The New York Giants unveiled their Super Bowl XLVI ring Wednesday, which also pays homage to all four of the franchise’s championship teams.

“We wanted it to represent the four trophies and have that feeling that you made the best ring that you could have made,” defensive end Justin Tuck said in a statement released by the team. “I think we captured that.”

The ring, made of white gold, was designed by Tiffany & Co., which received input from the Giants’ ownership, general manager Jerry Reese, coach Tom Coughlin and Giants players, including captains Eli Manning, Tuck and Zak DeOssie.

The ring is covered in diamonds and has four Vince Lombardi trophies, commemorating the team’s four titles. Each trophy is set with a marquis diamond representing a football. The Giants’ logo is surrounded by the trophies and is set with diamonds. The top of the ring includes 37 blue sapphires.

The ring also has some blue coloring, which was important for the players involved in the design process. The ring the team received after their 2007 title featured white gold and diamonds, without any additional color.

“The blue makes it a little different,” Manning said in the statement. “We wanted some blue — the Giants are Big Blue. We definitely wanted to get a little blue to spark it up a little bit.

Also included on the ring is the final score — 21-17 — of the Giants’ victory over the New England Patriots, plus the years of the team’s four titles (1986, 1990, 2007 and 2011).

The ring also has the words “Finish” and “All in” engraved inside the ring. The words were inspirational phrases the team used during the 2011 season.

“We definitely wanted ‘Finish,’ we definitely wanted ‘All in,’ ” Tuck said in the statement. “Those were two things we prided ourselves on, not only during the season, but especially through the playoff run. And we won games that way. So we definitely wanted those in there.”

The Super Bowl champs will be presented with the ring Wednesday evening in Manhattan at Tiffany & Co.

Manning, in an interview Wednesday morning with CNN, said he doesn’t wear his earlier ring much.

“I kind of wear it on special occasions up to the start of the season, then I put it away,” Manning told CNN on Wednesday. “It’s a big ring. It’s almost hard to wear.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

NEW YORK — Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird has been voted the NBA’s Executive of the Year, becoming the first person to win that award, plus the league’s MVP and Coach of the Year honors.

The Pacers went 42-24 and are tied 1-1 with Miami in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Bird’s moves to strengthen the team during the offseason included promoting Frank Vogel from interim to head coach and signing starting forward David West.

Bird was a three-time MVP as a Boston Celtics player, then led his home-state Pacers to a 147-67 record in three seasons and their only Finals appearance in 2000.

Bird received 88 points and 12 first-place votes from a panel of his fellow team executives Wednesday. San Antonio’s R.C. Buford was second with 56 points.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

Philadelphia Eagles tackle Jason Peters and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, two All-Pro players who have suffered offseason Achilles injuries that have put part or all of their 2012 seasons in jeopardy, may lose millions of dollars in salary because both fall under the “Nonfootball injury” provision of the collective bargaining agreement.

The applicable wording in the CBA, Article 20, Section 3 provision states: “A player who is placed on a Nonfootball injury or Illness list (“N-F/I”) is not entitled to any compensation under his contract while on such list …”

Both players have claimed they were injured during off-site training sessions but league and union sources agree that any injury sustained that does not occur at the team’s facility or under its direction is considered a “Nonfootball injury.”

The Eagles and Ravens may act in accordance with their own wishes and pay the players all or part of their salaries. League sources say both Peters and Suggs are facing a financial reduction in 2012.

Peters will be subject to loss of at least $3.25 million of his scheduled base salary of $7.9 million in 2012 because that is the amount the Eagles will pay his replacement, former Bills tackle Demetress Bell, to take his spot. League sources say the team already has amicably discussed the financial reduction with Peters and his representative, Eugene Parker.

Peters tore his Achilles on March 27 and underwent surgery in early April and was expected to miss the entire season. He also re-injured the same surgically repaired Achilles this week and will need a second surgery.

Suggs underwent surgery May 7 to repair a partially torn Achilles, which he has claimed was injured while training in Arizona. Suggs said he expects to return sometime during the 2012 season.

Suggs’ case appears slightly more complicated because he has a partially torn Achilles and has said he believes he will return by October or shortly thereafter. If he were placed on the PUP list when the season begins, he must miss at least the first six games. It is conceivable the Ravens could not pay him those six game checks from his $4.9 million base salary.

