Miami Heat vs Indiana Pacers Live Stream Free: WATCH ONLINE NBA PLAYOFFS GAME 6 BASKETBALL (Eastern Conference Finals)

Miami Heat vs Indiana Pacers takes place in the NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 on Thursday night with the series now in Miami's control after the Heat took Game 5, 90-79 on their home court in Miami. The series now moves to Indianapolis for the most pivotal game of the playoffs. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8.30 p.m. ET and can be watched online through free live stream (details below).

Standing on the cusp of the NBA Finals has tended to agree with the Miami Heat in each of the last two seasons. When the Heat have gotten a game away from the title round, they've finished the task as quickly as possible.

And here they are again.

A third straight Eastern Conference title is now just one win away for the reigning champions, though if the way this series has gone so far is an accurate indicator, that win will hardly come easily. The Heat will visit the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, leading the best-of-seven East finals 3-2 and in position to close out their new rivals on their own floor for the second straight season.

"We're desperate, too," Heat forward and four-time NBA MVP LeBron James said on Friday. "We're desperate to get back to the NBA Finals. So both teams are desperate in their own sense of they're trying to keep their season alive and we're trying to advance."

The teams have alternated wins and losses through the first five games, and if that trend holds, then it's the Pacers' turn to prevail on Saturday and send the series back to Miami for a winner-goes-to-the-finals Game 7 on Monday night.

If the Heat -- who have won each of their last six potential series-closeout games, including two in the 2011 and 2012 East finals -- win, then the championship round against the San Antonio Spurs will begin in Miami on Thursday.

"You can't start thinking about opening up the invitation," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's over there. You can't even think about that."

According to espn.com, the shirts in Indiana say "Gold Swagger" for a reason. Even down 3-2 against a team that hasn't lost back-to-back games since early January, the Pacers still have plenty of confidence, and it starts with a coach who came into the series insisting his club had genuine belief that it could knock off the champions.

"It's not just false talk," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. "There's a reason I'm confident. I like to tell these guys that I'm not an optimist. That's what my image is. I'm a realist. And when I look around at what I see in the room when I'm talking to this team, and what I see on the court, and the level of execution that we're capable of ... it gives me real confidence in this basketball team. Our guys understand it's not just happy talk."

"The close-out game," Heat forward Shane Battier told espn, "is always the toughest."

The game can be viewed on TNT (Turner Network Television) and Live Stream on TNT OVERTIME: