Tagged: balling

Problems in the Magic City: Chicago 87, Heat 86

Yes, okay. The Miami Heat are not doing so well at this moment in time. The team’s 87-86 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday was their fourth consecutive loss and fifth in the last six games. Two of those losses have come against Chicago, which took control of the East’s No. 2 record on Sunday; the other losses came against playoff-bound Orlando and New York and the championship-caliber San Antonio Spurs.

The problem isn’t that they’re losing. I mean, yes, sure, that’s a problem, and it’s not going away over the next nine days: three of their next opponents are San Antonio, the Lakers and Oklahoma City. The losing isn’t over. After that stretch, however, Miami has a chance to rack up wins the same way they have all season: by beating up on vastly inferior opponents. (They have 10-game stretch beginning March 19 that pits them against Denver, Detroit, Philly, Cleveland, Washington, Minnesota, Houston, New Jersey, Charlotte and Milwaukee. All winnable games.)

The problem lies in the Heat’s 1-9 record against the league’s top five teams. The problem lies in a team that can’t rally or can’t finish games. The problem isn’t that players are crying over a regular season loss; though that’s sure to open the team up to more mockery, I vastly prefer a team that gets emotional after a loss over a bunch of guys who could shrug it off and forget about it.

Obviously, this is still the regular season. And this is still a team trying to gel, I guess. But these excuses mean less and less as the weeks wear on. Miami is going to have to get through Boston, Chicago, Orlando and New York in the postseason. The Heat are still going to win at least 55 games, because there’s enough weaker opponents out there to assure that. But they have little control left over their destiny; Boston and Chicago are ahead of them, both are much more cohesive units and the Heat need the Bulls to stumble badly to make sure they get the second seed. (Boston is out of reach for Miami, let’s be honest about that right now.)

It’d be easy to try and assign blame, to say the coach isn’t energizing his players, to say they still don’t know how to play together at crunch time, to say they could have used a few more talented role players rather than Chris Bosh, to say LeBron or Wade needs to do more late in games to get the other involved. These are all valid criticisms. I don’t really think there’s any point in declaring that a March loss brands LeBron as a choker, nor do I think folks will particularly remember this stretch if the Heat win their first eight playoff games or something.

The problem isn’t that the Heat are losing. The problem is how they are losing, and to whom, and how little fight they show at crucial moments. The entire appeal of a star-laden team was knowing that, when the clock is winding down, the best guys on the floor are on your side. At least that’s how it seemed last summer. Now, it seems like this still isn’t a team: there are some great individual players and performances, but not an NBA championship-level assemblage of skills, roles and necessary pieces.

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Balling: The Lakers Drop Four Straight; Expect The Same Media Furor The Heat Had, Right?

NBA HOOPS: The defending champs are in a bad skid, while Carlos Boozer joined the Bulls in an underwhelming fashion. Here are some scores from last night’s NBA action.

HEAT 97, DETROIT 72 (MIA 11-8): This is what needs to happen against piddling lottery teams: LeBron had 18, Bosh and Wade both scored 16 and none played more than 27 minutes. The Heat didn’t relinquish a 20-point lead after three quarters. Which is good, because they need to prep themselves for tonight’s game in Cleveland, which is going to be a mildly hostile atmosphere. (And just imagine how Toronto will treat them!)

ROCKETS 109, LAKERS 99: That’s four losses in a row for L.A., which is weird, because how could they lose when Kobe went 10-for-24? Oh, right, Pau Gasol went 2-for-8. Of note: Miami, the team instantly declared a bust after losing three in a row, didn’t make it four in a row. Are we going to see the same kind of freakout we saw the Heat face, with declarations that things need to change, coaches ousted, et cetera? (Maybe Phil Jackson needs to focus more on coaching his team than on the Heat’s coaching situation, perhaps.)

