Miami Heat Rumors: Latest News, Expert Analysis and Twitter Buzz

The Miami Heat played zero games since Thursday, yet they are once again at the center of controversy.

LeBron James being a primary subject once again and Dwyane Wade also taking in some criticism for a foul on Kobe Bryant that resulted in the Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard breaking his nose.

James' criticism stems from not taking the final shot in a three-point game where his East team was down. Instead of taking the final shot, James threw a cross-court pass to Dwyane Wade that was intercepted. Even though James was about to be double-teamed, he's still taking a lot of blame for the loss.

Never mind the fact that he had 36 points and shot 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, we still have to find any sort of reason to criticize arguably the league's best player in the first half of the season.

Instead of having me focus on these hot topics, we'll allow the analysts to do their part as we analyze the latest news that's currently surrounding the Miami Heat.

Latest News

Kevin Durant Calls Out LeBron James

After Blake Griffin, JaVale McGee, DeMar DeRozan and Serge Ibaka resurrected the dunk contest last year, the newcomers in the 2012 Slam Dunk Contest decided to throw it right back into obscurity.

Jeremy Evans, Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams and Paul George were duds in last Saturday's dunk contest. Throwing out the judges and instead using fans to vote for the winner (because the fans always know best), the little-known Utah Jazz forward would walk away a winner.

Even though he had a sick dunk where he jumped over a seated Gordan Hayward while dunking two basketballs at the same time, it did little to get the fans out of their seats and excited about the potential of another dunk contest featuring little-known players.

In response to the tragedy Saturday night, Kevin Durant decided to call out LeBron James and a few other players to wise up and join the dunk contest in order to add some entertainment back to the event. Durant called out James as well as teammate Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade to take part.

It's no secret that the masses want LeBron James to take part in the dunk contest, but he has constantly shot down offers as he claims he's only an "in-game dunker."

Derrick Rose Doesn't Like LeBron James' Dancing

The Chicago Bulls really don't like the dancing of LeBron James.

We all remember when Joakim Noah spouted off over James dancing during a contest between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Bulls, but now Derrick Rose wants to add his two cents. Apparently Rose didn't approve too much of James and Dwight Howard dancing during the All-Star game introductions.

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"I can dance," he said. "But there's a time and place for that and I don't think it was right, then and there...You just know that's me, man. If you would have saw me out there dancing, you would have been looking at me different. I'm just me. I can't be anybody else. I think that's what people see."

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Dancing during a game is one thing, but dancing during the introductions to the All-Star game is a problem now? It seems that there is a new reason to complain about LeBron James every day. Seriously, it's the All-Star game; a game where the score ends up in the 150's because no one is playing defense. The entire All-Star weekend is a joke and isn't meant to be taken seriously.

James and Howard are characters and that's what makes the NBA fun and exciting to watch. If we all took it seriously as Mr. Rose, we'd have Roger Goodell as commissioner.

Is Jeremy Lin a Threat to Dwyane Wade's Spot on the All-Star Team?

If you're a Miami Heat fan, this is extremely scary.

I know it sounds like a joke topic, but this is actually quite serious. Jeremy Lin is clearly inferior and isn't even close to being in the same league as Dwyane Wade, but that doesn't mean much to the good people on the other side of the world.

Outside of the United States, the NBA's largest following comes from China where basketball has taken the country by storm in the past decade since the arrival of Yao Ming. The recently-retired center brought the NBA to an even larger international spectrum and as a result the NBA got plenty of viewers from Asia.

However, it crippled fan voting as Yao was a perennial starting center. He certainly deserved it, but he most certainly didn't deserve to start in 2011 when he didn't play a single game before the All-Star game. Yao's influence was so large overseas that he could become a starter without even having to step onto the court.

Who's to say this won't happen with Jeremy Lin? He'll certainly be on the ballot next year and there's no doubt that he's already developed a large following overseas. That means the potential spots of Dwyane Wade, as well as Derrick Rose, could be in danger.

