Two Observations From Last Night's Heat Game

[footey]

1.  All of the apologists for the Heat are saying they will need time to gel as a unit, then they will be awesome. Funny, I don't recall our big 3 needing extra time. They were awesome right out of the gate, opening night, and never looked back. The chemistry was already there. I don't think you create chemistry, not in a fundamental sense. Either the pieces fit together, or they don't. I am very skeptical that this Heat team has the pieces that will fit together.

2. The Pat Riley watch officially began with last night's Heat loss.  My over/under for when he takes over as head coach of the Heat is December 15.  Eric S does not have the presence to coach those egos. In over his head.

[footey]

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[Fafnir]

1.  All of the apologists for the Heat are saying they will need time to gel as a unit, then they will be awesome. Funny, I don't recall our big 3 needing extra time. They were awesome right out of the gate, opening night, and never looked back. The chemistry was already there. I don't think you create chemistry, not in a fundamental sense. Either the pieces fit together, or they don't. I am very skeptical that this Heat team has the pieces that will fit together.

2. The Pat Riley watch officially began with last night's Heat loss.  My over/under for when he takes over as head coach of the Heat is December 15.  Eric S does not have the presence to coach those egos. In over his head.

Well we played the Wizards, I think its fair to say the Gilbert Arenas lead Wizards of 07-08 aren't as good as the 10-11 Boston Celtics.

But yeah they haven't come together as well as the Big 3 did, but I think this season for the Heat will show how amazing that team was.

[arctic 3.0]

my observation: paul pierce knows exactly how to guard labron. twice he guessed right jumped in front of lbj got his feet planted and took the charge. unfortunately the officials just cant bring themselves to call labron for a foul so he got bailed out with free throws.

[Evantime34]

Great Things:
1. Baby was working the pick and roll perfectly, especially on the bucket to end the first half. Not surprising he got the crunch time minutes.

2. Rondo looking every bit like the best passer in the league.

3. Rebounding. Although they could have done better this team is clearly a better rebounding team than last years addition.

Room for improvement
1. When we went on a drought in the 4th and Miami came back I would like to see Rondo try to get to the cup.

2. Next time we play Miami we need to get KG the ball in the post more. He got the ball too often in the high post.

3. Jermaine needs to show himself close to the hoop instead of fading out for the jumper. Even if he doesn't have the same hops he's still near 7'0 a long. He should get in position to receive the same passes Shaq and Perk do and finish around the rim.

[CDawg834]

2. The Pat Riley watch officially began with last night's Heat loss.  My over/under for when he takes over as head coach of the Heat is December 15.  Eric S does not have the presence to coach those egos. In over his head.

Did you hear when they had audio from each team's timeout huddle?  I think it was in the second quarter.  Doc had a real presence and you could tell the guys were listening to him.  Spoelstra sounded like he was nervous and intimidated, and had no idea what to say to his guys.  "uhh....the opening jitters are out of the way.....um.....let's go get em now...." followed by silence.

You're absolutely right, he seems way over his head with the superstars on that team.  Doc may not be the greatest Xs and Os coach in the world, but he's definitely a great motivator.  Spoelstra...not so much.

[fairweatherfan]

1.  All of the apologists for the Heat are saying they will need time to gel as a unit, then they will be awesome. Funny, I don't recall our big 3 needing extra time. They were awesome right out of the gate, opening night, and never looked back. The chemistry was already there. I don't think you create chemistry, not in a fundamental sense. Either the pieces fit together, or they don't. I am very skeptical that this Heat team has the pieces that will fit together.

We had an entire preseason together and were playing a mediocre Wizards team.  They had 3 minutes together and were playing a championship caliber squad full of veterans.

But I agree that the chemistry was shockingly poor.  Wade having a bad game was understandable given his injury.  But Bosh and James have had plenty of time to work together, and Bosh was pretty much a non-factor. 

[Fafnir]

3. Rebounding. Although they could have done better this team is clearly a better rebounding team than last years addition.

They rebounded almost exactly their average last year. (by percentage of OReb and DReb)

I was encouraged by KG and Pierce's rebounding with my eyes but the stats weren't as impressive as I thought.

[Eeyore III]

One observation Grande made that's worth repeating (paraphrase): for all LeCon's blather about wanting to play with more talented teammates, it was still like watching a Cleveland game: at a certain point, LeCon just played by himself and everyone else stood around watching.  So the dynamic was same old, same old.

So was the result. 

[the_Bird]

One observation Grande made that's worth repeating (paraphrase): for all LeCon's blather about wanting to play with more talented teammates, it was still like watching a Cleveland game: at a certain point, LeCon just played by himself and everyone else stood around watching.  So the dynamic was same old, same old.

So was the result.  

To be fair, when BronBron took over, Cleveland (I mean MIAMI) had its best run.  

