Miami-Washington: Heat Look To Burn Wizards for Best Start in a Decade

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It’s been a decade since the Miami Heat started the season 6-1. Unless things go dreadfully wrong tonight at American Airlines Arena, that long drought will be over.

In their last matchup with the Washington Wizards nearly a week ago, the Heat were coming off a disappointing 104-96 loss to the Phoenix Suns in which they saw their stifling defense shredded in the fourth quarter by the perennial All-Star and two-time MVP guard Steve Nash for 25 of his 30 points.

The Heat redeemed themselves that night in Washington as Dwyane Wade scored 40 points and his teammates helped return Miami to their defensive ways. They defeated the Wizards 93-89.

Their defense was on display full-force two nights later as they held two of the previously unbeaten Denver Nuggets’ starters to no points, and clamped down on Chauncey Billups, allowing him only six points in the Heat’s 96-88 victory.

Coming into their second contest with the Wizards in less than a week, the Heat have arguably the best defense in the NBA.

They’ve held their opponents to just 41.7 percent from the field, which is tied with Detroit and Milwaukee for first in the league, and they’re only allowing 90.7 points per game, which ranks sixth in the NBA.

Combine that with the balanced production the Heat get from most of their roster—Jermaine O’Neal seems to have drank from the fountain of youth, Michael Beasley seems to be coming into his own, Udonis Haslem has thrived in his reserve role, and Quentin Richardson is playing better than he has in years—and it’s no wonder Miami is looking like it might just be a contender this year.

Speculation is running rampant about a possible move by Pat Riley to acquire LeBron James next summer in the 2010 free agent bonanza (something I wrote about with my first article on B/R, which you can read here), and many believed Wade wouldn’t have a team around him that could challenge the NBA’s elite until they made moves just like that next year.

Those who made those claims hadn’t—until recently—been speculating about LeBron (and I’ll be getting into that juicy story tomorrow after the game in anticipation of His Highness’ visit to South Beach), but they had felt Wade would need Chris Bosh or Amar’e Stoudemire to join him in Miami before the Heat could really have a shot at a title.

Whether the Heat are good enough this year to dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers, or even take out the Boston Celtics and other elite teams in the East, is still to be seen.

Yet, if they’re able to win tonight against the Wizards (as they should), it will go a long way in convincing people Miami at least should be in the discussion of any talk about who the best teams in the NBA are at the moment.

That being said, this game against Washington tonight isn’t something Miami should be looking past. Heat coach Eric Spoelstra should be doing everything in his powers to get the Miami players to understand that tonight’s game is all that matters at the moment.

If they’re thinking about the game against the Cavaliers on Thursday, and any potential matchups with King James and his Court, they aren’t doing their jobs.

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