Not to mention that Lin also has the city of New York behind him. Fan voting might be a thing of the past if this actually does happen.

Latest News (cont.)

Chris Bosh Attempts to Win Custody of His Daughter

In the midst of all the disappointment that surrounded All-Star weekend, some good came out of it in the personal life of Chris Bosh.

It's reported that Bosh spent a large portion of the weekend with his daughter, who he has not seen in some time due to a custody battle with the mother of his child. Bosh claims that the mother, Allison Mathis, has been "making it impossible for him to be a dad."

It's always great to hear news like this, especially after the hardships Dwyane Wade went through when attempting to get custody of his two kids over the past few seasons. He and his former girlfriend went through a long and exhausted battle over who deserves custody with Wade winning in the end.

Perhaps the good spirits that Bosh can take away from this weekend he can transition to the basketball court.

Heat Denied Joel Przybilla, Still Looking Towards Chris Kaman

Despite being heavily praised by the center, Joel Przybilla decided to deny the Miami Heat's offer in order to take his talents back to his former team in the Portland Trail Blazers.

It's a shame for the Heat, who are in desperate need for a center. Joel Anthony has done extremely well on defense, but it's simply not enough against the larger centers that can grab rebounds at a heavy rate. Dexter Pittman and Eddy Curry's slow progressions have also caused the Heat to throw in small lineups throughout their games.

Most of the time, you'll see Chris Bosh or Udonis Haslem at center whenever Anthony isn't on the floor.

With Przybilla now gone, the Heat will set their sights on New Orleans Hornets center Chris Kaman. The Hornets shopped Kaman earlier in the season, but decided to take him off the trade block after failing to get any offers. The Heat are now hoping that a buyout is in the future since they're not looking to trade.

Pat Riley also heavily contemplated on taking Kaman over Dwyane Wade in the 2003 NBA draft.

It's a tough sell for Kaman. He's making $14 million this season and would be making peanuts compared to that if he joined the Heat. He recognizes that he could be making at least $7 million per year on any other team, so the only hope for the Heat signing him is if they can convince him that winning means a whole lot more than making money.

Erik Spoelstra to Critics: Shut Up

You have to love a professional coach that keeps it real. Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra is a prime example as he shot down the criticism that the team had "peaked too early" in the season.

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"We wanted to get back to work and continue to try to stay in a growth mindset and that's to try to improve and not get comfortable or settling into complacency or buy into a lot of garbage that's out there about us not being able to get to another level."

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Spoelstra is referring to the talk of the team's recent success that includes an eight-game winning streak. It's not like most winning streaks, however, as the Heat have won by 12 points or more in each game and also managed to sweep a back-to-back-to-back with every game being on the road.

With the Heat doing so well, there has been talk of this team possibly playing their best basketball too early. If you remember last year, the Heat didn't start playing their best basketball of the season until the end of the season when they annihilated the Boston Celtics to secure the No. 2 seed before heading into the postseason.

What the Experts Are Saying

ESPN Keeps Heat at No. 1 in Latest Power Rankings

The Miami Heat have been on top of Marc Stein's NBA power rankings since the fifth week of the season and they have no intention of relinquishing that spot.

Stein's reasoning for the Heat at the top once again reads as follows:

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"Who else could occupy this spot? The Heat completed their February schedule with a mark of 11-2 ...with 10 of those wins coming by at least 10 points. No other team in history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, has managed to post 10 such wins in a month containing as few as 13 games."

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Tough to argue with that. The Oklahoma City Thunder do share the same record as the Heat at 27-7, but they are not nearly as hot as the Heat currently are.

Local Media Weighs in on How Each Member of Heat Roster Has Performed Thus Far

We here at Bleacher Report gave our own opinion on how well the Heat's starting lineup performed in the first half of the season. We're not the only one's to weigh our thoughts on the matter as local Heat correspondent Ira Winderman from the Sun-Sentinel also gave a few thoughts on how the entire roster had performed.

He gives a short, but thorough and complete analysis on each player by evaluating them in a manner on if they've improved, held steady or regressed in recent weeks.

