Just one week after taking Game 1 against the Miami Heat in convincing fashion, the Indiana Pacers face elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Heat jumped out to an 8-0 lead on Sunday night at American Airlines Arena and never trailed on their way to a dominant 102-90 win and a 3-to-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series. The Pacers had chances to win each of the last two games, but this one was a no-doubter from the opening tip.

Chris Bosh, who came into the game with nine points in each of the first three games, scored the first eight points of Game 4 en route to a 25-point effort.

Indiana trailed by just five at halftime (49-44) despite a fairly ugly first 24 minutes. They shot 51.4% in the first half, but struggled to move the basketball and seemed to have many more than the six turnovers they accumulated. A quick 7-0 run to begin the third pushed Miami’s lead to 12 points and it ballooned to 23 points early in the fourth period.

LeBron James had a vintage performance with 32 points, 10 rebounds and five assists on 13-for-21 shooting. He never had to take the game over, but still had flashes of brilliance with several forceful drives to the basket. He outclassed Lance Stephenson, who surprised no one when he made headlines over the weekend for claiming that he had gotten into LeBron's head.

Stephenson, who said before the series that he hoped to make Dwyane Wade work hard on his balky knees, didn't back up his most-recent comments. He had nine points and five rebounds to go along with five fouls. Stephenson was forced to sit very early in the second quarter after picking up three quick fouls.

He scored eight of his nine points in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. Oddly enough, that's when the Pacers looked their best. With the Heat easing off the gas, Indiana made the final score look much more respectable than it should have been. They went on a run that briefly trimmed Miami's lead to nine. They were in much too big of a hole to fully rebound as they ran out of time.

The Big Three

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have been terrific, but Chris Bosh joined the party in Game 4 and the Heat enjoyed their most complete game of the series.

The Pacers got out to hot starts in each of the first three games before flaming out late in the last two. Miami followed Indiana's blueprint from Game 1 with a wire-to-wire victory

James, Wade and Bosh combined to contribute 73 points, 18 rebounds, eight assists and four steals. The trio shot 24-for-45 from the field. The rest of the club was just 8-for-24 in the 12-point win. Bosh missed matching his scoring total in the first three games of the series by just two points.

Getting To The Line

The Pacers attempted just two free throws in the first half. David West attempted the team's first foul shot at the 2:59 mark of the second quarter. Miami went 30-for-34 at the line, against just 11-for-17 for Indiana.

They didn't attempt too many threes in the first half -- 10 of their 37 attempts were from deep -- which made the lack of free throws troubling. The Pacers have been complaining too much about the officiating for the better part of the last four months and on Monday night they had no one to blame but themselves.

Indiana showed little aggression for a majority of the game, while Miami put themselves in position to get to the line. The Heat were tremendous at aggressively defending without fouling.

Defensive Wins Championships

Indiana earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference thanks to the NBA's top-ranked defense. Through four games against Miami, the defense has yet to show up for 48 minutes. Even in Game 1, the Heat had a 108.2 offensive rating.

The Pacers led the NBA with a 99.4 defensive rating in the regular season, while holding opponents to league-lows in effective field goal percentage (46%) true shooting percentage (50.1%) and points per shot (1.12).

Here is how the Heat have fared offensively in the series:

Game 1: 108.2 ORtg, 55.1 eFG%

Game 2: 110.7 ORtg, 56.7 eFG%

Game 3: 117.4 ORtg, 61.8 eFG%

Game 4: 125.1 ORtg, 52.2 eFG%

A good portion of the credit belongs to the brilliance of the Heat, but the Pacers have given extra chances and better looks to a team that doesn't need them to win games. Miami had 11 second chance points on just four shots and Norris Cole had almost a full shot clock to collect himself before hitting a three in the fourth quarter.