Through 34 games of the regular season, the Miami Heat currently stand at 14-20.
It has been as rough of a season as it gets. Just a year after advancing to their fourth straight NBA Finals, the Heat have declined so much that they may not even make the playoffs this season. Injuries, lack of team chemistry and rebounding issues have all contributed to Miami’s demise over the past couple of months.
In the month of December alone, the Heat fell to bottom-feeding teams such as the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers. The four teams’ records combined is 42-95 (.306 winning percentage). In three of those games, the Heat blew second-half leads before losing.
One of the few bright spots of the season has been the revived play of Dwyane Wade, who is averaging 22.9 points per game, and ranks eighth in the NBA in scoring.
In response to the losses piling up in spite of his superb play, Wade stated his desire to win more than anything else:
“Nothing I can do about that. I want to win more than anything. I want to win ball games. Obviously, I have to continue to play well for us to do that. I’m not going to be great every night. It’s going to be some nights it’s not going to be there. It’s the nature of the game.”
While the play of Wade has been a bright spot for a rather lackluster season for the Heat, just about everything else hasn’t gone right for the team. Here are five New Year’s resolutions that the Heat must make as they begin play in a new calendar year:
1. Stay Healthy
To say that the Heat were the most injury-decimated team in the Eastern Conference through the first couple of months of the season would be an understatement.
Projected starting power forward Josh McRoberts is out for the season due to a knee injury that required surgery. McRoberts never truly got his feet wet in a Heat uniform as he struggled through injuries in the preseason, before struggling with injuries during the regular season.
Wade sat seven straight games in November due to a hamstring injury, while Chris Bosh sat out eight straight games due to a calf strain in December.
Key rotational players such as Udonis Haslem, Luol Deng, Chris Andersen, Norris Cole and Danny Granger have all missed key periods of time due to ailments.
The 2014-15 season has not been a healthy one for the guys down in South Beach.
(Continue on next page!)
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2. Get Better On The Glass
The Heat have struggled on the glass ever since Zydrunas Ilgauskas was starting games for the team.
Since the “Big Three” came together in 2010, the one true weakness of these squads has been their lack of size. Because of that lack of size, the Heat have struggled in the rebounding department ever since.
Miami’s leading rebounder, Bosh, averages 8.1 boards a game. More troubling however, is that the Heat’s second-leading rebounder is the 6’9″ Deng, who averages just 4.9 boards a contest.
This lack of ability to grab boards off the glass has contributed to the Heat ranking dead-last in rebounding in the entire league. The 2014-15 Heat have already established franchise-lows in single-game team rebounds.
Because of the way the team is currently constructed, there looks to be little hope in the Heat improving its rebounding prowess. The hope is that with the roster remaining healthy, and the addition of the 7-foot Hassan Whiteside, that Miami will gradually improve as the season wears on.
Next: Start Winning Games You Should Win
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3. Start Winning Games You Should Win
As mentioned earlier in this piece, the Heat have lost to the Jazz, 76ers, Magic and Pacers in the past few weeks alone.
There is no excuse for that, especially if you’re a team expecting to contend for the playoffs. At the current moment, the Heat stand just one game ahead of the Pacers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat have struggled to win games period, over the past month. The team is just 5-13 since the beginning of December, and has gone 0-3 since Bosh’s return versus the Magic on December 29.
Regardless of Wade and Bosh’s steady play, the Heat have still managed to lose.
Simply put, the team needs to re-find its winning ways, or the season will slip away from the defending Eastern Conference champions fast.
Next: Regain Your Offensive Identity
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4. Regain Your Offensive Identity
Despite losing LeBron James in the offseason, no one expected the Heat to drop off this much offensively.
When you consider Wade is one of the top eight scorers in the league and Bosh is averaging more points per game than he has since 2010, one would assume Miami is doing just fine in the offensive department.
That isn’t the case by any means.
The team ranks 27th in points per game and 29th in assists per contest. Mario Chalmers’ scorching start to the season has cooled down, as he is now shooting under 41 percent for the season. There is still more consistency to be desired from Deng as a third option, while the bench has contributed very little in terms of scoring punch.
To compensate for the lack of LeBron, the Heat need to utilize more ball movement and maximize the talents of the current players on the roster.
Next: Stop Blowing Second Half Leads
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5. Stop Blowing Second Half Leads
Blowing second half leads has become a staple of the Heat’s season thus far.
Whether it’s blowing a 23-point second half lead versus the league-worst 76ers, or whether it’s blowing an 11-point lead versus the mundane Pacers, Miami has proven its inability to close out games.
It’s not something that they’re proud of, as Wade bluntly stated following the Pacers loss:
“We didn’t close the quarter out good at all. That’s been our Achilles heel all season, it’s been the fourth quarter.”
If the Heat look to get back to the postseason for the seventh straight season, it will have to learn how to close out games versus inferior competition.
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