Miami Heat: How Milwaukee's Become the Heatle-Killers

One-third of the Miami Heat's losses have come at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, with their most recent loss coming in a pretty underwhelming fashion.  The Heat blew a 13-point halftime lead, ultimately losing, 105-97.

So how are the Bucks doing it?  Are they just the better of the two teams, or are they just getting lucky?

Well, it's neither of the two, but one thing the Bucks managed to do twice against the Heat is kill them from beyond the arc, which is proving to be the Achilles heel of the Heatles this year.

The Bucks hit 10 three-pointers, seven of which came at the hands of sensational point guard Brandon Jennings.  But the Bucks ability to hit three-point shots wasn't the only reason why they've had the Heat's number this year.

Milwaukee, even without Andrew Bogut, is spreading the floor with great ball-movement, and getting the ball into the paint, which is something that the Heat, thus far, haven't been able to handle.

In a shocking turn of events, the Bucks outscored the Heat in the paint, totaling 44 points in the paint as compared to the Heat's weak total of only 30 points.  If you look at ear of the Heat's losses you'll see that one commonality amongst them all is that they've been outscored in the paint, which shows the Heat's vulnerability when it comes to interior defense.

The main issue with the Heat's interior defense is that when they collapse on players in the paint, it leaves the perimeter wide-open which proved to be a difference-maker in their losses against the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers and the Bucks.

That is a reason to worry because if you watched the NBA Finals last year, you'd know that that is exactly the way that the Dallas Mavericks took down the Heatles.  They beat them with perimeter offense, set up with Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler producing in the paint.

In the Bucks' two wins against the Heat, they've outscored them in the paint by an average of 15 points, which is impressive when you look at the Bucks roster, which is somewhat undersized and average at best when compared to the Heat's roster.

I know it's only 20-some games into the 2011-12 NBA season, but the Heat need to start learning from their mistakes, and it's clear that they didn't learn from the mistakes they made against the Bucks the first time they played them.

If the Bucks can beat the Heat, coming back from 13 down at half, by penetrating into the paint and hitting open shots created off that penetration, more talented teams should have no problem doing the exact same thing.

The Heat's sixth loss could just be a case of playing down to their competition, but if that's truly the case, they seriously need to get their act together before the way they play against weaker competition becomes the way they play against every team in the NBA.

There are still quite a few games to go, and the Heat have time to improve, but there's no doubt that if they keep playing the way they do, they will play themselves right into a fourth or fifth seed in the playoffs, in an Eastern Conference that is getting stronger and stronger.

LeBron's 40-point performance was impressive, but his seven turnovers proved to be the more meaningful of the two statistics.  Turnovers, and a proclivity to let teams beat them by getting into the paint will be the Heat's downfall this season, just like it was last year as well.

The final matchup between the Heatle-Killers and the Heat is in 11 days, on Feb. 13 in the beautiful city of Milwaukee.  Can the Bucks do the impossible and sweep the season series between the Heat?

Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, and that is that the Heat have a long way to go if they want to contend for the NBA championship in 2012.