Top 5 Obstacles Standing in Miami Heat's Way to a Championship

Despite the Miami Heat's latest struggles in their three-game losing streak, you'd be hard-pressed to find an NBA analyst outside of the antagonistic Jon Barry who would say the Miami Heat aren't the favorites to win the NBA title.

And why wouldn't they?

The Heat have addressed many of the problems that pestered them last year with an: identity (run and gun), a closer (Wade), an improved post presence (LeBron), and an upgraded bench (Cole, Haslem, Battier, and eventually Mike Miller).

Nevertheless, as the last three games have proven, the Heat still need to make much more qualitative adjustments if they hope to finish the season as champions.

So, without further ado, here are the five obstacles standing in the way of the Miami Heat's chances to win a championship, from least to greatest.

Speed Bump No. 5: Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls

The lowest point of any goal-attaining process is always external.

And with all due respect to the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers, who could both very well be dark horses down the line, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder are both vying with Miami as the best team in the NBA.

Both of those teams have legitimate superstars with proven leadership abilities (Durant and D. Rose).

Both play excellent defense against their opponents.

Both are strong in spots where Miami is weak (center and point guard).

Finally, both have a chance at winning home-court advantage throughout the playoffs by securing the best record in the NBA.

In other words, while the spotlight continues to stay on Miami, these UWA's (underdogs who aren't) will enjoy the comfort of staying relatively under the radar while champing at the bit to play Miami for NBA supremacy, both in the regular season and the playoffs.

Oh, by the way, they both also currently have better records than the Heat.

Speed Bump No. 4: Chris Bosh's Physical Tenacity

Leave it to Chris Bosh to get everyone stirred up in a roar...and then just show us more of the same thing.

Coming into the season, Bosh went into camp having added 10-12 extra pounds of muscle on his scrawny frame and vowed to average 10 rebounds a game this season.

In the meanwhile, if you compare Bosh's numbers from last season and the first 12 games of this season, they are virtually the same.

            Rebounds   Points

10-11     8.3              19.2

11-12     8.1              18.7

In order for Miami to be the juggernaut that everyone thought they'd be, Miami needs more of a rebounding and defensive presence from Bosh down low.

More importantly, they need him to shed the "soft" label that has plagued him throughout his career and can be exploited by players like Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, and the rest of the power forwards Miami can expect to see once they get into the playoffs.

Because even though Bosh isn't on the same level that Wade and LeBron are, he is still getting paid as much as the two.

And that alone warrants him to embrace more contact. 

Speed Bump No. 3: Zone Defense

Just when you thought Miami exorcised every demon from last year, the Atlanta Hawks force a heavy dose of zone defense against Miami in their first loss of the season, and the Heat become exposed to their Achilles heel once again.

If you'll recall, zone defense also sent Miami's offense out of sorts in the NBA finals and changed the entire landscape of a series that Miami was leading 2-0.

Coming into this season, everyone thought Miami's biggest adjustment would come in their preparation in warding off the zone.

Thus far, the Heat have yet to be successful.

An interesting wrinkle that could be quite telling and something Heat fans keep an eye out for is Miami's ability to deal with zone defense in Dwyane Wade's absence.

The rationale behind this is that, because Wade and LeBron aren't known for being exceptional jump shooters, and because a chunk of the team's offense comes from Wade and LeBron, Miami may not be so crippled by zone defense if only one of their slashing superstars is on the court.

And, well, if this is the case, I think you'll be able to understand the implications that will arise if Miami yet again fails to win a championship.

Speed Bump No. 2: The Injury Bug

For as much as the Miami Heat's bench seems to have improved from last year, one good injury to the wrong guy could really devastate this team.

Already, Dwyane Wade is going to miss his second indefinite series of games for the season and Miami has only played 12 games.

Such is the case in a season that has squeezed the most amount of games possible in a relatively short window of time because of the lockout.

For this reason, head coach Erik Spoelstra has a responsibility to play his main guys limited minutes.

Look, in an ideal world, Miami would finish with the best record for the season and have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

But in a marathon race like this season in which injuries are more prone to happen, the Heat need to readjust their priorities from home-court advantage to the team's overall health as it pertains to the playoffs.

A good start to this approach would be adopting the mentality that Miami should loosen its dependence on Wade and LeBron to jump-start the team's offense and defense.

Doing so would have a number of benefits, from instilling confidence in the other players to providing more rest for the team's super two. 

Most importantly, it means that Wade and LeBron are less inclined to sacrifice their bodies so recklessly just so that the team can score consistently.

And, more likely than not, that will pay off come April.

Speed Bump No. 1: LeBron James' Mental Toughness

Let me throw out some applicable psychology here and apply my overpriced graduate education in the field.

We all know LeBron James is a narcissist. If anything, The Decision proved that classification loud and clear to the world.

Heck, he even refers to himself in the third person.

And, maybe that's the price for wearing the crown.

Be that as it may, years of research in contemporary psychology has proven again and again that narcissism is heavily linked with maladaptive features of perfectionism. 

In other words, there is an issue with mental toughness and self-confidence that clearly needs to be addressed with LeBron James.

Already this season, we have seen glimpses of the guy who disappeared in last year's NBA Finals.

And, more troublesome than anything else, LeBron has a history of choking in the playoffs when it gets to crunch time.

For years in Cleveland, everyone excused that behavior and blamed it on his far inferior supporting cast.

Now, in Miami, he doesn't have the same luxury.

His way of addressing this issue was to come into the season with a fresh state of mind that would no longer embrace the disdain that fans and experts around the world have shown him ever since he joined Wade on the Heat.

And while this may have been his own conscious attempt at reducing the pressure on himself, it is clear to me that LeBron is trying to put a Band-Aid on a deeply rooted psychological issue.

Something that he should be talking to a therapist to treat. 

Maybe I'm wrong.

But, at the end of the day, this Heat team goes as far as LeBron takes them.

Only, at this point, you have to wonder whether that's a good thing anymore...