Miami Heat Thread

[shadowgrin]

Official Heat video...

phpBB [video]

Why are they begging for their fans to support them?
They have the best player in the league right now playing along with Bosh, Wade, and LeBron. If I have the means I would watch every home game possible and scream at the top of my lungs.

It's either Heat 'fans' are too stupid to realize what they have (Heat fans being stupid, seems to be the trend irl and the internet) or marketing department screwed up with their promotions and ticket prices.

[Martti.]

They have the best cheerleaders and the best trio (currently), if I'd live there I'd go to every game.

They won by 30, stay until the end, not like this :



Looked like they were losing by 30...

[Andrew]

That's not uncommon in a blowout though, no matter who's playing.

[john26]

EPIC

[dare]

Desperate for support?

[rise]

They probably found out that LeBron is one of the most hated people in basketball. Kinda sad they're desperate enough to actually do this.

[Andrew]

Even though they haven't raced out to the best record in the league and are highly unlikely to live up the prediction of 70+ wins (to put it mildly), you wouldn't think they'd have that much trouble garnering fan support. Having said that, I don't think any team can ensure that absolutely no fans will leave early to beat the traffic in extended garbage time.

[rise]

They still have several seasons to build up to that 72 win record and they've really only played a handful of games together. You can't expect them to obliterate teams just yet.

[atlwarrior]

Rudy Gay with the game winner! Boiy i think its time to panic in Miami now. First they almost lose to the Bobcats blowing a 20 pt lead and now this lost to the Grizzlies.

[rise]

I'd be much happier if it had been the other way around with like Gerald Wallace nailing a shot to win the game...

I don't really think this is a cause for panic, Wade was out, Haslem went down with an injury to his foot, and James Jones went 0-6. It's understandable that they lost this game.

[Andrew]

Still too early in the season to panic. Teams with poorer starts have gone on to win championships; that's hardly a guarantee of anything of course but something to keep in mind before we write off the Heat, especially when they have key players out with injury.

[benji]

Miami has long had terrible attendance problems. Doesn't anyone remember when Riley had them replace all the seats in the arena because they used to be bright yellow making it look even worse when it was 80% empty?

They couldn't fill the thing during the playoffs when Shaq was there and the team was making runs at the title.

Boiy i think its time to panic in Miami now.

Your username is pretty accurate. Go back and read what I wrote near the bottom of the last page.

And add this, Miami is not second anymore. They're now first in everything.

Losing a close game without one of your star players when you don't get to the line and are crushed on the glass happens to everyone.

[shadowgrin]

First they almost lose to the Bobcats blowing a 20 pt lead and now this lost to the Grizzlies.

The Lakers were unable to defeat the Bobcats last season. I guess the Lakers were unable to win the championship last season...oh wait...

[The X]

This thread looking a little quiet. Where are all the Heat fans now?

I'm quite enjoying watching the Heat's success so far this season

Wonder when Riley will take over

[benji]

I'm quite enjoying watching the Heat's success so far this season

Yeah, me too, going into tonights game, league leaders in SRS by a leap, 3rd on offense, 4th on defense, 2nd in pythag. Looking a lot like a championship team, and they're only in the first year of this while being battered with injuries and having no clear plans or rotations. Things are going to get completely unfair in a couple years when the trains are running on time.

Based on the 1998 Bulls and 2003 Spurs, one a super talented but dysfunctional team and the other shoddily assembled and also dysfunctional, 60 wins is still looking likely.

[Bruce]

According to ESPN, Dampier was spotted in Miami, looks like he might just sign with the Heat. see here

I think many of the heat fans will be getting what they want. But I really do not think Dampier is the answer for the Heat's woes. All the same, the best of luck to the heat.

[Martti.]

I like it. He should start too.

Watching Heat games, some of the early ones at least, LeBron passes were distributed like this :

Big Z - 60%
Wade, Bosh - 15% each
5th guy (Anthony, Jones, Haslem etc) - 10%.

Get that slow-ass Z on the bench, then LeBron might pass to someone else too.

[koberulz]

I'm quite enjoying watching the Heat's success so far this season

Yeah, me too, going into tonights game, league leaders in SRS by a leap, 3rd on offense, 4th on defense, 2nd in pythag. Looking a lot like a championship team

So why are they also looking like they're sucking (at least according to the more delusional expectations)? It's early in the season, and their record isn't (or wasn't, last I checked) all that shabby, particularly given the mitigating factors you mentioned, but the stats you've listed look better than you'd (well, I'd) think they should.

[NovU]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

last night's loss was... wut can i say...

[Andrew]

Wonder when Riley will take over

I'll say around the 20th game of the season, if they're still around the .500 mark or even dip below it.

[benji]

So why are they also looking like they're sucking (at least according to the more delusional expectations)? It's early in the season, and their record isn't (or wasn't, last I checked) all that shabby, particularly given the mitigating factors you mentioned, but the stats you've listed look better than you'd (well, I'd) think they should.

Please read posts already made.

[koberulz]

I have read that one. I'm not saying their record is bad or anything in a 'they should be undefeated!' sense, just curious as to why their record is so much "worse" (for lack of a better term) than their SRS, pythag, and so on. I'd think a team leading the league in those statistics would be better than tenth in the league or so in win-loss percentage.

[benji]

They're three wins off the pythag. Two shots going the other way changes the record to 10-4.

They've got 720 minutes out of 3936 average. That's a little over 3% margin of error, make it 6% and apply it to the pythag negatively and that's 49-19 the rest of the way to 57-25. Two wins for dysfunction, two for Mike Miller, two for Haslem and one for fudging. There's the seven wins off the average 64-18 projection I think SPM had. Compared to so many other teams there is no reason to even care at this point.

If they get to 30-40 games with these same stats and the same win % then something fucking weird is happening. If they do it over the entire season it's something that's never happened in the history of the NBA.

If you want a great counter example, we still have the Thunder. Who have the Heat's should be 10-4 record, but are 14th in SRS, 7th in Offense, 20th in Defense and 15th in Pythag. They should be 7-7.

Sample size and luck.

[Martti.]

Watched 'Hot Seconds with Jax' and they had Big Z. The question was 'which former Heat player also came from the former Soviet Union?' He said Martin Müürsepp (only Estonian to play in the NBA, respect to him for that) and they counted it wrong. They should check their history, cause that was correct.

Also, 5-game win streak, holding opponents to under 40% shooting in that stretch, things look again like they did in the first games. Next one @ Utah will be tough, if they can win that, they could really go on a run.

[NovU]

They've got 720 minutes out of 3936 average. That's a little over 3% margin of error, make it 6% and apply it to the pythag negatively and that's 49-19 the rest of the way to 57-25. Two wins for dysfunction, two for Mike Miller, two for Haslem and one for fudging. There's the seven wins off the average 64-18 projection I think SPM had. Compared to so many other teams there is no reason to even care at this point.

Good to know stuffz.

Expectation for the Heat is to win it all. Heat's performance so far has not been too convincing though. Boston on the other hand is really looking good and they're known to be tough to beat in the playoffs too. Hoping to see the Heat winning more games against top teams more.