Technically, as the CBA states, the teams are not obligated to pay any salary due Peters and Suggs, but sources say both are such vital players and in otherwise good standing with their respective organizations that it appears unlikely the teams would take such drastic action. The Eagles and Ravens also want Peters and Suggs motivated to rehab diligently from their injuries.

Both players have significant offseason workout bonuses and escalator clauses at risk. Peters has a $100,000 workout bonus and a $250,000 roster bonus. Suggs has a $250,000 escalator clause for the 2013 season. However, league sources say Suggs is contemplating a restructuring or extension of his contract when he is healthy that would reflect his status among the league’s players after he was voted as the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2011.

One related matter that will be discussed and perhaps voted upon at next Tuesday’s league meetings in Atlanta pertains to allowing teams one exemption on a player who is placed on injured reserve. Players placed on injured reserve cannot return at any point during the season. The exemption proposal, which was tabled for vote at the March meetings, would allow teams to return one player to its active roster at any point after midseason. In theory, this is to allow a player who has healed at a more accelerated rate than doctors first projected to return to his team later in the season.

NEW YORK — Fate or just dumb luck?

If the New York Rangers end up celebrating their first Stanley Cup championship since 1994 next month, they will look back on the moment that defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi began playing together last fall and wonder if that was indeed the defining moment.

Whether they came together via happenstance or not, you could hardly find two more inexorably linked yet unique pieces of the New York Rangers’ Stanley Cup puzzle.

Taken as singular elements, they represent an impressive range of assets including speed, grittiness and high hockey IQ, but as a two-man unit coming from wildly disparate backgrounds, the two have come to represent something altogether impressive, something far more significant to a team now seven wins away from a Stanley Cup championship.

“Everything’s impressive to me, to be honest,” Hall of Fame defenseman Brian Leetch, a member of the last Rangers team to win a Cup, told ESPN.com Tuesday.

McDonagh and Girardi have quickly become the foundation of a very good Rangers defense. Usually young defensemen reveal their potential before they reveal their actual capabilities. Not with McDonagh, 22, and Girardi, 28, who seem to have accelerated their maturation process exponentially.

“These guys were both thrust into those roles,” Leetch said. “That’s pretty impressive to see their consistency at this age.”

Here’s the thing: For something that has turned out so well, no one — not even the man who decided to pair the two, head coach John Tortorella — had any idea how this would turn out.

Marc Staal, arguably the Rangers most important defenseman coming into the season, was still recovering from a concussion and Tortorella didn’t think Michael Del Zotto was ready to take on such responsibilities at the NHL level. This pretty much left McDonagh to move into a top pair role with Girardi.

“You never know,” Tortorella said Tuesday. “It’s funny how it works out when you end up with injuries. We always talk about when there’s injuries another guy gets an opportunity. You never know where it’s going to lead you. I’m not sure if I’ll ever split those two guys up. That’s just the way it works.

“If any coach tells you that he knows this will work, he’s lying. Because we don’t. You try it and you make a judgment and hopefully your judgment is the correct one.”

This spring has been dominated by strong defensive play, and McDonagh and Girardi were significant factors again on Monday as the Rangers took the opening game against the New Jersey Devils by a 3-0 count.

Girardi, who endured a rare off night defensively, scored the winning goal 53 seconds into the third period, breaking a scoreless tie. It was his second goal of the postseason. He logged 25:11 in ice time, more than any other player in the game — which isn’t surprising given that he has spent more time on the ice this spring than any other NHL player.

McDonagh, meanwhile, served up another impeccable defensive performance, tracking down speedy New Jersey captain Zach Parise in the first period to negate a great scoring chance and then knifing in to cut the angle on New Jersey sniper Ilya Kovalchuk as he broke in down the left side.

He was on the ice for 24:27 and ranks second among all players in ice time this spring.

Two peas in a pod? Not exactly.

Girardi, the more physical of the two, enjoyed a successful junior career in Ontario, winning a Memorial Cup with a powerful London Knights team in 2005. Undrafted, Girardi signed a two-way deal with the Rangers and began the 2005-06 season in the ECHL with Charlotte.

Every time Jim Schoenfeld, the GM of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford, Conn., heard from the coaching staff in Charlotte there were rave reviews about Girardi. Girardi was eventually called up to the AHL that season. Then he was called up by the Rangers in January 2007 and stayed with the big club for good, missing only two games since.