No, of course we aren’t. Because the Lakers are the champs and “know how to win” and blah, blah, blah, we’re going to hear nothing of the sort. Except their last three losses have come to non-playoff teams (Memphis, Indiana and Houston), which is a bad sign. And in their last 10 games, they are just 5-5. (The Heat, by comparison? 6-4. Just saying.) The Lakers are currently fourth in the Western Conference seeding and at 13-6, only two games better than Miami and two and a half games behind the Spurs.

MAGIC 107, BULLS 78: Carlos Boozer made his Bulls debut and looked every bit like a player coming off of a sketchy injury: Just 2-for-5 in 22 minutes. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah tried their best, but five Magic players scored in double-digits.

THUNDER 123, NETS 120: It took three overtimes, but the Thunder (playing without Kevin Durant) finally prevailed behind Russell Westbrook’s 38 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. At some point, he’s got to enter that “best point guard in the league” talk, because he took over a game in a way Rondo can never do and Nash and Kidd can’t do anymore. Is it Paul, Williams, Westbrook, Rose right now? Some other configuration?

CLIPPERS 90, SPURS 85: This is why you can never predict the NBA. The league’s best team was 15-2 and promptly drop a game to the 3-15 Clippers, who have the league’s worst record. So there’s that. The Spurs are also cooked.

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Balling: The Lakers lose three in a row

The Heat managed to go a whole night without bumping coaches or freaking out or melting down or coughing up a lead or anything. They also didn’t play, which helped. So let’s look at how some other NBA teams are doing.

GRIZZLIES 98, LAKERS 96: After starting 13-2, the Lakers have now dropped three in a row. I presume everybody will freak the hell out and decide Pat Riley’s going to take over the team again, right? After all, he did once take over that head coaching gig in a coup enabled by the team’s biggest star and promptly marched to a title. (Yes, I’m talking about the time that happened in L.A., not the time in Miami.) Meanwhile, I bet Memphis regrets giving Pau Gasol to the Lakers now. Ron Artest took a three at the end that would have won it, but Rudy Gay (who recently blocked a potential LeBron game winner) blocked the shot. Kobe Bryant had 29 points but went 9-for-25, which is basically the archetypal Kobe box score.

CELTICS 106, CAVS 87: Yeah, the Celtics are 13-4, but they’ve played Toronto twice, Cleveland twice, plus New York, New Jersey, Memphis and Washington. They’re 7-2 in those nine games, which would normally lead to my usual rant about how Boston’s record is inflated by playing weak teams (particularly in their division), but, eh.

SPURS 118, WARRIORS 98: San Antonio is off to a league-best 15-2 start, and this win was powered by Tim Duncan’s triple-double (15 points, 18 boards and 11 dimes). Pat Riley will probably not be coaching this team any time soon. But for reals, the team is scoring nine more points than they are allowing (a league best), they’re undefeated on the road and — weirdly for a Gregg Popovitch Spurs team — they are 14th in the league in defense but the third highest-scoring team.

PACERS 107, KINGS 98: Don’t look now, but Indy is two games over .500 (just like the Heat!). Sure, they’ve beaten some shoddy teams, but that’s still impressive for a team with this roster.

76ERS 88, TRAIL BLAZERS 79: After a 4-1 start, Portland has dropped four straight and eight of their last 12 games. Philly is 5-13 and with some luck could snag that eighth playoff seed with a 38-44 record.

KNICKS 110, NETS 100: These are also teams that play professional basketball. The Knicks are 10-9, so New Yorkers can keep dreaming of a seven or eight seed and a first-round exit from the playoffs.

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Balling: A team without an identity

Magic 104, Heat 95 (MIA 8-7)

Heat 99, 76ers 90 (MIA 9-7)

Mavericks 106, Heat 95 (MIA 9-8)

Heat 105, Wizards 94 (MIA 10-8)

The Miami Heat are a pretty embattled franchise right now. They’re missing Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, the team’s two key non-superstar players. Dwyane Wade is playing hurt. LeBron James is unhappy. Chris Bosh can’t love being the maligned third wheel. Erik Spoelstra’s coaching security is an omnipresent topic, with his replacement by Pat Riley seemingly looming every other game.

