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Pacers Will Try Again:  The Indiana Pacers had the Miami HEAT right where they wanted them through three quarters in Game 1, then in the fourth quarter the HEAT came alive and the Pacers’ offense went MIA.

With Game 2 on tap tonight in Miami, the Pacers are trying to stay focused on the message. That message is defense.

“We’re all in this together and there’s going to be a lot of folks out there that are going to, every time you lose a game, they’re going to try to find blame somewhere and we’re all playing for each other,” Vogel said to Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star.

“Defense is going to dictate who gets the shots, not the offense. They’re going to take away the options they want to take away and ball movement will dictate who gets the shots. Being assertive means attacking to draw help and then moving the ball.”

The Pacers will get a little help from the injury bug. HEAT forward Chris Bosh will likely miss the rest of the post-season with that’s being called an abdominal strain. Sources close to the process say the injury could be a 2 to 4 week kind of injury putting Bosh on the shelf likely through the NBA Finals.

“We just can’t think that’s going to give us some sort of one-up,” Pacer forward David West said to Steve Gorten of the Sun Sentinel. “When you’ve got two guys like D-Wade and LeBron, I just don’t think that would be the smart thing to do.”

Pacer Captain Danny Granger agreed.

“Now that Chris can’t play, I think it’ll be really heavy pick-and-roll sets for LeBron and D-Wade,” Granger said. “That’s what it was when he went out of the game. They kind of lost their low-post presence so now those guys will dominate the ball even more, which makes my job and Paul George’s job a little more difficult, and our bigs, because they’ll set multiple pick-and-rolls every possession.”

The Pacers played the HEAT perfectly for three quarters in Game 1, the question is what kind of adjustments will Miami make, and will losing Chris Bosh change things enough to allow the Pacers to steal a win in Miami?

Game 2 gets underway at 7:00pm EST.

Bird Rights?:  According to Howard Beck of the New York Times, the NBA Players Association filed an arbitration request yesterday on behalf of several NBA players seeking an arbitrator’s ruling on how Bird Rights are handled for players who have been waived and claimed by another team.

The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement states clearly that so-called Bird Rights, or the ability for teams to re-sign players without cap restrictions are lost once a player is waived.

However, the Players Association contends that the spirit of Bird Rights being transferred in a trade is to protect the player, and that being waived and then ultimately claimed in the waiver process by another team is functionally the same action as being traded.

The NBA believes because the situation is clearly defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that there is no case to be heard, however the NBPA believes they have a “spirit of the rule” claim and want it heard by an arbitrator.

Normally, when players are waived, they generally clear the waiver process and become free agents. But with the large number of amnesty cuts expected going forward and situations like Jeremy Lin who was waived and claimed, Steve Novak who was waived and claimed and J.J. Hickson who was waived and claimed. For the first time there are players that the claiming teams would legitimately re-sign using their Bird Rights.

In the Knicks’ case, being able to apply Early Bird Rights – 175% of his salary in the previous season or 104.5% of the average salary in the previous season, whichever is greater – to both Jeremy Lin and Steve Novak would mean they could retain both players without having to use their salary exceptions.

In Chauncey Billups’ case, he would have full Bird Rights and the Clippers could re-sign him up to the NBA maximum without regards to the salary cap.

The Portland Trail Blazers would gain the same with J.J. Hickson, a player they would like to retain.

Having Bird Rights on Hickson would mean they could sign-and-trade him or simply wait and address his contract after using their cap space on free agents.

The NBA and the Players’ Association have yet to designate an arbitrator, so that has to play out first, but the NBPA is hopefully that the case can be heard before the NBA opens Free Agency in July.

Teams can begin talking with free agents on July 1st; however, the NBA cap year does not officially begin until July 10th.

Meet Kevin Murphy:  The 2012 NBA Draft is in just 44 days and with all 30 NBA teams getting ready to workout players. HOOPSWORLD has started popping in on would-be draft picks as they train and prepare for the draft.

Tennessee Tech’s Kevin Murphy is an interesting combo-player. He can swing from both the shooting guard and small forward position, but is likely a NBA two guard at the next level.

Murphy was a volume scorer for Tennessee Tech averaging 21.1 points, 5.3 rebounds to go with 2.4 assists. Murphy also shot a scorching 41.6% from three point range this year.

Take a look at Kevin Murphy:

Our friends at DraftExpress have Murphy ranked as the 37th best prospect in the draft. HOOPSWORLD’s Yannis Koutroupis has Murphy going 37 to the Toronto Raptors in his latest Mock Draft.

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NBA Chats: NBA Chats: There are three NBA chats scheduled for today starting with HOOPSWORLD’s Anthony Macri at 11am. Coach Macri works with NBA players year around with developing and improving their games and will do his best to answer your questions.Senior NBA writer Eric Pincus who will hold down his weekly NBA chat at 4pm EST. Eric covers the Western Conference from LA with the Lakers and the Clippers. Stephen Litel will wrap up the day with his weekly NBA Chat at 8pm EST. You can always find the next upcoming chat here: Upcoming NBA Chats. If you are looking for a completed chat, check the Chat Archive.