What now?

Sure, the bulk of this 7 game win streak is against sub-par teams. A quality win by 10+ points over the Jazz, in Salt Lake, though would say otherwise. Is this Heat team playing its best basketball of the season? Yes. Can it get better? Yes.

And that is a scary thought.

This team is still finding its comfort zone. Right now the offense is predicated on either Wade or Lebron having the ball and letting them do their thing. Slowly, however, we are starting to see everyone carve out their roles and getting comfortable. Arroyo is knocking down threes at over 50% efficiency. We have seen James Jones benefiting from Wade and Lebron’s presence, too. This is all obvious. What we are waiting for now is the evolution of this offense – like Bosh catching the ball on the right elbow, facing his man, and driving to the hoop. We know Bosh can score, the question is how. He still has a very weak post game but he plays offense more like a small forward than a power forward – he’s always been that way.

Mario Chalmers is carving out a niche as a defensive answer for his position while also getting hot offensively and knocking down threes. The question is, can he avoid being inconsistent as at times he makes boneheaded plays right after brilliant ones.

The injury to Udonis Haslem leaves this team with a huge void to fill, but Juwan Howard is filling in admirably, playing smart basketball to compliment Wade and Lebron’s game. Erick Dampier has added physical toughness and rebounding to the Heat’s frontcourt which has also helped ease the loss of Haslem.

Things are starting to click, but they are still not quite at optimum level. This road trip and this win streak is really an opportunity for this Heat team to experience being the villain on the road, and responding to adversity as a team. Pat Riley couldn’t have designed this situation any better himself. Erik Spoelstra has managed to climb out of the hole he was being pushed into. His team is winning and they are putting a mask on their wins that makes it look like this team is coming along. A close analysis would reveal that this team is still working out the kinks, but they are moving in the right direction.

Spoelstra’s biggest challenge was never going to be the strategical side of coaching, or even getting his players prepared. For him, it was always going to be about how he managed his personalities, how he managed the people behind those black jerseys. This game, at the professional level, is less about coaching and more about managing people. We discussed this earlier as Phil Jackson provides a pretty good model of a professional coach – not focused so much on strategy, but on managing egos. You simply create the matchups, put the players in positions to succeed, and get out of the way. Spoelstra is managing to do that and with every win, he further solidifies his place on the bench.

So, the Heat beat the Golden State Warriors and show that their offense can outrun anyone. Sure, the Warriors are that classic Western conference team where they will try to outscore you, but they also have made strides to play better defense under coach Keith Smart. That said, the Heat demonstrated again last night that their offense is predicated on their defensive focus, holding the Warriors to 84 points on 37.3% shooting. Most of the Warriors’ shots came from outside the painted area, which is another testament to the Heat’s defensive focus trying to deny easy scores inside. By contrast, the Heat managed to score 106 points while shooting 52.6% – most of those easy scores in transition. Getting into the painted area almost at will not only gets a higher percentage shot, but with strong finishers like Wade and Lebron you will increase your free throw attempts. FTA’s allow the Heat to score without taking time off the clock – which means the leads grow with very little chance to answer them.

The Heat will have an opportunity to show their focus again while venturing to Sacramento for tonight’s game. Yes, this is a “trap” game, but it will also serve as a test to see if the Heat are starting to take each game serious every night out and whether or not they are rounding into that professional team they need to be in order to go deep into the playoffs. They are still a work in progress, but the ceiling is so much higher at this point than it was just 7 games ago.