As expected, the majority of the team has either improved or held steady with only a few exceptions regressing.

ESPN Weighs in on the Heat's Recent Streak

This eight-game winning streak that the Miami Heat are in the middle of is of historic proportions.

The Heat aren't just squeaking by teams, they're destroying them. Not one of the games was in doubt and most of them featured Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh riding the bench in the fourth quarter because of how large they held a lead going into the final frame.

They've been winning games by an average of 17 points per, with a few of the wins coming against quality opponents in Atlanta, Indiana, Orlando and one of the hottest teams in the league in New York. Their triumph over the "Linsanity" craze was the peace de resistance for the Heat as they held the league's hottest point guard to eight points on 1-of-11 shooting to go along with eight turnovers.

This run of the Heat's started in a win at Washington, which came a few days after an embarrassing loss to the Orlando Magic where the team gave up 17 three-pointers. Miami lost by 13 points and hardly provided any sort of resistance to the Magic's numerous three-point shooters or to Dwight Howard.

ESPN's Tom Haberstroh weighs in on the matter of just how well the Heat have played since that defeat against Orlando.

Twitter Buzz

Dwyane Wade Reportedly Apologizes to Kobe Bryant

Chris Tomasson: Dwyane Wade said he has apologized to Kobe for All-Star foul: “I sent him a message. My apologies, unfortunately, it happened to him.’’

Once again, the Miami Heat are in the center of controversy. The only difference is that Dwyane Wade is at the focal point and not LeBron James. Wade's drawing a lot of anger from Los Angeles after breaking Kobe Bryant's nose on a hard foul in the All-Star game.

Wade reportedly did the hard hit in retaliation for two fouls by Bryant that went uncalled.

There's a pro and a con to this situation:

Pro: Wade sends a message to Bryant and let's it known that he is the superior shooting guard between the two.

Con: The Heat play the Los Angeles Lakers in a week and Bryant is going to have an obvious vendetta when the two face off.

Carmelo Anthony Wants the New York Knicks to Prepare Like the Heat

It seems like the New York Knicks took something positive away from their recent 102-88 loss to the Miami Heat.

Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony was so impressed with the Heat's energy that he wants his team to commit the same way.

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“Anthony said the Heat showed the Knicks the blueprint for not only how they have to play but the amount of work and concentration they must put into each game. ‘The way that they prepared for our team, for our game, that’s something that I would like to take and bring that back to my team,’ Anthony said after playing in Sunday night’s All-Star Game. ‘Just the preparation that they put into the situation that it worked out."

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At least he's trying to improve. The Knicks managed to keep the game close for the first half, but it was never in doubt that the Heat were going to win. They completely shut down the Knicks facilitator in Jeremy Lin and once that occurred, New York was back to square one in reverting back to an inept and disjointed offense.

However, the Knicks have to be happy that their All-Star is attempting to rally his troops by learning from arguably the best team in the NBA.

Dwyane Wade Goes Off on Reggie Miller

Has the league gotten so soft that players now actually have to go about apologizing to others?

These are grown men in a grown men league where tempers flare and physicality is welcomed. So why is Reggie Miller of all people going after Dwyane Wade and his lack of remorse when he fouled Kobe Bryant hard enough to break his nose.

In response to Miller's sentiments, Wade shot back:

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"Reggie don't know what was said," Wade said. "When I saw his blood, obviously I didn't try to do that. I don't know if anybody wants me to get down on my knees in front of the world and do it. I don't have to do that."

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Basically, Wade told Reggie to mind his own business and to stay silent, which is something that many of us hope for.

Heat Sign Mickell Gladness

In one of the larger moves of the season, the Miami Heat went about re-signing Mickell Gladness to a second 10-day contract.

Gladness has played in eight games this year and has been mostly subjected to garbage time minutes. He has scored two points and has four times as many personal fouls. He's also recorded 11 rebounds and a block.

The Heat's reason for re-signing Gladness is most likely as a result of the team's problems at center.