This one game meant nothing but it's troubling the Heat haven't figured things out after two full seasons. There are only 8 games left in the regular season and I believe Spoelstra is coming up short. Last year, the Heat tripped up in late February and early March. This time it's April. I agree they will be OK but maybe not.
Rose got shutdown and shot terrible. Rest of team were so caught up on ball-watching and felt uncomfortable on offense. Now they're all getting touches and team as a whole is cohesive. More touches = more confidence on offense all around = better team.
exactly, if miami wins this game and loses in the playoffs, no one's going to fondly remember this game. and if they win in the playoffs, no one's going to care about this game. miami seems to have checked out on the regular season about 3 weeks ago.
I can't recall ever seeing such a drastic On/Off disparity in a single game. Ironic that it should come from touted +/- star Shane Battier.
oh i'm not saying they're going to win the title. i very much suspect they won't. maybe a 15% chance? boston has shown they could mess things up. they can certainly lose to chicago. and the thunder's offense will be hell if they make it that far. if i trusted that i'd ever be able to get my money out of a gambling website, i'd bet on the thunder.
I can't recall ever seeing such a drastic On/Off disparity in a low scoring close game. At least james jones can hit 3's
I have a feeling the league not being prepared to play against that level of talent in consecutive games probably had much to do with it. Remember that most of their major losses last season came from choking in the clutch in a close game, this season however they have lost games by a sizable margin. Goes both ways I guess, on one hand the Heat have had time to gel together, on the other hand the the league has had more time to figure out the Heat.
did their losses to chicago and boston matter last season? at the time it may have seemed like it. and obviously wins are better than losses. but they were made completely irrelevant (like pretty much every regular season game for any of the contenders) by the playoffs. that was my point. the heat were in a downward spiral like 3 different times last year and then tore it up in the first 3 rounds. then they were on top of the world and fell apart in the finals. yesterday doesn't seem to say anything about today for this heat team. if they were more consistent it might but after 2 years this is who they are. it seems a little weird that lebron and wade play as well as they can play most all season and yet the heat can't win more games than lebron's cleveland teams even though that cleveland team won 19 games without lebron. i mean the heat are still better in the playoffs but those cleveland teams had some sort of regular season magic i guess. of course if i didn't like the heat they would've gone like 74-8 and 16-1 in playoffs last year. you should be happy i'm a heat fan.
Hopefully this means Miami will have very little to play for, position wise, by the time the HOU vs. MIA game rolls around.
I don't think Miami wants the #1 seed anyway. Probably better for them not to see Boston until the ECFs.
All I'm saying is that it is utter ridiculous for A_3PO to say that they haven't figured it out in 2 seasons, when last I checked a) they went to the finals last year, and b) they are the number 2 seed in the east. does. not. compute.
Them not wanting #1 seed would mean they would play Boston in the semi's if Boston were to advance. nm. I could've sworn they had the 3rd seed. But, it's still possible that they could. Nothing wrong with that though for the Heat, they had them last season in the semi's and did fine.
Bulls last year was very inexperienced, their coach too. Anything can happen in playoff but one thing is certain, Bulls are tougher to beat this year than last. They've played 20+ games without their superstar and they are just fine. They'll be much more confident in close games. On the other hand, Hollinger was calling 90% winning rate for Heat and they look mortal. Wade is injury-prone and the big 3 still choke in clutch.
