MiamiHeatwave – HeatVision on YouTube

The Heat got 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists from Lebron James – who was scratched from the pregame shootaround due to flu symptoms. Didn’t seem to matter tonight as James relished the opportunity to take on Kobe Bryant, a player, he admits, he admired “back in high school”. Seems kind of odd to think that James is either that young or that Kobe is now that old.

Bryant was held to 6 points on 1-7 shooting in the first half by a melange of Shane Battier and Mike Miller. Bryant ended up with 24 points trying to stuff the basket when the game was pretty much determined, but for the most part was kept under control for the Heat defense.

Some other positive developments for the Heat – Eddy Curry makes his debut on the game after Mike Miller made his. Although not as immediately impactful as Mike Miller’s entrance, Curry flashed abilities on the offensive side of the ball depositing 6 points in 6 minutes. He did, however, leave Pau Gasol open to drain a three and it was Curry’s defensive rotation that still needs work. He obviously has come a long way just to get onto the floor, but the next goal for him will be to solidify himself into game shape and get after it on both ends of the floor. Curry has always been a gifted, offensive big man and his defense is mostly relegated to patrolling the paint and using his size. He was a factor, when he did play, on Andrew Bynum, matching him size for size.

Lebron James also showed more poise and comfort running the team and setting up his teammates. James, ultimately, will leave a legacy as a facilitator in his uncanny ability to make plays and set up teammates and this is where he will need to focus to become more successful for the Heat. One sequence tells all – after hitting a three and things were getting chippy with Kobe, who wanted to play through his frustration and chose to defend James tightly all of a sudden, James didn’t force up a jumper but instead threaded a pass on the wing to a waiting Battier who drained the three. If James can stay ultra competitive but focused on the task at hand, that shows tremendous growth.

Mike Miller is a loved man here in Miami. He says he has only received two ovations in his NBA career – his debut with Miami last year after overcoming some early injuries and, yep, the same this year.

What did Miller do? Tie a franchise record of 6 three pointer makes in 6 attempts. He brought some energy to the team that was in desperate need of it.

And in typical Mike Miller fashion, he got banged up in the gig.

This guy needs a new nickname. Heck, a nickname for that matter. We can skip over the obvious MM or eminem references, plus his #13 being unlucky or anything like that (can’t wear #33 because that is Zo’s number). Since the guy is always getting banged up, hustling and taking charges, why not “Crash”?

Crash Miller. Mike Crash Miller. He crashes threes, crashes the boards, crashes the floors. Not since Dan Majerle has a Heat shooter looked so good when he looks so bad. He should be getting a purple heart every time he’s on the floor – he practically looks like a guy falling on grenades. Seemingly for fun.

His quote after last night’s game: “Fun!”

Miller is an admitted gym rat. He’s a gamer. He’s going to play through whatever ache or pain he has – good or bad. He shoots unconsciously and won’t hesitate. What’s really good is that he seems to have his thumbs back. I’ve mentioned this before – it took James Jones a year to come back from  his thumb injury. All he did was win the NBA three point shooting crown last year. Mike Miller is at that same point and we all know this guy can score and shoot. That is why he was brought in here. Could he possibly make a run at challenging James Jones for his three point crown?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Besides, we still have to work on that All Star Center nomination thing for Joel Anthony. But it sure feels good to add Miller to the mix again and with Jones and Shane Battier the Heat have serious options to shoot and play tough defense. Welcome back, Crash.

The Spurs have been a long running NBA flagship franchise. For the 15 seasons that Tim Duncan has been in San Antonio, the Spurs have been a contending team. It started with the Admiral, David Robinson, who was able to team up with Duncan and along the way the Carribean kid picked up new pals like Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker to make more runs.

But Duncan is getting up there in age and his skills and game are not what they used to be. Sure, he can still play at a high level, but he needs more help these days to mount a sustainable attack.

That didn’t seem to be the case last night as the Spurs dropped 35 in the opening quarter against the Heat, shooting 67% from the field. Then staying productive on 57% shooting in the first half to keep a mount a 14 point lead.

At one point, the Heat were down as many as 17 points. Then the 3rd quarter commenced and everything changed.

