And like that! Miami is done.
No more whiteout at the AAA. No more Wade. No more Shaq. No more Heat dancers.
No more hitting mute when Hubie Brown comments on Heat games. No more Sun Sports pregame hype.
No more chances to comeback and defend the title. It’s over. Miami’s reign as champs has come to an end.
Yet, as tough as this is for us noveau-riche Heat fans to swallow, we must remember that the franchises in the NBA that have actually won the title is very small. And of that group, the franchises that have been able to defend their title with another title is even smaller. Ultimately, Miami has ended up where other championship teams of the past have ended up – falling short.
We can go on and on about how the Heat were swept out in the first round by the Bulls, yet the details make what seems clear even fuzzier. The home court advantage. The injuries that slowed the Heat down. The missed free throws that cost them two wins at least. The list goes on and on, but it just comes down to the fact that the Bulls were almost pre-destined to win this series no matter what. Don’t think so? What about Ben Wallace’s 6 made free throws in a row? When has he EVER done that?
So, the Heat end up falling short of their title defense, and for the haters out there, they would only stress they fell very short of it. There is some good, however that could come out of this.
What this means…
The most important thing is, the regular season does matter. We were all too quick to point out that the Bulls held a 3-1 regular season advantage and at the same time disregard it. We somehow knew the Heat would overcome adversity and win this series. We attributed it to all the injuries, turmoil, and inconsistency that plagued the Heat during the season. We believed it so much that even Pat Riley fell prey to it – taking a mid-season break to get surgery done he had put off in the offseason (and for several years).
We disregarded so much – like the bad free throw shooting. The lacksidasical attitude of turning it on only “when it mattered”. Nothing could grab this team’s attention and get them to focus on their task. They were going to hang around until it mattered and then get serious.
Getting swept by a hungrier, more focused team will show the Heat the way back to a title. There can be no let down and they cannot afford to play down to their competition. They have to meet their goals and exceed them. They have to prepare. They have to show up even when it doesn’t matter.
Pat Riley the coach handcuffs Pat Riley the GM. We saw it before, during the Heat’s mid-90′s run where the Zo and Tim Hardaway modeled Heat were constantly in war with the Knicks. The Heat never took the chance to improve as Riley stuck with his guys to the end. His loyalty would do him in year’s later, but this time after a title was won and the dream parade was realized.
After the Eastern Conference Finals of 2004-2005, the Heat were faced with figuring out how to get around the Pistons. Detroit benefited greatly from an injury to Dwyane Wade and to a beat-up Shaq (who had thigh bruises that just wouldnt heal) so most pundits said just stand “pat” as that team was good enough to dethrone the Pistons – if healthy. Riley, the GM, realized that team needed more depth in order to deal with any possible injury issues.
Riley the coach was out of work, as Riley the GM hired Stan Van Gundy to run that team. So, any issues of dealing with chemistry within the lockerroom were of no concern. Eddie Jones, a loyal Heat player dedicated to the Riley cause, was dealt in order to realize this vision. Riley the GM, cuthroat. Riley the coach, loyal – to a fault.
And it was the coach that greatly debilitated this team this past offseason when Pat Riley decided to bring everyone back in order to make another run. This would prove costly as the team’s focus was not there all season long. The injuries were a cute way of disguising it, but the reality was as obvious as a suspension in January – in the middle of the season! – that the Heat were not fit to defend the title.
Maybe it can be blamed on Wade. Maybe because he was always able to pull his team out of the fire last year, the team as a whole began to believe in the myth and began to think themselves to be invincible. When in reality, it was the will of Dwyane Wade that enabled them every step of the way.
That is why when Wade went down on February 21st with his shoulder injury, down went the champs.
Wade came back, admirably, but was not able to put himself back together at 100% and consistently be the player he was in the playoffs last season – as a result, the Heat were not able to resurrect the magic of last season’s playoff race.
Help is needed. Wade and Shaq need a supporting cast that can, well, support them. There are only a handful of players in this series that showed they are capable – James Posey, Antoine Walker, possibly Jason Kapono. That’s it. The Heat got virtually nothing from the point guard position and the power forward position – well, when Udonis Haslem was in there.
This will force Riley the coach and Riley the GM to think about the personnel it currently has to deal with and give them the rhetorical authority to make the changes necessary based on this playoff performance. The only players that are safe are Wade and Shaq – everyone else is expendable.
There could potentially be loads of changes. The likes of which haven’t been seen since the 2005 offseason. It could come via a trade, free agency, or from the Heat’s first round pick in this year’s upcoming draft. There will also be some retiring – Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning. This will open doors for the Heat and force them to make moves to fill in for those that are moving on.
There will be a lot of reflection and mirror-time spent as the guys really think about what lessons they learned from this season. And what kinds of things they need to do to rectify the situation and get back to where they once were: on top.
This is the game where the answers will become manifest.
Like the Bulls, the Mavericks were a jump shooting team that got very hot at home. Some of us Heat faithful said they wouldn’t be able to keep it up, that Miami was going to make some noise. Boy did they.
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