But, oh, hey, they are also playing some basketball. No, the Heat aren’t running roughshod over opponents, the way everybody thought they would. Yes, they are a meager 10-8 after a win over the weak now 5-11 Wizards. And yes, they only have one win against a contending opponent (Orlando) and another win against a potential playoff team (Phoenix). But the Heat are 1-6 against playoff teams (Boston, Orlando, Dallas, New Orleans, Utah). They are a team fraught with second-guessing and uncertainty.

So it’s nice to be reminded that when they get on the court, sometimes good things can happen. The Wizards aren’t an elite team. But watching Wade and LeBron combine for 56 points (LeBron had 30, 6 and 5; Wade had 26, 8, 6 and four steals) while Bosh chipped in 20 points, you see what Miami fans were hoping for, what Pat Riley dreamed of and what bandwagon fans spent their summer prepping for. The problem comes outside of those guys: No other Miami player had more than 7 points.

There are problems here. This isn’t a team in complete disarray, of course. They’re still going to make the playoffs and host at least a first round series. A few winning streaks here or there (in February, the Heat play 12 games, only three of which are against decent opponents) and this is a team still gunning for 55+ wins and a high seed. When they get Miller and Haslem — not to mention whatever veteran buyouts might occur — this might look like a different team.

Right now, none of that matters. This is still a team without identity, and more than that, this is a team that can’t figure themselves out. One night, the stars can go off; the next night, they can be overwhelmed by the likes of Indiana. They started the season as a defensive powerhouse, and though they’re still good, they’ve fallen to No. 6 in the league. Their offense still hasn’t found a groove, though having two and two-thirds superstars is enough for the 12th-best offense in the game.

A lot of the distractions and issues will subside as the weeks go on and the team starts winning more. When it’s mid-February and they’re 35-20, people won’t be discussing the time they were 9-8. The only issue is that even if they start figuring out who they are and how to win, it might not matter if they lack the personnel at key spots. The hope resides, as it always has, on the superstars figuring out how to share the ball (and include their pal Bosh, too).

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Balling: The Heat Decide To Call It A Season

PACERS 93, HEAT 77 (Miami Record: 8-6)

Okay, maybe calling the season at this point is a little harsh. It’s been under a month since the team took the court. But this? Not just losing to Indiana, but getting trounced on their home court by a sub-.500 team (well, now they’re 6-6) that’s heading for the lottery? These are the things that should not happen.

Admittedly, there are explanations. For one thing, no Mike Miller, which remains a factor (there is money and playing time they had earmarked for him and while the latter can be redistributed, the former cannot be, so they can’t just hire somebody to replace him). Udonis Haslem, Miami’s best rebounding hope, is now out indefinitely and needs surgery for a torn foot ligament. And Dwyane Wade is recovering from a sprained wrist, which might help explain his horrific shooting night (three points on 1-for-13 shooting).

Still. This team should not be shooting 38 percent. Or making just four of 20 attempted three-pointers. Or committing 22 turnovers. You can’t fault LeBron (25 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds) or Bosh (21 and 11). Wade simply wasn’t there, and neither was the bench (contributing all of four points).

I keep saying it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and we all know that if one of the three stars is out or weakened, Miami’s chances dwindle. But getting manhandled but a team like the Pacers does not augur well.

SPURS 106, MAGIC 97: Hey, the Magic lost too, so that’s something. They’re now 9-4, not that much better than the Heat. Whereas San Antonio is now 12-1, having lost their first game and won 11 straight (!). Divorce really agrees with Tony Parker, who had 24 and 10. The Spurs are looking fiercely good right now, and one wonders what happens if they meet the Lakers in the playoffs and have the size to tangle with their bigs.