We could say the Heat played with more energy, played better defense, and made shots and, well, that would make a difference. But not this dramatic of a difference. The Heat ended up winning the game 120-98 – a 22 point differential – in a game that seemed like the Heat were, at best, going to mount a fight to the finish. Certainly this game did not have the word “blowout” written on it at all. Not without Dwyane Wade in the game and with a sick Lebron James.

In fact, it was the play of Lebron James (33 points) that helped turn this game around as he hit three of four three pointers at one stretch in the 3rd to really push the Heat over the top. Still, it was the debut of Mike Miller, dropping 6-6 threes, that stole this game away from the Spurs and turned this into a laugher.

Greg Popovich, the much bally-hooed coach of the Spurs put his spin on it:

“…I felt we folded. They physically killed us.”

With the win, the Heat moved on to 9-4 and the Spurs are still looking for their first road win of the season at 0-5. It was also the first time the Heat were able to practice back to back since the start of the season. Good things may be on the horizon despite Wade’s temporary set back.

Things, for the Spurs, are changing. Their big pieces are aging and looking like their time is short in front of them. Much like the Boston Celtics, it will be intriguing to see how this team meets the challenge of rebuilding without having to suffer any long time lapse.

No timetable is slated as of yet, but things won’t be rushed:

“He’s up walking around … but we’re not going to put a timetable on when he’ll come back,” Spoelstra said. “Thankfully, he’s not in a cast or a boot. So we’ll see how he responds each day, and we’ll go from there.”

Add this to the pile of things wrong with Wade. A bruised left foot, strained calf, and now the ankle, are all the things “old man” Wade is dealing with.

In all honesty, the best policy for the Heat right now would be to give Wade the time he needs to get fully healed and return to action at his own pace. Israel Gutierrez agrees. This team is playoff bound on talent alone and although seeding is always important, in such a short season just getting in is crucial. Right now the Heat are in a dead heat with the Hawks and the Magic, but realistically which of those teams are better than the Heat?

@usabasketball on Twitter

Jerry Colangelo, who has the difficult task of selecting from among the elite players – while also trying to find players who can and will play as well as fit together – had this to say about moving forward with evaluations:

“I feel like we have an outstanding blend of talents from the 2008 Olympic and 2010 World Championship teams that won gold. Reducing to the official roster limit of 12 players will be an even tougher decision, but we’ll evaluate how guys play during the 2011-12 NBA season and as we’ve done with our teams in the past, we’ll attempt to select the very best team we can.”

Mike Krzyzewski will continue to serve as head man to guide this team to another gold medal run along with Syracuse University’s Jim Boeheim, New York Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni, and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Nate McMillan.

It is expected that all three members of “Run DLC” will put their talents on display this summer in London but will remain to be seen is if they will be hoisting championship NBA hardware along the way.

Last night, Norris Cole showed again why this kid may quietly – maybe not for long – contend for a rookie of the year spot. He dropped 20 points on the Celtics, 14 of which coming in the 4th quarter when the Heat were slowed by the Celtics’ zone defense. This is a bright spot as one of the problems for the Heat in last year’s run was how they were unable to deal with a zone defense and couldn’t find ways to split open set defenses. Not being able to score in the half court will surely slow you down in the playoffs.

Norris Cole has not only been drawing rave reviews from his teammates, but Heat fans as well. All night last night there were compliments on #30′s game all over Twitter. Ranging from his looks to his game, comments were all very supportive of the young rook’s efforts as he became the X-factor that helped the Heat win instead of blowing a 30 point lead.

There is also the media reaction. Today, on ESPN, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith were both very complimentary towards his game. Both seemingly stating that this kid has a bright future and that the Heat may have found their point guard. Even going so far as stating that Mario Chalmers is going to be spending more time on the bench.

As the Heat are going through practices and getting ready for their 66 game season, starting on Xmas day, we are gearing up as well. We will be looking at the roster, who is slated to start and play off the bench. Also, we’ll be keeping an eye on the rest of the league as they try to play catch up with the Heat. See you on the Heatwave!

After probably the most heavily scrutinized season in any professional sport, the Heat made it all the way to the Finals with a chance to win the whole darned thing. That should be valued as a successful season for any team, let alone this one. The level of expectation being so high says a lot, however. The Heat’s take-no-prisoners proclamation at the beginning of the season makes them the bad guys. Stating publicly what your lofty goals are is hybris in the eyes of the media. You have to earn it.

