Heat-Hawks: Miami Comes Together as a Team

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Dwyane Wade goes for 50 points.  The Heat score 99, and they lose by 20.

Dwyane Wade goes for 50 points  The Heat win in triple-overtime at home against the road-deficient Utah Jazz.

Wade goes for 48 points.  The Heat win in double-overtime on a miracle steal and running three-pointer over the road-deficient Chicago Bulls.

Wade goes for 46 points.  The Heat win after a 13-point comeback in the fourth quarter against the defenseless Knicks. Wade scores 24 in the fourth, tying his own franchise record.

Encouraging? I think not.

Not for the playoffs, anyways. One man can't beat a good team.

Ask Kobe ('06 and '07 against the suns). Ask LeBron (last year against the Celtics, '07 vs the Spurs). Heck, even ask Michael Jordan (1986 vs the Celtics).  You could ask Wade—but he might have fooled himself with what he did to the Mavericks in 2006 if he wasnt so smart and humble.

The Atlanta Hawks are the last team Wade could beat one-on-five.  They're athletic as heck and start five very good players.  They're a balanced squad, led by All-Star stud Joe Johnson and a playoff winner Mike Bibby, plus a young champion Al Horford inside. Good bench, great defense, great home team, et cetera.

That is why Game Two's win is so encouraging after Game One's loss.

In Game One, the Miami Heat came out with Wade firing, closed the first quarter down three with him scoring 13 of their 21 points and assisting on three of the other baskets—a typical one-man show.

Jermaine O'Neal was sleepwalking. Udonis Haslem was rendered useless, as he had no one to create for him, and finished the quarter with zero and zero. James Jones hit a three created by Wade and missed his other two shots.  And Mario Chalmers was converted back into the guy who walks the ball up the court and hands it to Wade before going to standing the corner.

Michael Beasley was back coming off the bench and out of rhythym, settling for jumpers in his first playoff game. Et cetera.

And that was just the first quarter—it got a lot worst after that. But let's not go down that road.  Instead, let's look at the positives.

In Game Two, the Heat come out posting up Jermaine O'Neal.  This allowed Chalmers to run the team and tempo, allowing him to penetrate Bibby and run the pick and roll. He ran Daequan Cook off of screens for shots, iso'ed Michael Beasley and let him do his thing as Miami's 2nd best offensive player.

This allowed Wade to just play his game and be Dwyane Wade. He dominated. 33 points, seven dimes, five boards, two blocks, and two steals in 39 minutes played.  He shot 55 percent with no forces,  and in all there were 108 points scored for the Miami Heat.

If you are fan of another team, you can not understand how encouraging Game Two was for Heat fans. I was screaming in jubilation at my TV.

In Game One, coach Spoelstra made many mistakes: Not playing Magloire, going small with Haslem at center, playing lineups that never played together, having our worst defender guard Joe Johnson (James Jones), playing Beasley at SF, running the Wade-on-five offense against the most athletic defense in the NBA, not posting up Jermaine, not running Cook off screens, not setting Beasley up for success offensively, and not slowing the tempo.

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