“I don’t think at that time we knew he could attain these heights,” said Schoenfeld, who is also the Rangers’ assistant GM and an assistant coach.

“The thing that caught our eye at the time was that he didn’t make very many mistakes.”

Schoenfeld added that Girardi does so much without fanfare that it’s sometimes easy to miss how effective he is.

“He’s just continued his development,” the former NHL player and coach said. “But he had it. He has real good hockey IQ. He learned how to work real hard. So now you have the complete package.”

McDonagh, on the other hand, is the quintessential American prospect. Hailing from St. Paul, Minn., McDonagh helped his high school to its first-ever state hockey championship — about as big as it gets in the State of Hockey.

He was named the top senior high school player in the state the following year and the Montreal Canadiens made him the 12th overall pick in the 2007 draft.

During his three years at the University of Wisconsin, players and coaches would often watch McDonagh speed down the ice and say, ‘Oh, there goes McDonagh shot from a cannon again,’ head coach Mike Eaves recalled on Tuesday.

Two years after they drafted him, the Canadiens inexplicably included McDonagh’s rights in a deal that sent Scott Gomez to Montreal.

It took some time for McDonagh to make the adjustment from college hockey to pro hockey, Schoenfeld said, but his speed and strength have allowed him to blossom very quickly.

“Leaps and bounds” is how Schoenfeld describes McDonagh’s evolution this season.

Now, Schoenfeld expects McDonagh to start taking his game in a more offensive direction.

Eaves shares Schoenfeld’s view of McDonagh’s upside: “His confidence and patience with the puck has taken a quantum leap this year. His decision-making with the puck is as good as it’s ever been.”

McDonagh and Girardi spend a lot of time together away from the rink, especially when the team is on the road.

“Especially this year, he’s coming over to my house a little bit more, playing with my son and stuff like that,” Girardi said. “And I think that’s kind of part of why we’re doing well. We’re good friends off the ice, and it makes our job easier on the ice.

“I think sometimes it works between guys and sometimes it doesn’t. And it just seemed to jell. I really couldn’t tell you why. I think it’s just kind of read off each other from the beginning and talking on and off the ice about different things we could do, and it’s been good so far.”

It’s clear Girardi’s maturity and work ethic have had a significant impact on McDonagh.

“It’s been great. I mean, I make some mistakes, and Danny’s great at recovering and blocking a shot or disrupting an odd-man rush,” McDonagh said. “And he just gives you that much more confidence to join the rush and create and make your plays that way.

“And obviously learned a lot from him, how mentally tough he is. The grind that he goes through, the hits that he takes, and the way he blocks shots. He’s such a leader in that aspect, and it’s something that I’m trying to get involved in in my game.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels, off to a disappointing start due in large part to a sputtering offense, fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher Tuesday night and promoted Jim Eppard from Triple-A Salt Lake to replace him.

Newly-acquired superstar Albert Pujols is off to the worst start of his career and the Angels rank 13th in the American League in runs, seventh in batting average (.247) and 12th in on-base percentage. After Tuesday’s 4-0 win over the Oakland Athletics, the Angels — picked by many to reach the World Series — are 16-21 and seven games behind the first-place Texas Rangers.

Hatcher joined the Angels in 2000, shortly after they hired Mike Scioscia, a former Los Angeles Dodgers teammate and a close friend.

“Sometimes in the sports world, a point is reached where perhaps a new voice is needed in order to attain the desired goals and objectives,” Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we feel this is one of those times. Offensively, we have underachieved and everyone shares in the responsibility of what has transpired thus far.”

Pujols, a three-time MVP in the National League, had three infield hits Tuesday to raise his average to .212. He has hit one home run in 146 at-bats.

Hatcher had grown unpopular with Angels fans as the team struggled to score runs in 2010 and 2011. Then, with expectations sky high for 2012, the season began in a similar pattern, with the Angels struggling to get on base and often stranding runners in scoring position.

In 2009, the Angels set franchise records for batting average (.285), hits, runs and RBIs.

SAN ANTONIO — Tim Duncan had 26 points and 10 rebounds and the San Antonio Spurs, recharged after a weeklong layoff, wore down the busy Los Angeles Clippers to win Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinals series, 108-92 on Tuesday night.