Jason Terry flaunts a trophy tattoo on his right arm and everyone thinks that is endearing. He is only trying to give himself a goal. Maybe because he choked so bad in the 2006 series, and was no where to be found for the most part in this current series, he was given a free pass.

Yet no other team was so heavily attacked and scrutinized, you have to wonder what effect it had on this series – did it affect the officiating, for example? Lebron James averaged about 9 free throw attempts per game in the regular season but struggled to find 4 in the Finals in any game. Is it possible that taking away a large part of James’ game, drawing contact and while getting to the rim and getting FTAs, may have had a dampening effect on his game? You bet. The outside opinions speak volumes. Here are a few that badmouth the Heat.

Ohio Governor John Kasich proclaims a resolution for the Mavericks beating Lebron James

A sense of entitlement keeps the Heat from winning

First of all, a governor wasting any time worrying about Lebron James just goes to show you how screwed up the politics are in his state. No wonder the economy sucks in Ohio. Then, to say the Heat lost the Finals because of their sense of entitlement is definitely a sign of a bitter axe to grind. Let’s totally block out the fact that another team was playing in the series, one that was making more and better shots as the series pushed on and played stingier defense, too. This is just a taste of what the Heat have faced this season – a bitter public invested in the idea of pointing the blame at one person alone – Lebron James.

If you can remove James from the Heat, maybe the story changes. The perception definitely would as Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are not as polarizing as James. But you can’t remove James from this team. He is a part of it – he is a part of why they got this far. Anyone else saying otherwise is just being blinded by their own hatred of James and his Decision. Most are so overly invested in The Decision that they are indeed held hostage by it. You can’t explain why so many are, but you can’t explain anything about the Heat’s situation without it.

The reason why the Heat lost this series, on their end, was they stopped playing defense. When the series started, the Mavs were overwhelmed by the speed of this team’s defense. Everyone was showering praise on the Heat’s ability to close out on shooters and force the Mavs to speed up their shots, putting them out of rhythm. The Heat also swarmed in and forced the Mavs to be a one-man team, daring Dirk to beat them. As the series wore on, not only did the Mavs start hitting their three point shots with regularity, but the rest of the team started to contribute on the offensive end as well. Jason Terry, who had never even gotten off the bus, had started hitting shots and doing his biplane thing on the court. JJ Barrea started scoring. Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd. Everyone.

The criticism focused on Lebron James and his lack of contribution in games. He even had a triple double in Game 5, the first since 2000, but that didn’t satisfy. Jason Terry scores 17 points and labels about him being overrated are ripped off immediately.

The Mavs made plays. They took advantage of every opportunity presented to them. On the Heat side, they were listless. Even Dwyane Wade fumbled a last chance possession in Game 4 and no one whispered about it. It was all about James and his lack of contribution.

The Heat came together for the simple fact that this game is dictated by matchups and when you have 3 of the best on the floor at their positions, you have a chance to win on any night and at any stage of the series. What emerged was that the Heat got beat by a team that just played better. Sure, the Heat are more talented and we like to think they will be back. The fact is the other teams in the East are going to be gunning for them. But it wasn’t ego that kept this team from grabbing the ring. It was a breakdown in execution, an apathetic defense, some bull-headed coaching decisions. More importantly, it was a Mavericks team that had a miracle rebirth at the end of Game 2 in this series. With 6 minutes to go, they ran their offense right past a Heat team playing to run out the clock. A run that was more heavily characterized by bad defensive execution and organization than anything else. If the Heat played defense like they had been all series, to that point, the Mavs don’t score 17 points in that final span.

You can argue it was their ego that assumed they would win and thereby gave up Game 2. Sure, you can say that, but ego was the reason why they played better defense in Game 3 and the reason why they won that game. They felt like they were the better team and wanted to prove it. Ego is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a must thing, a vital thing. In order to survive and thrive, you have to have an identity with which to hold tightly to. The Heat envisioned themselves as champions, as a dynasty. That was a proclamation at the beginning of the season. Now the Mavs deflated that vision a bit, but this is still the beginning of a run, not the end. The Heat will learn from this, just as they did after Game 2. They will learn, and they are humbled by this, sure. Yet, ego will give them the fire to pick themselves back up off the floor and demand that they get back for another shot at the ring.