NBA Finals 2012: 10 Reasons Miami Heat's Path to Finals Was Too Easy

The Miami Heat are back in the NBA Finals, and I have no problem in saying that their presence there is a total fluke. I know I'm risking a lot of hate mail coming my way in saying that, but it's absolutely true.

What makes me even angrier is that their path to reaching this stage again had very few bumps in the road. Seriously, I've never seen a more stacked team get to the NBA Finals in an easier manner.

In fact, I can think of 10 reasons as to why the Heat's path to the Finals was way too easy.

10. Presence of a Big Three

This is the most obvious reason, so we'll get it over and done with now.

Miami is at a distinct advantage compared to other teams in the league, as they have three of the most talented players in the NBA on their roster. If you had three-time MVP LeBron James, NBA champion Dwyane Wade and perennial All-Star Chris Bosh on your team, anything but stellar results would be unacceptable.

That said, it should be noted that Miami's three stars accounted for two thirds of the team's total points per game during the regular season. With players like that in the starting lineup, it's not surprising that the team got as far as it did.

9. Dwyane Wade Took a Back Seat

Last year, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade averaged 26.7 and 25.5 points per game, respectively. This year, however, things slightly changed.

James' scoring increased to 27.1 points per contest while Wade's dropped 22.1.  As good as both players are, the fact that the unquestioned team leader in Wade took a back seat to let James run the show is very telling.

Call me old fashioned, but the Heat are and always will be Wade's squad. That said, James is the one who should have been willing to take a step back. Still, he's arguably the best player in the league and when he's running the offense, results like Miami's aren't that unusual.

8. LeBron Was Hungrier This Year

Though Miami made it to the NBA Finals last year, they lost in six games to the Dallas Mavericks, and much of the blame fell on James for not demanding the ball enough in the fourth quarter. Going into this year, he had a lot of critics to silent in that department.

Sure enough, from the start of the season all the way up through Sunday night's Game 3, James has been more of an X-factor late in games and has put the team on his back, showing that he really does want that ring.

Seeing as how he just won his third MVP trophy this year, it can be argued that Miami kind of got a free pass to the Finals with him playing hard like he should always be doing.

7. Chris Bosh's Injury

Chris Bosh is talented, but he's the odd man out in Miami's All-Star trio. On top of that, his tenure in South Beach has exposed him as little more than a scorer who occasionally steps up to play defense.

That said, once he went down with a strained abdominal muscle in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Indiana Pacers, it wasn't really surprising that Miami started to look better. With James and Wade carrying the team and the rest of the squad chipping in their fair share, one thing became perfectly clear: Bosh is expendable.

Even though he averaged 18 points during the regular season, I think it's obvious that Bosh has become dead weight and the team plays better without him. I have a hunch that were he still injured, Miami would look a lot more dominant in the NBA Finals at this point.

6. The Aging Celtics

To the credit of the Boston Celtics, they did a great job of going toe-to-toe with Miami during the East finals. Still, despite their overall talent, the team's core unit was just too old to keep up with the fast-paced Heat.

I have no problem in saying that were Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett five years younger, they would have easily defeated the Heat in this series. The sad truth of the matter is that Garnett doesn't have the same strength in the low post that he once had, Pierce's age is slowly starting to show and Ray Allen is little more than a shooter right now.

Put the three of them back in their prime up against LeBron and Co., and this series looks a lot different.

5. The Inexperienced Indiana Pacers

As much as I may rip on Miami, their core group includes three players who know how to win, and consistently. That said, despite the fact that Indiana was a No. 3 seed, the Pacers weren't really a big test for them.

Look at it this way. On Indiana's roster, only two players are over 30: David West and Dahntay Jones. More importantly, this is a squad that made a massive jump from being ranked No. 8 in the Eastern Conference last year to being No. 3 this season.

Don't get me wrong, the future is bright for Indiana, but they just hadn't gelled enough as a group this year to be able to slay the Miami giant.

4. The Knicks Were Shorthanded

Yes, I know that the Miami Heat swept the season series against the New York Knicks and I'm fully aware that they quickly put a cap on "Linsanity." Still, that was against a Mike D'Antoni coached team. They did defeat the Mike Woodson Knicks during the regular season, but New York was without Amar'e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin for that game, too.

The case was similar in the playoffs, as Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire returned but did not have a good enough point guard getting the ball to them. Nothing against Baron Davis, but he just doesn't have his A-game anymore. Put Jeremy Lin back in the lineup, and something tells me this series would have been a lot closer and not a five-game massacre.

Oh, and I won't even go into the horrific officiating that polluted this playoff matchup.

3. Shane Battier

In terms of last year's Heat team, one thing that I felt was missing was great leadership, particularly off the bench. Sure enough, GM Pat Riley went out and signed Battier, who is probably one of the best leaders in the league.

Keep in mind, Battier was traded from the Houston Rockets to the Memphis Grizzlies at last season's trade deadline, and he was instrumental in helping the No. 8 Memphis squad upset an experienced No. 1 San Antonio Spurs team.

I'm not saying he made it ridiculously easy for the Heat this year, but his presence surely didn't hurt.

2. Derrick Rose's Injury

Allow me to put it this way: If Derrick Rose hadn't torn his ACL in his Chicago Bulls' first-round appearance against the Philadelphia 76ers, his team would have gone on to win that series, then the next and then would have faced Miami in the Eastern Conference finals again. 

As we all know, Miami won that series in five games last year, making the young and upstart Bulls look foolish and inexperienced.

Things would have been different this year because the Bulls would have been more prepared for Miami's attack. Instead, Rose got hurt and Miami cruised to the Finals without the prospect of having to face last year's MVP staring them right in the face.

1. The Shortened Season

The lockout shortened this year's NBA season to 66 games instead of the usual 82, and that is the largest reason as to why Miami got to the Finals way too easily.  If we take the lockout out of the picture completely and the full season goes off without a hitch, scenarios would have panned out in a much different fashion.

First off, there would be a complete preseason.  Whichever teams faced Miami would have a good look at the full roster and get an idea about what to expect from them.

In a full regular season, teams would constantly make adjustments against the Heat in preparation of facing them in the postseason, so maybe better defensive schemes against LeBron James would be drawn up.

More importantly, an extra 16 games can mean a lot.  That's plenty of time for a key player to get hurt, someone to request a trade, etc.  If any of those things happened, Miami's season could have ended up different.

Unfortunately, such was not the case as NBA Commissioner David Stern chose to have a rushed 66-game schedule.  As a result, Miami coasted into the Finals a la the 1999 San Antonio Spurs, who went on to become league champions.

That all being said, should LeBron James finally take home championship gold this year, his season should really have an asterisk next to it.