Beating the Heat

David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
The Heat dancers, not the players, are the ones having some kind of rhythm


The Miami Heat may have won Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers courtesy of Hassan Whiteside's 26 points and 22 rebounds, but that does not in any way absolve the team of their horrendous performance this season. It is not that difficult to see why the three time champs are now in dire straits. They simply do not have the manpower. They are the exact opposite of a fully loaded ballclub like the Cavs, Spurs, or , what's that other team again? Oh yeah right, the Warriors. While the Warriors are a superteam, the Heat is simply super thin. The roster is stacked with young unexperienced players and untested veterans. You can't expect your team to have even the slightest chance of squeezing into the playoffs with a line up like Miami's.
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Whiteside sizing up Gobert

The Heat may have a bright side with Whiteside, and it's not so tragic with Dragic, but the rest of the line up is just lined up to take a beating from whoever they face night in, night out. The efforts of the two mentioned Heat players has and continues to be wasted and will all be in vain because the team does not appear to have a strong resolve to fix their problems. 

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Spo could very well be pointing to the exit doors

When a team fails to compete, the head coach almost always takes the blame. More often than not, it is the coach who becomes the sacrificial lamb in the drive to straighten up a zig zagging squad. Erik Spoelstra carries with him a bagful of credentials and his achievements are well documented having piloted the Heat to back to back titles in 2012 and 2013. But no matter how brilliant his resume is, he can't expect it to save him from Pat Riley coming into the gym one day, and telling him to pack up and leave. When that happens, we can only emphatize with Spo. Phil Jackson is regarded as the Zen Master for the championships he gave Chicago and LA. But do you really believe he could have orchestrated those triumphs had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, or Kobe and Shaq played for other teams. 

Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Dwyane Wade kept the Heat in stable condition even after Lebron decided to return his talents to Cleveland and when Chris Bosh went down with some health problems. Now that the Flash is a Bull, Miami is left  with no leader to pull them out of the quagmire. The Heat has transformed from a championship team to a comedy show. When their Big 3 was still around, even strong caliber teams found it tough to deal with Miami. Nowadays, beating the Heat is becoming a task even lowly teams find easy to undertake.