LeBron James: Demons of Departure Continue to Haunt Heat Superstar

You may not believe in curses when it comes to sports, but there is certainly something to Miami Heat star forward LeBron James' struggles against his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Heat outlasted the Cavs 92-85 on Tuesday night, but LeBron had a pretty rough game. He scored just 18 points on 8-of-21 shooting and may have been outshined by Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving, who scored 17 points but was much more efficient, as he made seven of his 11 shots.

It can be argued that coming out on the winning side is the only thing that matters, but LeBron has had his struggles against Cleveland.

James was often outplayed by cohort Dwyane Wade in the Heat's games against the Cavs last season, and Miami even managed to lose a game to the Cavaliers, who ended up with the first-overall pick in the NBA draft.

That isn't the extent of a potential curse, however. Miami's failure in the NBA Finals last year was likely the first sign of LeBron having demons to overcome. While he and the Heat were spectacular in their run up to the finals, things got ugly against the Dallas Mavericks.

James averaged below 18 points per game in the series, had one game with a mere eight points and failed to make his presence felt by getting to the basket, for whatever reason. At the time, the loss may not have seemed like such a big deal, since the "Big Three" of LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh was locked up long term.

Things are looking less certain now, though. The Heat have played well with a record of 12-5, but there is some cause for concern. Chief among them is the ankle injury to Wade. Even though the season is young, Wade has already been felled by a multitude of injuries. It would be easy to write it off as a fluke, but at the age of 30, Wade may simply be injury-prone.

If Wade can't find a way to shake his injury issues, then the Heat are a much weaker team. They would obviously still be a contender with James and Bosh in the fold, but there is no opportunity for improvement in other areas due to the money that is committed to the "Big Three."

Also, while the Heat have some decent role players, I'm not convinced that their supporting cast is adequate for a championship team. LeBron got what he wished for in being a member of a "Dream Team," but there are certainly some obvious deficiencies.

For LeBron, I think that the ultimate nightmare is for him to fail to win a title in Miami and for the Cavs to win one before him. That may not seem like a likely scenario right now, but Cleveland is an improving team at 6-10 with what looks to be a legitimate star in Irving.

When you consider the amount of cap space the Cavaliers have, it isn't crazy to think that they could build a contending team over the next year or two.

James knows as well as anybody that role players are a must in order to win it all. I'm not sure LeBron has a good enough group of them in Miami, so he could be his own worst enemy in that regard, as the salaries of himself, Wade and Bosh prevent other moves from being made.

I'm not going to say that LeBron will never win a title in Miami, but I don't view it as the foregone conclusion that most think it is. If LeBron ultimately fails as a member of the Heat, there will likely be plenty of reasons, but perhaps one of them will be the bad karma he deserves for leaving the Cavs high and dry.