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Balling: Heat/Suns (a.k.a. The Finals Matchup I Wanted So Very Much In 2005)

HEAT 123, SUNS 96 (Miami: 7-4)

I know, I missed a game back there. This journal-of-the-whole-season thing can be wearying, if only because weekend games come and go and if I don’t watch them I feel ill-equipped to report on just the box score, y’know? They beat the Raptors 109-100, Bosh had just 12 points against his whole team, the end.

Meanwhile, Phoenix. This is not a great team, mind you. They’re not going to win the title this year. They’re not in that elite subcategory of NBA teams with legitimate aspirations of playing in June (Lakers, Celtics, Magic, Heat, Thunder, Spurs, maybe Bulls). But they came into Miami with the same record as the Heat (6-4). They came to Florida riding a three-game winning streak that featured a victory over the Lakers. They’re not a bad team. They’re not even an average team. They are an upper-half-of-the-league, just-good-enough-to-probably-make-the-playoffs, won’t-go-far-but-won’t-be-swept kinda team. (And they have eminently Phoenix-like statistics: Third in the league in PPG, fourth from the bottom in opponent PGG.)

So a throttling like this has to do something good for Miami’s psyche. The game was tight for the first 14 minutes or so, but the Heat just swatted them around in that second quarter. Credit where it is due: Bosh finally, FINALLY, played like an All Star. He had 35 points in just 30 minutes, 22 points in the first half alone and went 11-for-11 from the line. LeBron had 20 points and nine dimes in just 23 minutes of play, while Wade chipped in 17 points as well.

Things that are good: The balance of the Heat’s big trio. Eddie House coming off the bench to score 15. The team, mostly Bosh, putting up 46 points in the paint (admittedly, against a team without an interior presence). Netting 22 of 25 free throws (half of those go to Bosh, but that’s still great). And after getting scorched by every elite point guard to this point, they kept Nash (who is nursing an injury and played just 29 minutes) to 17 points and a mere two assists. Things that are not good: If you want to be technical, this game didn’t really show that the Heat can beat an elite team with an elite interior presence.

SPURS 103, BULLS 94: This very, very, very unlikely (but not impossible) Finals preview reminded us of something: Those Spurs are goddamn indefatigable. They just WILL NOT GO AWAY, and have improved to 9-1 this season. Despite the announcement of his divorce earlier in the day, Tony Parker had 21 points and seven assists. The only worry was the 13 turnovers, which you figure Pop has to hate. Derrick Rose had 33 points, but needed 27 shots to make it happen, and the Bulls are a decent 6-4. Until they have Boozer on the court, they’re going to remain a decent team, and we won’t know who they really are. But the Spurs are who they’ve always been: that nagging, persistent presence that lurks behind you every season, waiting to quietly steal away the thunder from the more highly-touted teams and remind you that, yes, Duncan’s old, but they could very well win the West if the chips fall their way. Don’t look now, but the two best records in the league belong to the same division: The Spurs and Hornets each are 9-1, tied for best in the game.

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Balling: Miami gets steamrolled by the Celtics

CELTICS 112, HEAT 107 (MIA: 5-4)

Dispiriting. That’s the best word to use for the Miami Heat’s second loss in as many tries against the Boston Celtics this season. It’s one thing for the team to lose at the last second to New Orleans; that’s an undefeated team, they’re on a roll, these things happen. Or coughing up a huge lead against Utah; okay, sometimes a player gets hot, these things happen.

But the Celtics? A team the Heat know they have to beat? A team they want to face in the playoffs? A team that already beat them once, that manhandled them on their first night together as a team? They’re supposed to show up for games like this.

The good news: Miami should have lost this game by much, much more. They trailed Boston by more than 20 at one point, Dwyane Wade shot just 2-for-12 (and o-for-5 from beyond the arc) and they got very little production from multiple key support players. Despite all that, they trailed by just three points with a dozen seconds left. In two games against the Celtics where the Heat have played poorly, shot poorly, had miserable production from at least one star and got lit up by Rondo, Miami lost by an average of 6.5 points.

