tive junior teams but I dont think theyre u

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indiana Pacers bizarre season came to a familiar end Friday night. Another embarrassing loss at Miami. Now Larry Bird must spend the off-season trying to figure out what went wrong and what must be fixed to finally beat the Heat in the playoffs. "You just have to go into the off-season with the mindset that were going to reload. We have a core, a system, a culture thats going to give us a chance every year," coach Frank Vogel said after Fridays 25-point, season-ending loss. "Weve got to make whatever adjustments we have to make to come back and be here again next year." There are plenty of questions heading into what could be a turbulent off-season. Will Vogel be back after leading the Pacers to 42, 49 and 56 wins in his first three full seasons as coach, capturing back-to-back Central Division titles, reaching the last two conference finals and earning the No. 1 seed for only the third time in franchise history? Will the Pacers re-sign free agent Lance Stephenson, their 23-year-old energizer, whose erratic behaviour became a major distraction in the Eastern Conference finals? Could Hibbert be on the trading block after struggling through Indianas confounding second-half swoon and nearly disappearing, at times, during the playoffs? Might Bird make other moves to cope with the NBA trend of spreading the floor, add scorers or rebuild the bench yet again? Or do the Pacers simply need more time to mature? While those answers might not come for months, one thing is clear: They must find a way to get past Miami after three straight playoff series losses, the last two in the Eastern Conference finals. "Obviously, theyre more prepared, theyre more seasoned for this moment," David West said. "Theyve been able to embrace these moments to get to a level that we, for some reason, cant compete." Bird spent last summer revamping the bench, and Indiana responded with a 33-7 start — the best in the NBA. But after signing Andrew Bynum in February and trading Danny Granger for Evan Turner at the trade deadline, the Pacers went into a confounding second-half swoon in which they looked disengaged and disinterested. Two-time All-Star Paul George acknowledged Friday that the Pacers seemed to hit a wall, thinking they could turn it on whenever they needed it. Somehow, they still managed to finish with the best record in the East, rallied to win the final two games against eighth-seeded Atlanta after twice giving away home-court advantage and rallied again against a young Washington team after giving away home-court advantage in Game 1. When they did it again by failing to close out the Heat at home in Game 2, Miami responded by winning all three of its home games decisively to clinch the series. "You know at times it feels like were there, and then theres games where it still feels like were not at that point yet," George said when asked if he thought the Pacers had closed the gap on Miami. "Coach says it, I mean, in order for us to beat this team, weve got to play like champions. More times than not, we didnt do so." Most of the problems were self-inflicted. Indiana struggled with infighting, prolonged slumps, unseemly rumours and constant criticism. Hibbert epitomized much of it. In late March, he complained about "selfish dudes" in the locker room, a barb directed at Stephenson, later apologized and was so bad, at times, in the playoffs that fans and analysts called for his benching. And its unclear what the Pacers will do after a second straight blowout in an elimination game at Miami. Bird acknowledged the Pacers were going "all in" this season when they re-signed David West, gave George a max deal and traded away their first-round pick to get Luis Scola from Phoenix. Stephenson could be the next Pacers player to strike it rich. But after calling out LeBron James publicly before Game 4, blowing in his ear in Game 5 and tapping James on his chin early in Game 6, some wonder if the Pacers even want Stephenson back. It all depends on whether Bird thinks Stephenson can help beat the Heat. "I dont know what the future holds for us," West said. "Obviously, everything starts and ends with the Miami Heat. You have to have a team that can get through a tough regular season but ultimately, you have to be able to beat Miami to get to the finals." Cheap Sharks Jerseys . The incident occurred at 6:28 of the first period in Anaheims 6-3 home win over Dallas on Sunday. Garbutt left the penalty box and skated at Penner before leaving his skates to deliver a check. Cheap San Jose Sharks Jerseys . The Blueshirts hope to stay alive once again when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins in Sundays Game 6 battle at Madison Square Garden. http://www.cheapsharksjerseys.com/. Lawries batting helmet hit an umpire during his ninth-inning outburst in the Jays 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday. The 22-year-old threw his helmet to the ground and it bounced up and hit home plate umpire Bill Miller on the right hip after Lawrie was called out on strikes for the second out. Cheap Sharks Jerseys China . The Brazilian heads into Saturday afternoons race coming off a close runner-up finish to Ryan Hunter-Reay in the Indianapolis 500. Cheap Adidas NHL Jerseys . -- Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday for the first time in his seven-year career because of a swollen muscle in his left upper back. LAPEENRANTA, Finland -- Canada will have to play for bronze at the world under-18 hockey championship. David Kase scored at 6:17 of overtime to give the Czech Republic a 4-3 semifinal win over Canada on Saturday. Kase converted a turnover in the Canadian zone to move the Czechs into the tournament final against the United States on Sunday. The Americans advanced with a 4-1 semifinal victory over Sweden. Canada, the defending champion who erased an early 3-0 deficit, will play the Swedes for the bronze medal on Sunday. "Its not easy," Canadian head coach Kevin Dineen said. "You just dont walk by this, you feel the sting of it and understand its going to be a tough game for both teams. "But it has to be something that we understand about playing for your country. Theres opportunity to finish strong and weve got to come out and show some respect for our country by playing extremely hard." The Czechs dominated overtime, outshooting Canada 5-1 in the extra frame and forcing goalie Mason McDonald to come up big. But the Canadians had a glorious chance to earn the victory when they went on the power play after David Pastrnak was called for hooking Travis Konecny at 2:07, but couldnt come up with the winner. Dineen said that was indeed a lost opportunity for his squad. "Absolutely," he said. "They were able to clear two pucks out and unfortunately for us we didnt have a net presence there. "We had some real skill and some ability to shoot it but nobody standing in front of the net, which was a real issue for us. We needed to capitalize there and I think when you get one of those in overtime you like to think that youve got a real advantage and unfortunately we couldnt get the thing to go in.dddddddddddd" The Canadians forced overtime with third-period goals by Joe Hicketts and Daniel Audette and Dineen said the effort his team had to expend to erase its early deficit came back to haunt it later on. "Yeah, it did," said Dineen, who led Canadas national womens team to Olympic gold in Sochi, Russia. "These players are used to logging a lot of icetime with their respective junior teams but I dont think theyre used to logging such hard minutes like they had to tonight. "That certainly played into it, fatigue at the end." Jiri Smejkal, Jakub Vrana and Michael Spacek scored in regulation for the Czech Republic, which outshot the Canadians 33-30. Mathew Barzal also scored for Canada. The Czechs wasted no time opening the scoring, with Spaceks goal coming just 1:15 into the contest. Vrana made it 2-0 at 7:37 of the second before Smejkal converted on a two-on-one break at 12:57. Barzal cut Canadas deficit to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 14:51. The Canadians came close moments after, with Ryan Gropp having a great scoring chance off a two-on-one, but couldnt beat Czech goalie Vtek Vanecek. Queeneville also had a glorious opportunity to make it a one-goal game with just over two minutes remaining. Hicketts pulled Canada to within 3-2 when his wrist shot from the point beat a screened Vanecek at 5:02 of the third before Audette scored off a goal-mouth scramble in front of Vanecek at 12:21. ' ' '