Playing for the sixth time in 11 days, Los Angeles gave San Antonio its toughest first half of the playoffs before fading fast. And unlike their stunning Game 1 comeback at Memphis in the first round, the Clippers didn’t have the wind this time.

Manu Ginobili added 22 points for the Spurs, who’ve won 15 in a row. It’s the longest winning streak sustained in the NBA playoffs since the 2004 Spurs won 17 straight.

“It’s the playoffs. It’s going to be physical. We knew that coming in,” Duncan said. “We just expected to attack the basket as much as possible.”

Eric Bledsoe led the Clippers with 23 points.

Game 2 is Thursday night.

That gives the beat-up and banged-up Clippers one full day of rest — which is all the time they’ve had to recover between games for the past week and a half.

Los Angeles couldn’t even fly home first after knocking out the Grizzlies on Sunday in Game 7 of a grueling series that had the Clippers hobbling next to Texas. Blake Griffin scored 15 points in 28 minutes a day after estimating his sprained left knee had him feeling “80 percent” at best.

The Clippers said the injury is bad enough that their All-Star and leading scorer might be missing up to two weeks if this were the regular season. But unlike in Game 7 on Sunday, Griffin didn’t take a seat in the fourth quarter until the Spurs were safely ahead in the final minutes.

Rookie Kawhi Leonard added 16 points, hitting all three of his 3s, and Danny Green added 15 points for the Spurs.

The marquee matchup of the series — All-Star point guards Tony Parker and Chris Paul — was a fizzle. Paul, who ended the first round with an aching hip, scored just six points and didn’t make a single basket in the second half. Parker had seven points and 11 assists.

Caron Butler scored 15 points and Nick Young had 13 for the Clippers. Los Angeles cut the deficit to single digits with a 10-burst in the fourth quarter before San Antonio, which hasn’t lost in a month, ran away with its 11th double-digit victory during this dominating winning streak.

The Clippers didn’t even need San Antonio’s help getting more bumps and bruises: Mo Williams, already playing with his sore right fingers taped, took a lump on the head when teammate Reggie Evans kicked him with an errant foot after Williams fell on his back in the lane.

Williams wobbled when he tried standing, sat back down, and the Clippers burned a timeout. He never left the game, but the Clippers weren’t getting any fresher.

Parker, meanwhile, finally felt the hard knocks and slow-him-down shoves that Utah repeatedly promised but never delivered in the first round. Sometimes, the All-Star looked in vain to officials when the whistle didn’t blow. When that didn’t work once in the first quarter, he kept jabbering about a no-call on the last possession while lining up to shoot free throws on the current one.

Popovich, pacing and sensing an impending technical foul, silenced his leading scorer.

“Tony!” Popovich snapped from the sideline. “Shoot!”

Parker waved off the NBA Coach of the Year — he was under control. But his frustrations didn’t end there. He was 1 for 9 despite playing 38 minutes, scoring all but two of his points at the foul line.

Game notes
Before this became the deepest Spurs team yet under Popovich, Butler said he came so close to signing with the Spurs after the lockout that he canceled a flight to San Antonio when the Clippers counteroffered. “They made a great pitch,” Butler said. …Leonard finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year voting, the highest finish for a Spurs player since Ginobili finished fourth in 2003. Said Popovich: “He’s done a good enough job to make me trust him to be in the starting lineup. I’m happy for him.”

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

MIAMI — No Big Three meant one big problem for Miami, and one very big win for Indiana.

David West scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, George Hill added 15 and the Indiana Pacers took home-court advantage away from Miami by beating the Heat 78-75 in Game 2 of the teams’ Eastern Conference semifinal series Tuesday night.

LeBron James scored 28 points for Miami and Dwyane Wade finished with 24, but both missed big chances for the Heat late. James missed two free throws with 54.3 seconds left and Miami down one, and Wade was short on a layup that would have tied the game with 16 seconds remaining.

Mario Chalmers‘ 3-pointer to tie bounced away on the final play, and the series was tied 1-1.

Danny Granger scored 11 points and Paul George added 10 for Indiana, which took advantage of Heat forward Chris Bosh‘s absence and outrebounded Miami 50-40.

Game 3 is Thursday in Indianapolis.

James had a chance to give Miami the lead with 1:22 left, but his shot was blocked from behind by George, who was fouled two seconds later. He missed both free throws, keeping the Indiana lead at 76-75. And after Wade missed a jumper, James was fouled by Granger — his sixth — battling for the rebound with 54.3 seconds remaining.