A loss is still a loss. But it’s worth noting. It’s not like the team just gave up when down big. And for what it’s worth, Ray Allen did have that bizarre run, hitting all seven of his first three-pointers. Rondo still lit up this team, handing out 16 assists. Allen’s not going to make seven straight threes in every game. Rondo is probably still going to do very, very well every time these teams play. And hopefully they don’t really have Dwyane Wade’s number, though it appears that way: In two games against Boston, Wade is 6-of-28 and has a dozen turnovers. He’s also only taken 12 free throws.

If there’s any silver lining to be taken from a loss like this, it’s this: Even if Wade isn’t connecting, even if Bosh is putting up a decent but not superstar stat line of 15 and 7, Miami does have the best player in the world. LeBron finished with 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists (nearly getting his second triple-double in as many games), but that doesn’t even tell the whole story. After seemingly starting the game hesitant to drive to the basket, he got over that as the game wore on and started pounding it into the rim every time. Sometimes he got the calls (going 17-for-22 from the line), sometimes he didn’t.

If there’s any criticism of his game on the floor, besides his not-sharpshooter-quality eye for long shots, it’s that he has the physical capabilities to dominate the lane and never does so. He won’t overpower every player in the game, but he can do it to damn near all of them. So it was nice to see him recognizing this and actually driving to the basket.

Anyway: It’s not time to panic. Not yet. They haven’t played 10 games together. Mike Miller, not to mention whatever veteran buyouts occur, are still out there. A 5-4 start isn’t what anyone envisioned, but it’s also not like the team is suddenly in trouble. They just aren’t great yet. And they really aren’t even particularly good.

NUGGETS 118, LAKERS 112: Hey, the Lakers lost! Okay, the season is saved. Carmelo had 32-13 while waiting around for his trade to clear, while early MVP candidate Pau Gasol shot abysmally (6-for-17) but finished with 17 and 20. Of note: Remember how the Lakers are a much deeper team than most, even without Andrew Bynum? Why the hell is Kobe taking 32 shots? He went 11-for-32 and 3-for-10 from long. Sure, he had 34 points, but still. Odom was 1-for-6 and Fisher was 3-for-7; only Artest (7-for-11) shot above 50 percent for the starting five. Denver is 5-4 — hey, Melo has the same record as Wade/LeBron/Bosh!

BULLS 120, WARRIORS 90: Chicago led by 28 at the half and this one never looked close from that point on. Chicago shot 54 percent and had a very balanced attack (every started had between 14 and 26 points). Golden State is being outscored by 1.3 points this season, making them the only squad with five or more wins being outscored.

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Balling: John Wall’s first triple-double

Yeah, the Heat didn’t play. So let’s see what else is going on, since I can write without any investment of emotion about these outcomes:

WIZARDS 98, ROCKETS 91: John Wall, the No. 1 draft pick and dance aficionado, netted his first triple-double in this home win: He had 19 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds to go with six steals (!) (as many as all of Houston’s players) and just one turnover. Wall played a team-high 42 minutes (and is averaging 40 per game), so the concern of fatigue will come up at some point down the line, but for now the Wizards can be happy with their floor leader. (I wonder if Colin Cowherd has any racially-tinged dumb things to say about his intellect now that he took all of six games to produce a triple-double and only one TO.) They also can be happy knowing they can put games away: Washington led by just one point going into the fourth, but they held on for the W. The Rockets, meanwhile, are very disappointing with a 1-6 record so far.

WARRIORS 122, KNICKS 117: David Lee returned to New York and dropped 28 and 10 on his former team, while much, much more expensive replacement Amare Stoudemire had 33 and 10 in the loss. The Warriors are a surprising 6-2 so far this year.

T-WOLVES 98, KINGS 89: Michael Beasley put up a career high 42 points to help Minnesota get their second win of the season (and first road win in six games). It took him 31 shots to get there, but whatever it takes for the lottery-bound Wolves.

