INDIANAPOLIS – Everyone expected the NBA’s best player, its current icon, to unleash on the way the referees denied him an opportunity to influence a most consequential moment, and LeBron James had serenity over the pure domination he wants to deliver the Indiana Pacers. He was on one of his takeover streaks, when a moving screen fouled him out of a game that could have gone a long way in cementing the third straight appearance in The Finals for the Miami Heat.

Suddenly, James went from such invincibility with his basketball powers to clear vulnerability: Down just four points, he was relegated to sitting out the final 56 seconds of the Heat’s 99-92 loss in Game 4. Yet, there was LeBron bobbing his head to the booming music inside the Fieldhouse during one of the game’s final timeouts, pounding his closed hands to the beat and emitting a sense of downright calmness. Juwan Howard stood next to him, speaking as James listened, and patted him twice on the chest.

Of his moment with James, Howard told RealGM on Tuesday night: “Just words of encouragement.” Then, Howard winked. “Everything else is private. He’ll be ready.”

This is why the Heat decided to keep Howard around and his words still resonate within the locker room. Sitting at the end of the bench, James handled his foul out with as much composure as any star would when a chance to close out a game was snatched.

For all the bodies hitting the floor in this series, no one could fathom a screen that generated minor contact would send him out. Seemingly across the league – much less in Miami’s locker room – it left the notion: The official, Derrick Stafford, should have held his whistle on the play. “Bad call..” Kevin Durant tweeted, before deleting the post. Even more, James believed a few other calls on him hadn’t been justified.

“It was a couple fouls on me I didn’t feel like were personal fouls on me,” James said.

“You would like to be out there on the floor – especially me – be there for my teammates especially in the closing minutes when we got a chance to win.”

Roy Hibbert was magnificent inside again on Tuesday, with his third straight 20-10 performance of the series (23 points, 12 rebounds). Even so, James was easing into asserting himself in the fourth quarter: Eight points on a finish in the paint and two three-pointers. In all, he scored 24 on eight of 18 shooting. After allowing James to dribble and dribble and dribble in Game 3, the Pacers sent waves of defenders to hound him and Paul George made a stand to ensure that LeBron found his touches around the perimeter.

In the most critical stands for these Pacers, it was yet another revealing moment for Lance Stephenson, yet another night of growth for a guard who had been most known for taunting James a year ago. He made nine of 15 shots for his 20 points, and he ended the third quarter with a high-arching, momentum-creating jumper from the corner. Frank Vogel and his staff have been instrumental in Stephenson’s development, and the coach was impressed not only by his offense Tuesday, but the challenge he took defensively on James late in the game.

Nothing on the court scares Stephenson, and he constantly berated James on defense. In a tactic resembling how the Dallas Mavericks confronted the challenge of guarding James in the 2011 Finals, Stephenson would yell to him, “Shoot the damn ball!” When asked about Stephenson’s defense, James was bemused that it was a discussion.

“If you’re sitting here,” James said, “talking about an individual one-on-one matchup between me and Lance Stephenson …”

James let out a smirk, a sigh, and added: “I’m not even going to harp on it.”

In other words: James wasn’t even going to allow himself to entertain a comparison between him and Stephenson, wasn’t going to concede any amount of credit to the Pacers guard’s defensive job. Still, the Pacers were determined to limit James, relentless on the rebounding glass and showed aggressiveness and urgency that was lacking in Sunday’s Game 3. Now, the Pacers will take their confidence into Miami, where “we feel like we can compete with this team,” David West said.

They’ll be coming for the Heat, but James’ ease was telling on his way out of fouling out. He was calm in his responses, tranquil over a game that had both teams irate at times about calls. James was snatched an opportunity to close out a potential 3-1 series lead, basketball’s premiere closer fouling out of a tight game. There was no release of frustration from LeBron James, only a level of calmness and poise that he’ll unleash his authority on the Pacers now.