MIAMI — Their season, their legacy, their reign atop the NBA was all at stake, and the Miami Heat responded to all of that in a manner befitting champions.
With a blowout.
It's onto the NBA Finals for the Heat after they put away the Indiana Pacers, who saw their hopes of a storybook upset simply fall apart in a hurry.
LeBron James scored 32 points and grabbed eight rebounds, ailing Dwyane Wade matched his postseason high with 21 points, and the Heat ran away from the Pacers 99-76 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night.
The Heat earned the right to play the San Antonio Spurs in a series that starts Thursday night in Miami.
Miami led by as many as 28 points, a shocking amount for a series that had an aggregate score of Heat 569, Pacers 564 entering Monday night. The Heat actually trailed by six in the early going, were still down 21-19 after the first quarter and it was starting to look like it was going to be one of those down-to-the-wire nights.
Not even close.
James exited with 5:08 left, shaking retired soccer star David Beckham's hand as he made his way to the Heat bench for a relatively subdued celebration. Not long afterward, security personnel started what's become a familiar task in Miami — surrounding the court and stretching out a yellow rope, preparing to hold people at bay for the looming on-court trophy presentation.
More than a few people didn't stick around to see the East title formally presented. After all, it's an all-or-nothing season for the Heat — and this trophy isn't the one that will satisfy the Heat.
Ray Allen added 10 points for Miami, which won its 78th game of the season, matching the 11th-best, single-season total in NBA history.
Roy Hibbert scored 18 points for the Pacers, who got 14 from David West, 13 from George Hill and 10 from Lance Stephenson. All-Star Paul George was held to seven points on 2-for-9 shooting and fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
Beckham in Miami
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In this undated photo released by Miami-Dade County, former soccer star David Beckham poses for a photo with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, in Miami. Beckham may [Photo/Agencies] |
Soccer star David Beckham may be setting his sights on a new sports venture: a professional soccer team in Miami.
The newly retired Beckham toured Sun Life and Florida International University stadiums and met with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Saturday.
"We're ready and we're excited about the possibility of having top-flight professional soccer back in Miami," Gimenez said. "With people from all over the world living in our community, this is an ideal market for MLS and David Beckham is the right person to make it happen."
Miami has had a Major League Soccer team before; the Miami Fusion held matches in Fort Lauderdale from 1998 to 2001, before shutting down because of poor attendance.
This time around, city officials hope a team would succeed.
"The whole community loves soccer down here," FIU Executive Director for Sports and Entertainment Pete Garcia said.
Garcia said university officials delivered a presentation to Beckham and Marcelo Claure, president and CEO of Brightstar Corp. and a member of the FIU Board of Trustees, explaining the draw of a professional team in Miami. He said FIU officials hope Beckham and Claure will start an MLS team and choose FIU as their stadium.
"Our stadium is state of the art, brand new, and it's made for soccer," Garcia said.
He also noted that a majority of the university's 52,000 students are Hispanic, and many of them avid soccer fans.
"I know it would be successful now," he said.
Beckham started his career with Manchester United and also played for Real Madrid, Los Angeles Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain. He became a global superstar not only in the sports world, but also through fashion and his marriage to a pop star wife, former "Spice Girls" singer Victoria.