot 62.8 percent in the first half and had five offensive rebounds on just 16 missed shots.

On those six extra possessions, they scored four times for eight points and pummeled the Pacers in the painted area. The Heat went 17-for-21 from inside and scored 34 points in the first half. The Pacers finished the game with 36 points in the paint. Miami ended up with 52.

It's impossible to beat the Heat when they shoot 54.5 percent, make their free throws (24-for-28), convert on whatever second chance opportunities they manage (5-for-7) and commit only a handful of turnovers. It doesn't matter if it's LeBron James or Udonis Haslem knocking down the shots, you won't be able to score enough to beat them.

Interesting note: Both teams started the game hot. Midway through the first quarter, Miami was 9-for-11 and Indiana was 7-for-9. The Pacers shot 34.3 percent over the final 42 minutes, while the Heat hit 50 percent of their looks.

Good Offense Wasted

The Pacers shot just 29.4 percent in the second half, but overall their offensive performance was a good one. With a typical defensive effort and against a normal NBA team, 96 points is enough for Indiana to come out with a victory at least eight out of ten times.

Vogel's team finished the game shooting 39.7 percent, but made up for the low percentage with 44 free throw attempts, 18 offensive rebounds, an 8-for-14 performance from downtown and just 10 turnovers. With that said, there was more that could have been done to at least flirt with the Heat in the fourth quarter. They missed 14 free throws, played near-isolation basketball in the final frame and got almost nothing from the bench.

Different Turnovers

Indiana had 20 turnovers in Game 1 and 13 in Game 2, but a vast majority were of the dead-ball variety, which kept Miami out of transition. The Heat only had six fast break points on Sunday night, but were able to establish their offense early thanks to more live-ball miscues.

Seven of Indiana's turnovers came on bad passes, which allowed the Heat to fire up their jets. When they are shooting as well as they did, you can't make things any easier.