SPURS 107, CLIPS 95: San Antonio is a quiet 6-1 after their fifth win in a row. Meanwhile, the Clippers — a team pegged for a potential playoff spot by a number of people (myself included) fall to 1-8. Nobody has more losses than the Clippers so far.

BOBCATS 101, RAPTORS 96: This battle of one-win teams had to end with somebody picking up a second win, so why not, let it be Charlotte. (The Rockets, Raptors and Clippers — all of whom lost last night — are the three remaining one-win teams.)

JAZZ 104, MAGIC 94: Coming into Florida with a 3-3 record, Utah departs 5-3 and with a little more respect. Paul Millsap scored 23 (giving him 69 points during his Sunshine State swing) and attempted no threes, for some reason. Deron Williams had 30 and 14 for the Jazz. Meanwhile, Orlando’s franchise player had 14 points and nine rebounds, which are fine little stats if you’re not the best center in the game, but what the hell is Dwight Howard doing shooting just eight times in a game? Oh, that’s right, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter need to go 19-for-44.

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Balling: Well, that sucked

JAZZ 116, HEAT 114 (MIA 5-3)

This ostensibly started as a roundup of NBA news and notes, but who am I kidding? It mostly serves as a running diary of the Miami Heat’s star-studded, attention-soaked, overhyped, overwrought, ratings-expanding, revenue-escalating 2010-2011 season. The downside to the Heat’s summer acquisitions was that it doesn’t resemble the team I grew up watching so much as it became the NBA Yankees, the team too stacked to root for, the team hated by all but the bandwagon fans who, let’s be honest, are alone worth abhorring in terms of fandom. The upside was that the Miami Heat, my team, would be on TV! All the time!

Which brings us to last night’s meltdown against Utah. Yes, it’s just an early November game. Yes, there are extenuating factors. Yes, this is still a 60-win team. But ugh. That was just a pitiful, pitiful showing. (And the fact that I stayed up late — well, late for me — to watch? Ugh. Yep, that’s probably why I am a bit more frustrated.)

Hosting the Utah Jazz for the 48th time (per the announcers, who at one point referred to this as a rivalry, which, buh?), Miami jumped out to an early lead. At the half, it was 51-32. Kevin McHale, who finished massacring basketball in Minnesota long enough to become an NBA TV commentator, joked that Utah would have to get hot in the second half just to reach 86 points, the per-game average of the Heat’s opponents through seven games.

Funny story! They did. Utah slowly chipped away at the lead, thanks in large part to outscoring the heat by 13 points in the fourth quarter. This game was still in hand as Miami led by eight points with 37 seconds left on the clock.

You’re going to hear a lot about this from commentators: Great teams know how to finish. Champions know how to hold onto leads. The contenders can withstand a punch and keep going. Et cetera. Seriously, that’s going to spew forth in columns across the land and from blowhards on ESPN, though in a month this will probably be forgotten as they gush over Miami’s 46-point domination of Charlotte or something.

That being said, this team did lose to an unlikely confluence of events. Namely, Paul Millsap, who had before this game gone 2-for-20 from three-point range, but who was beyond hot for the night, going to town. In the final 28 seconds of play, they fed him the ball and he kept scoring: he made three three-pointers in the span of 24 seconds, before catching an offensive rebound and putting it back in at the last second to send the game into overtime. (Consider that: The dude made more three-pointers in the final seconds of this game than he had made in 328 prior career games.)

Millsap was unstoppable. He had 46 for the night on 19-f0r-28 shooting, three triples, nine rebounds and at some point I think he levitated above the court and started throwing thunderbolts at Miami.

But even so, even with Millstap literally catching fire and soaring through the air NBA Jam style, this was a winnable game for Miami. Derron Williams, the star Utah point guard, fouled out in the waning seconds of regulation. Miami took 47 free throws to Utah’s 21. Miami had more rebounds and fewer turnovers, but they were dominated in the paint (scoring 36 points to Utah’s 56 points). And yes, you have to somewhat blame this week’s whipping boy, Chris Bosh, who provides as imposing a paint presence as do I.

