The MVP didn't care, not after he and the Miami Heat struck the first blow against the Indiana Pacers.James accepted his third MVP trophy from Commissioner David Stern before the game, then scored 26 of his game-high 32 points while playing every second of the second half - adding a season-high 15 rebounds as well - as the Heat survived some rough stretches to beat the Pacers 95-86 on Sunday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
"I just looked at him straight in the eyes and said, 'You can flat-out not get tired, period,'" Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "And he made MVP plays on both ends of the court."
Dwyane Wade scored 29 points for the Heat, who won the game but lost Chris Bosh for the second half and possibly longer. Bosh scored 13 points before leaving late in the first half with a lower abdominal strain, with the team saying he was being scheduled for an MRI exam to determine the severity.
"Hopefully (Monday) we get good news," Wade said. "We all just want to make sure Chris is healthy. So that's all we know right now. Our brother is going to go (Monday) to see if he can get back outside there and play with us. If not, then we've got to have somebody step up very big. You can't fill Chris Bosh's shoes, but you can have a few guys step up. So we'll see."
David West and Roy Hibbert each marked 17 points and combined for 23 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 10 points each from Darren Collison and George Hill. Indiana determined long stretches of the first half and didn't drag by more than two points at any time until the fourth quarter, when it was |outpointed 25-16.
Indiana shot 50 percent in the start half, 30 percentage in the second.
"We started to get defensive stops," James said. "We started getting things rolling."
Game 2 is Tuesday in Miami.
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