Sunshine State Showdown: How Important Is the Miami Heat's Home Opener?

Two games into the regular season and the Miami Heat are already encountering the fury of their critics.

Overrated. Over-hyped. The Big Three can't adjust to each other. They needed a fluke game from James Jones to beat the Philadelphia 76ers. LeBron's greediness with the ball will turn the team into another version of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It goes on and on...and on and on. Mind you, it's just two games into the regular season, and the Heat are already being written off from the NBA championship.

At 1-1, the Heat haven't exactly made a statement, with a lackluster performance against the Boston Celtics and an expected win against the Philadelphia 76ers. Their loss against the Celtics was a direct result of Wade recovering from an injury that had kept him out for the preseason and the fact that LeBron James was forced to pick up the slack for Chris Bosh who had a tough time scoring on Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis.

Their win against the 76ers was a result of their three-point shooting and the Big Three's ability to draw double teams, which allowed James Jones and Eddie House to provide the spark that the team needed to pull away for an easy ten-point victory. The final result doesn't reflect how the game was played for most of the way, as the Heat held a 20-point advantage for most of the second half before Philly took advantage of the Heat's adjusted lineup.

After two games though, the Heat are still 1-1 and have yet to make a true statement to the NBA. The Big Three have had their moments, but for the most part they have been sloppy and lackluster—it appears that they have not adjusted to each others' games yet. Critics, however, are accepting no excuses and are already beginning to criticize the the new Big Three.

With one statement opportunity gone and failed, the Heat get another chance early in the season to send their message across the NBA with their home opener against the Orlando Magic. The Magic are coming off of a 29-point victory against the division rival Washington Wizards in which Dwight Howard began to show flashes of an offensive game.

There is no doubt that the American Airlines Arena will be louder than any nightclub in South Beach has been before. The city hasn't been this excited for basketball since Shaq came to Miami to heat up. While it might not appear that the stadium will be at full capacity in the first quarter, Miami natives are notorious for being fashionably late: The Triple A will be standing-room only with 20,000 strong supporting their old and new love.

If you wanted to be realistic going into the season, you needed to understand that the trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh only have minimal knowledge of how to play together. They've played on a few dream teams, in a few All-Star games and on Olympic teams, but an NBA regulation game is a far cry from any of those.

Not to mention, the team's season opener was their first game playing together after Wade injured himself three minutes into the preseason opener. Even a team that has the athleticism, talent and magnitude of Wade, Bosh and James, still needs to adjust to the players' individual games—they still need to learn how to play with each other on the court.

If they want to make a point early in the season, tonight's home opener would be the time to do it.

The sunshine state series has become a rivalry over the past years, with the Magic winning 16 of the past 19 and the two teams splitting the series 2-2 last season. Both teams are in their prime and are now each contending for the Southeast Division and Eastern Conference titles, making the rivalry even stronger.

The Heat might be only three games into the season, but they need to make their mark early in the season to put the rest of the NBA on notice. Their first chance against the Celtics was an opportunity that was forfeited, as Wade was injured, Bosh couldn't get into his zone and LeBron was forced to pick up the slack. Despite the team shooting 36 percent, they still nearly managed a comeback of epic proportions from 19 down to making it a three-point game in the final minute.

Their home opener against the Magic will be their second chance to make a statement, and it would give them an advantage in the division as well. Orlando has held a stranglehold over the division since Shaquille O'Neal was traded away from Miami, and the Heat since then have accepted the role of a mediocre team that took the No. 4 or No. 5 seed by default.

So, just how important is tonight's home opener for the Heat?

Quite important, actually. The Heat showed up to Boston looking like a completely different team than what we ever expected. Wade and Bosh struggled, and LeBron had to do what he did in Cleveland for seven years by picking up the slack. By facing the other powerhouse in the Eastern Conference, the Heat get a shot at redemption.

If they can beat the Magic, not only do they take the division lead while holding a greater chance of winning the tiebreaker if it comes down to it, but they're also able to send a message to the NBA and their  critics by beating an elite opponent for the first time in the Big Three's time together.

The key to victory is obviously limiting Dwight Howard and the team's many three-point threats from beyond the arc. The Heat have four centers to throw at Dwight, and the Heat's starting center Joel Anthony has limited Howard in the teams' past few meetings. Even if Anthony cannot come through, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Dexter Pittman and Jamal Maggloire are all ready to give a shot at trying to defend Howard and sending him to the foul line.

The Heat are a team that is ready for championship glory, and it could all start here with a convincing statement-win against their new division and conference rivals. The talent and the players are there, and by showing that the team can already gel in this short amount of time with a win tonight, they'll be able to prove their critics wrong and put the NBA on notice for the storm that is coming out of Miami.

A loss here and the Heat drop to 0-2 against the elite teams of the Eastern Conference and will receive flack no matter how little time they have had to play together. While it's not until the postseason that we will begin to see the team's true colors, a win now would be very convincing not only to the rest of the NBA, but to themselves as well.

The trio could use confidence and motivation to begin to propel themselves toward becoming an elite team, and their home opener is the perfect time to prove it.