Pretty clear that what I think a lot of us suspected was the case really IS the case - at best, this is a Big Two-And-A-Half.  Bosh ain't that good.  It's not just missing the jumpers, he just doesn't really do anything else.  He's athletic enough where he SHOULD be a great defender, but he's pretty terrible.  No inside game.  Rebounding was OK but not dominant.  All he seemed to do was take (and miss) that elbow jumper. 

Basically, he looked lost out there.  Looks like a guy who's going to average 15/7 with no D.  

Wade will be better - but this did not look like a cohesive team at all.  Best-case for us, if they want to go back-and-forth, run one iso for Wade, then run an iso for Bron, run an iso for Wade, that's relatively easy to defend.  

Wade looked like crap, but LeBron didn't seem all that interested in trying to make him look better.  Sure as hell didn't look like a reincarnation of Magic Johnson, like they promised us.  

[Bankshot]

One observation Grande made that's worth repeating (paraphrase): for all LeCon's blather about wanting to play with more talented teammates, it was still like watching a Cleveland game: at a certain point, LeCon just played by himself and everyone else stood around watching.  So the dynamic was same old, same old.

So was the result.  

To be fair, when BronBron took over, Cleveland (I mean MIAMI) had its best run.  

Pretty clear that what I think a lot of us suspected was the case really IS the case - at best, this is a Big Two-And-A-Half.  Bosh ain't that good.  It's not just missing the jumpers, he just doesn't really do anything else.  He's athletic enough where he SHOULD be a great defender, but he's pretty terrible.  No inside game.  Rebounding was OK but not dominant.  All he seemed to do was take (and miss) that elbow jumper. 

Basically, he looked lost out there.  Looks like a guy who's going to average 15/7 with no D.  

Wade will be better - but this did not look like a cohesive team at all.  Best-case for us, if they want to go back-and-forth, run one iso for Wade, then run an iso for Bron, run an iso for Wade, that's relatively easy to defend.  

Wade looked like crap, but LeBron didn't seem all that interested in trying to make him look better.  Sure as hell didn't look like a reincarnation of Magic Johnson, like they promised us.  

LOL, that's just what I thought watching it. They looked like the Cavs.

[jpd985]

my observation: paul pierce knows exactly how to guard labron. twice he guessed right jumped in front of lbj got his feet planted and took the charge. unfortunately the officials just cant bring themselves to call labron for a foul so he got bailed out with free throws.

David Stern has decreed Lebron can only be called for 1 foul per game.

[Evantime34]

3. Rebounding. Although they could have done better this team is clearly a better rebounding team than last years addition.

They rebounded almost exactly their average last year. (by percentage of OReb and DReb)

I was encouraged by KG and Pierce's rebounding with my eyes but the stats weren't as impressive as I thought.

I am surprised by those stats. I feel like it might have seemed more impressive because of the high turnover numbers for both teams. Meaning that most possessions in which the ball weren't scored were turnovers not missed shots, which decreases the rebounding numbers.

Not looking at the numbers, Shaq looks like a better rebounder than Perk. Pierce, KG, Shaq, BBD and JO all looked good rebounding the basketball.

[Prof. Clutch]

I think the Heat will figure it all out at some point, but last night I thought Lebron and Wade's similarity at slashers hurt them.  In this same way I think Ray, Paul, and all of our starters' differences as players make them a stronger team.  I think Lebron and Wade's lack of outside shooting hurt them, as neither seemed effective without the ball in their hands.  They're gonna have to learn how to work off the ball better.

[MBunge]

My observations...

1.  The Cs played pretty well.  The only real thing I noticed was that when Miami went with Bosh and Haslem in the 4th quarter, I would have liked to have seen a real effort by Boston to get Shaq or JO in the game and get them the ball in the post.  I think that would have helped the team get some buckets or foul shots when the Heat were scrambling back.

2.  I think I may have been completely wrong about the way Miami is going to play.  I thought they'd run a fairly traditional offense with Arroyo (who's a mediocre PG at worst) doing the dirty work while Wade, Bron and Bosh spaced out the floor so defenses couldn't focus on any one of them.  Instead, it looked like they really are going to try and play with either Wade or Bron acting as the point guard, probably with Mike Miller along with them most of the time.  And I think the result is going to be what we saw last night - a stagnant offense where no one gets easy shots and the team relys on Bron and Wade making incredible plays to win.

3.  The Heat are going to be better than what they were last night and I can imagine a way they could win a playoff series against Boston.  I don't think they will, but I could imagine it happening.  I don't see ANY way the Heat get past the Magic with Howard or LA with Gasol and an even marginally healthy Bynum.  Bosh is soft, Haslem is undersized and the rest of the Heat bigs stink on ice.

Mike