Sports

West battles despite fever

INDIANAPOLIS — The Pacers downplayed the severity of David West’s upper respiratory infection all day, saying despite sitting out the team’s morning shootaround, their starting power forward would be ready for the opening tip of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night against the Heat.

Though West was out there, as expected, finishing with 11 points, 14 rebounds and four assists in Indiana’s 91-77 win to force Game 7 Monday night back in Miami, he was far from 100 percent.

In fact, after Pacers coach Frank Vogel said before the game West had a fever of slightly over 100 degrees, Yahoo! Sports reported he was playing through a 103-degree fever.

“It’s all heart,” Vogel said after the game. “That guy is all heart, and it’s contagious. I don’t really have words for it, to be honest with you.

“His tank was on [empty] from the time he came into this building this morning. … But he was just competing and giving all he had, and he was rebounding the basketball, even if he wasn’t making shots.”

West missed all seven of his shots in the first half, but responded after the break by going 5-for-7 from the field and scoring 10 of his 11 points on the night, including hitting four shots in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.

“David West understands what’s at stake,” Paul George said. “You could tell at times he wasn’t fully there. … He was trying to fight through and give it his all. We’re very grateful to have a player like that.

“That’s just David West stepping to the challenge, and we still went to him, because we know David West, [and] we’ll take David West any day, sick or healthy. He just gave us his all.”

* Following the game, Pacers center Roy Hibbert made a controversial comment during his postgame press conference.

As part of his answer to a question about one of the pivotal moments of the game — when Hibbert drew an offensive foul on LeBron James that led to both James and Heat assistant coach David Fizdale picking up technical fouls — Hibbert said, “I really felt that I let Paul [George] down in terms of having his back when LeBron was scoring in the post or getting to the paint, because they stretched me out so much, no homo.”

Hibbert later called out the media when asked how, despite anchoring the league’s best defense, he finished 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

“You know what, because y’all [expletive] don’t watch us play throughout the year, to tell you the truth. That’s fine. I’m going to be real with you, and I don’t care if I get fined.”