James couldn’t connect on either, and the Heat didn’t score again.

Bosh is expected to miss the rest of the series with a strained abdominal muscle. Without him, James and Wade combined for 52 points — and no other Miami player scored more than five.

A dreadful third quarter by Miami — 3 for 17 shooting — allowed Indiana to lead by as much as 11, before the emotions picked up considerably in the fourth.

Wade was steaming when he missed a shot after trying to create contact with Indiana’s Dahntay Jones with 9:53 left. As Wade argued, Jones went the other way and set Leandro Barbosa up for a score that put the Pacers up 63-56.

Chalmers turned the ball over on the next possession, and as the Pacers took off for what set up as a 2-on-none break, Wade caught Darren Collison from behind and knocked him over. A flagrant-1 was called, Collison hit both free throws, the Indiana lead was nine and tensions were suddenly high.

It all seemed to spark Miami.

The Heat scored the next six points, James — who got hit in the head by Granger with 7:25 left, sparking a bit of shoving that led to double-technicals given to both players — added a putback off an offensive rebound and Wade did the same about a minute later, getting Miami within 69-66 with 5:57 left.

James missed a free throw that would have tied it with 4:30 remaining, but after George got the rebound, James dove in to create a jump ball situation. The MVP easily won the tap, sending it to Wade, whose bank shot over West put Miami back on top 72-71.

Barbosa scored on the next Indiana possession. The Pacers weren’t rattled, and left celebrating minutes later.

Indiana scored 16 points in the first seven minutes of the first half, then scored 17 in the next 17 minutes. And even after a drought like that, Miami’s lead was only 38-33 at the break.

George missed four shots in a 60-second span early on, setting the tone for an icy-cold half by the Pacers. Indiana was up 16-9 midway through the first when the Heat went to a smaller lineup that paid quick dividends.

Three baskets at the rim — a layup by Wade, then James firing a pass to Turiaf for a dunk, followed by a Wade touch pass to James for another slam — erased most of the early deficit, and defense did the rest. Indiana missed 24 of 29 shots in one stretch, and after Hibbert used his size advantage to get three shots in the first 1:11, he only got two attempts over the rest of the half.

Miami was 0-for-7 on shots that would have pushed its margin to double digits in the first half, continuing a trend from Game 1. Neither team ever led the series opener by more than nine either, and when George made a 3-pointer with 6:09 left in the third, the Pacers had pulled into a 46-all tie. A steal and dunk by George followed on the next possession, putting the Pacers back on top.

Before long, the Pacers had that first 10-point edge of the series. Collison’s jumper with 1:29 left in the third put Indiana up 59-49, and the margin was 61-52 entering the fourth.

For as bad as Indiana’s first half was offensively, Miami’s third quarter was equally dreadful — the Heat were outscored 28-14 on 3-for-17 shooting in the period, the third-worst shooting effort by the reigning East champs in any quarter this season.

Game notes
James’ six steals were a Heat playoff record. … Trying to exploit the size advantage with Bosh out, the Pacers gave Hibbert three shots in the first 1:11 of the game. He got three the rest of the game. … Wade is now 39-11 in home playoff games. … James will play his 100th playoff game Thursday.

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Los Angeles Lakers only forced four turnovers from the Oklahoma City Thunder in Monday’s 119-90 loss in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

One way the Lakers could plan to get the Thunder, which had the most turnovers in the league during the regular season with 16.35 per game, to cough it up more would be to try to take charges in Game 2.

Just don’t expect Kobe Bryant to be the one taking them.

“We got a couple guys that take charges, but for the most part, the one guy that took a charge is now playing in Oklahoma,” Bryant said after practice Tuesday, referring to Derek Fisher. “I don’t take charges. Metta (World Peace) don’t take charges. Steve (Blake) will take a charge every now and then, but most everybody else just stands up and plays.”

The 33-year-old veteran who is playing in his 16th season said part of the reason for his longevity is his aversion to sacrificing his body to draw offensive fouls.

“I learned from my predecessors,” Bryant said. “(Scottie) Pippen had a (messed) up back taking charges. (Larry) Bird had a (messed) up back taking charges. I said, ‘I’m not taking charges.’ I figured that … out at an early age.”