This was a winnable game. Wade had 39, LBJ had 20-11-14 (for his first Miami triple-double) and their li’l buddy Bosh added 17 and nine for good measure. Could we blame it on their bench? At some point, that enters the discussion: Miami’s three stars had to shoulder an unbelievable burden, thanks in part to the bench going 8-for-21. (James Jones Three Pointer Watch: He had a pair. Ho-hum.)

I was watching it with my buddy, who pointed out that at least we saw something unusual: A lot of times, with NBA games somewhat close but not really close near the end, teams will do what Utah did. They foul, shoot threes, foul, shoot threes, et cetera. It never works. It just extends the actual time of the game. But most of the time, the method fails. Last night, it actually worked. Utah was able to chip away and eventually come away with the win.

Miami might learn something from last night. Or they might not. We’ll know in a few months, when they are playing ball that matters. We’ll know when the chips are down against Orlando or Chicago or Boston. But if they come up short again, we can’t say they didn’t warn us.

PACERS 144, NUGGETS 113: Okay, this ones just worth noting because Indy kind of went nuts. They scored 54 points (!) in the third quarter, going 20-for-20 until Josh McRoberts heaved a three as the quarter was winding down. That’s the most in a quarter since 1990, and okay, that’s pretty nify.

LAKERS 99, T-WOLVES 94: Yep, the Lakers are 8-0. Fantastic.

HORNETS 101, CLIPPERS 82: Hey, the Hornets are 7-0! Good for them, I guess.

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Balling: Miami keeps chugging along

HEAT 93, HORNETS 96 | HEAT 101, NETS 89 (MIA 5-2)

Miami loses to New Orleans at the last second (in a game they had no business winning) and slam the Nets again (natch) to improve to 5-2. Okay. So what do we know that we didn’t already know? In their first close matchup, with the game on the line, the Miami game plan puts the ball in the hands of…Eddie House.

House is not a bad shooter, but he is an exceptionally streaky shooter. House was 2-for-10 and 0-for-6 from long. Having Wade hand him the ball was…not wise.

However, this is something we knew: Miami won’t live or die by their superstars. Well, scratch that — if their stars aren’t clicking, they are in trouble. But even if their stars are humming, their role players help decide games. When they are doing well, the team has a shot. Wade and LeBron have a lot of history putting teams on their backs and carrying them through games, and that only works to a point. James Jones, Eddie House, Big Z and — yes — Chris Bosh will need to pick up the slack.

Against New Jersey, the Heat were only ahead by four at the half. Their soon-to-be-patented third quarter run (32-17) sealed the game. This was also the first time the three Heat superstars all put up at least 20. James Jones Three-Pointer Watch: He added four over these two games. Chris Paul, the league’s elite point guard, was a big problem for the Heat, as was big man Emeka Okafor (just like Rajon Rondo and Boston’s bigs). Size and point guards will continue to be issues. But a big problem remains Chris Bosh.

With the exceptions of New Orleans (6-0) and Atlanta (6-1), all of the teams ahead of the Heat in terms of win-loss are the ones you’d expect. The Lakers are 7-0, causing some people to wonder if the Lakers will win 72 this year. (Nope.) Miami still leads the league in opponents points-per-game (86.4) and point differential (13.2). They aren’t in any danger of a poor record or anything like that. But as this grand experiment rolls on, we keep seeing flashes of consistency between LeBron and Wade.

We’re not seeing it from Bosh. He’s averaging a career-low in field goal percentage, getting to the line half as often as he has over the last five seasons and averaging half as many rebounds as he pulled down the last two years. We knew some statistics would suffer, which is why I’m not pinpointing his lower points-per-game, because that’s explainable. LeBron’s numbers are also lower across the board, but only slightly. Wade’s are actually fairly on par with previous years. But Wade and LeBron are both averaging north of 20 points per game and have field goal percentages that aren’t far afield from their previous marks. If Bosh doesn’t start finding ways to contribute, that could be problematic.

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