Miami Heat Thread

[AreaOfEffect]

If ray missed that shot everybody will probably be blaming lebron again for passing the ball instead of shooting it.

[_Steve_]

Ray lovable Allen. Great game once again for him. And... Bosh as well.

But the Heat shouldn't be giving up so many points against any teams. I am thinking the Heat tend to take regular season easy.

Well designed last play and great execution. Liked that pretty much.
While there is still room for improvement (on the defensive end), I wouldn't bother too much about it as long as the Heat win the majority of their games. Even at this point, they look like the team to beat in the East.

[Andrew]

If ray missed that shot everybody will probably be blaming lebron again for passing the ball instead of shooting it.

Possibly, but that was a good pass, so I don't think there'd be as much made of it and it wouldn't be warranted anyway. There have been moments when LeBron has been too passive and made ill-advised passes late in the game, but that's not an example of one and I think his performance in the Playoffs last year went a long way in redeeming his reputation as far as clutch play is concerned.

[NovU]

And passing to Haslem also was probably just as good idea as this pass to Ray, which bought a lot of negative attention previously. It's also true he was being somewhat overly criticized and analyzed. Now it seems the Lakers will go through that to certain degrees.

[Andrew]

It comes with the territory when you're that good and there are high expectations.

[NovU]

True but a lot of perception on LeBron I thought was based on false info. Thus unfairly criticized in many regards.

A great read about correct way to play.
http://chasing23.com/what-is-the-correc ... ball-play/

[Andrew]

And there was merit in it, too. Bad examples were certainly chosen though and reputation did cloud fair analysis at times.

[NovU]

Are the Miami Heat ‘going to have to break up their team’ in 2014 due to salary concerns?

As a repeat taxpayer, the Heat will be facing the highest incremental tax rates in NBA history. If, for example, the luxury-tax threshold is established at $75 million -- a highly optimistic gain of roughly $5 million from this season -- the Heat could be faced with a tax bill approaching $48 million. In total, they would be paying $141.3 million for 12 players.
"They're going to have to break up their team,'' predicted a rival general manager who has done the math.

Miami may be listed as a "big market" team by fans unhappy with choices made by several superstars over the last few years, but the fact remains that Miami is very much a mid-market basketball town, well short of Los Angeles or New York.

[Andrew]

Certainly seems a possibility, though the idea of them amnestying Dwyane Wade or breaking up the team before everyone's contracts come due does seem unimaginable. If they are winning title after title the next few years, would it be so far-fetched for Arison to foot that huge luxury tax bill?

[NovU]

From business perspective, I dont think it makes much sense for the Heat to do that though. No matter the winnings, it will be extremely tough to recover luxury tax. Itz probably luxury a few teams like only Lakers and Knicks could afford to do with their huge fan base and TV deals, but not the Heat. And in our bizness world, mark Cuban was sued for trying to compete.

[Andrew]

It definitely doesn't make sense from a business perspective and that's obviously the dilemma they face. But again, is it completely unlikely that Arison would do it anyway, if they are indeed winning the title year after year?

[NovU]

I hope that happens but given the sheer amount of dollars he'd have to give up, I am thinking very unlikely. But then you have a point as well. 3-peat team is hard to break up no matter what.

[shadowgrin]

3-peat team is hard to break up no matter what.

Nope.

[NovU]

[Andrew]

In all fairness though, the Heat don't have the same major stumbling blocks those teams had in terms of staying together.

[NovU]

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade compete in efficiency stats
These two chuckers are lucky Tyson Chandler isn't on the their team.

LeBron James tackes the fan
Great shot.

[shadowgrin]

LeBron loves those trick shots. Bring back the HORSE contest in the ASW with LeBron in it, have some team give Jon Brockman a 10-day contract and have him join too, and Rasheed Wallace if he's healthy enough. Also ban Durant from the event.


They have no choice but to have good shooting efficiency since the Heat sucks at rebounding.
Poor Bosh got left out as always...
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/sport ... ges/nT2sZ/

So why isn’t there a third party to this competition?

After all, Chris Bosh is shooting 54.5 percent, highest of his career, and bringing his career percentage to 49.5.

“It wouldn’t be fair,” Bosh said, smiling. “I expect to shoot 50 percent all the time.”

Wade agreed.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t be fair,” Wade said, pausing. “It just wouldn’t be. I’m not going to say why. He can’t play with us. His shots come a little differently.”

[NovU]

I like the reply to that article.

[qutoe]Somebody on this team should start a rebound competition [/quote]

[shadowgrin]

Spo did something similar in their first season together. It was whoever got the rebound gets to call the plays in offense.

[NovU]

Nobody in this forum mentioned yet about Heat's 16 game win streak. I guess it ain't much interesting topic as Heat got no competition in East.

Tonight's game was ugly tho. Lost huge lead and required LeBrick's heroic lay up to barely escape against a crappy team. But can't blame them. Heat have a comfortable lead over the 2,3rd seeds. Spo should think about turning on the maintenance mode pretty soon. Possible homecourt advantage over Spurs in the Finals(or OKC) shouldn't be a too much of concern. Let's coast.

[Andrew]

That's all on you Heat fans. For what it's worth, Ben - that is arcane, who is a Heat fan - did actually make mention of it in this week's podcast.

What else can you say? They're on a tear right now and remain the only serious contender in the East. Yesterday's win wasn't pretty, but hats off to LeBron for that gamewinning layup. It further highlights the change in his game and attitude in the clutch.

[NovU]

Shaq was known to coast during the regular season and I expected the Heat to do the same this season especially after getting a long waited ring. But it's surprising how hard they have played with so much effort. They nearly won all statement game against big teams despite couple bad losses earlier this season. I am thinking the trio are definitely more comfortable playing with each other into their 3rd season and having that one championship under the belt put away some pressures off their chest.

I can't wait for the playoffs and for now, I hope to see them going into maintenance mode soon. Watching Tony Parker go down was scary and big letdown. I wouldn't want to see that happening to my favorite team.

[Andrew]

76ers looked good for a while, but the Heat got the job done when it mattered. 17 and counting.

[SoF'nAwesome]

If they beat Pacers on the next game, the winning streak will go up to 20.

[NovU]

Right. It is 20. Good one though the last game was a breathtaker. Almost thought the Heat were choking and Jrue was going to punish the trio for being soft. But then there was the Batman... Wade showed up big time and put away the game. Robin the LBJ did the clean up by shooting game-ending freethrows though.