Bryant said that Pippen and Bird didn’t share their charge-taking horror stories with him to influence his decision, he merely noticed through observation. He also picked up on other legends who benefited from not taking charges.

“I’ve seen Michael (Jordan) not take one … charge and he’s healthy his whole career and the same thing with Magic (Johnson),” Bryant said. “I might not be the smartest guy in the room, but I can figure that … out.”

Bryant estimated he’s only taken one charge in the last two seasons and it was probably “by accident.”

“I couldn’t get out of the way,” Bryant joked.

Even though taking charges isn’t in Bryant’s bag of tricks, he credited players who do take them successfully.

“Shane (Battier) does a great job taking charges,” Bryant said. “Fish actually does a great job taking charges too & It’s a skill. It’s definitely a skill. I know at Duke they teach that, they drill that, how to step in and take charges and sacrifice your body.”

Bryant’s comments on charge-taking came on the heels of commissioner David Stern decrying the epidemic of flopping going on in today’s NBA.

“I think it’s time to look at (flopping) in a more serious way,” Stern said Sunday, “because it’s only designed to fool the referee. It’s not a legitimate play in my judgment. I recognize if there’s contact (you) move a little bit, but some of this is acting. We should give out Oscars rather than MVP trophies.”

Bryant, who made it clear, “I don’t flop,” echoed Stern’s remarks.

“There’s a difference (between taking a charge and flopping). We all know what flopping is when we see it,” Bryant said. “The stuff that you see is where guys aren’t really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water. That’s kind of like, where are your balls at?”

Lakers coach Mike Brown said that it will be difficult for the league to enforce some sort of anti-flopping policy, however.

“It is (a problem),” Brown said. “I don’t know how you clean it up though because everything is a judgment call and when it happens, and it happens at the speed that it does, how do you clean that up? Because, it’s human error. You see somebody get hit, a lot of times you’re told to make a strong call. You’re told to be strong with your calls and so you’re going hit that whistle real hard. You hit that whistle real hard and by then, it might be too late. It’s like, man, he might not have done that but it’s too late.”

LeBron James is getting a first-hand look at just how hard it is for the Miami Heat to replace Chris Bosh.

Playing extended minutes at power forward with Bosh sidelined by an abdominal strain took its toll on the league MVP in Tuesday’s 78-75 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“It’s a lot more taxing being in there with bigger guys,” James said, according to the Miami Herald.

He said that defense “is the biggest difference. When you’re on the perimeter, there’s more space. The interior is more cramped and physical.”

The stats say that the Heat lost the interior battle as Indiana tied the second-round playoff series 1-1. The Pacers outrebounded the Heat 50-40 after Miami took that stat 45-38 in Game 1.

Points in the paint were even at 38 in Game 2, but many of Miami’s interior points came from drives by James and Dwyane Wade. The Heat dominated that stat in Game 1, 52-40. Bosh had 13 points and five rebounds in only 16 minutes before going down.

While James scored 28 points and Wade added 24 Tuesday, no other Heat player scored more than five points. Big men Ronny Turiaf, Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem combined for seven points and 12 rebounds. Pacers forward David West had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while center Roy Hibbert had eight points and 11 rebounds.

Bosh also missed nine games during the regular season, and the Heat went 4-5. With Bosh on the court, Miami has the third best scoring front court in the league. Not only did he average 18 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, he was also the Heat’s most clutch fourth-quarter shooter.

Since Bosh has been ruled out indefinitely, the Heat will have to make adjustments for Thursday’s Game 3 and beyond. James has acknowledged it’s going to be tough, “but I’m ready for the challenge,” he said, according to the Herald.

Saying that he’s played more different positions this season than he ever did in Cleveland, James also said that there are advantages to playing power forward.

“I can get more rebounds and start the break,” he said, according to the Herald. The box score reveals, though, that the Pacers had 13 fastbreak points to six for the Heat Tuesday.

Bosh’s absence not only means more physical play for James, it also means that he’s getting to get less rest. He’s played 43 of 48 minutes in both games of the series. It could be argued that fatigue contributed to James missing two free throws with the Heat down one and 54 seconds left Tuesday.

“Forty minutes in the playoffs is different than 40 minutes in the regular season,” James said, according to the newspaper. “Intensity is raised. The grind is much more intense. Hopefully, I can get a few minutes here and there.”