Heat-Hawks: Miami Comes Together as a Team

Dwyane Wade goes for 50 points.  The Heat score 99, and they lose by 20.

Dwyane Wade goes for 50 points  The Heat win in triple-overtime at home against the road-deficient Utah Jazz.

Wade goes for 48 points.  The Heat win in double-overtime on a miracle steal and running three-pointer over the road-deficient Chicago Bulls.

Wade goes for 46 points.  The Heat win after a 13-point comeback in the fourth quarter against the defenseless Knicks. Wade scores 24 in the fourth, tying his own franchise record.

Encouraging? I think not.

Not for the playoffs, anyways. One man can't beat a good team.

Ask Kobe ('06 and '07 against the suns). Ask LeBron (last year against the Celtics, '07 vs the Spurs). Heck, even ask Michael Jordan (1986 vs the Celtics).  You could ask Wade—but he might have fooled himself with what he did to the Mavericks in 2006 if he wasnt so smart and humble.

The Atlanta Hawks are the last team Wade could beat one-on-five.  They're athletic as heck and start five very good players.  They're a balanced squad, led by All-Star stud Joe Johnson and a playoff winner Mike Bibby, plus a young champion Al Horford inside. Good bench, great defense, great home team, et cetera.

That is why Game Two's win is so encouraging after Game One's loss.

In Game One, the Miami Heat came out with Wade firing, closed the first quarter down three with him scoring 13 of their 21 points and assisting on three of the other baskets—a typical one-man show.

Jermaine O'Neal was sleepwalking. Udonis Haslem was rendered useless, as he had no one to create for him, and finished the quarter with zero and zero. James Jones hit a three created by Wade and missed his other two shots.  And Mario Chalmers was converted back into the guy who walks the ball up the court and hands it to Wade before going to standing the corner.

Michael Beasley was back coming off the bench and out of rhythym, settling for jumpers in his first playoff game. Et cetera.

And that was just the first quarter—it got a lot worst after that. But let's not go down that road.  Instead, let's look at the positives.

In Game Two, the Heat come out posting up Jermaine O'Neal.  This allowed Chalmers to run the team and tempo, allowing him to penetrate Bibby and run the pick and roll. He ran Daequan Cook off of screens for shots, iso'ed Michael Beasley and let him do his thing as Miami's 2nd best offensive player.

This allowed Wade to just play his game and be Dwyane Wade. He dominated. 33 points, seven dimes, five boards, two blocks, and two steals in 39 minutes played.  He shot 55 percent with no forces,  and in all there were 108 points scored for the Miami Heat.

If you are fan of another team, you can not understand how encouraging Game Two was for Heat fans. I was screaming in jubilation at my TV.

In Game One, coach Spoelstra made many mistakes: Not playing Magloire, going small with Haslem at center, playing lineups that never played together, having our worst defender guard Joe Johnson (James Jones), playing Beasley at SF, running the Wade-on-five offense against the most athletic defense in the NBA, not posting up Jermaine, not running Cook off screens, not setting Beasley up for success offensively, and not slowing the tempo.

After that disaster, he did everything right in Game Two. He split the minutes between Haslem and Beasley through the first 44 minutes and let the game dictate who would close the final four minutes on the court (Haslem did—and came up huge). He played Jamaal Magloire all the minutes at the backup five and didn't go small. 

He played lineups that have been together all year.  He slowed the tempo, and handed the keys to Chalmers. He ran isos for Beasley, he ran Cook off screens, he stressed attacking the offensive glass and manning up on D and the rebounds.

And most importantly, he set up Jermaine Oneal in the low post to be the second option to run the game through.

The Heat have a better supporting cast than many people think. It was a terrible cast to start the year with Shawn Marion here, Udonis Haslem at center, Jamaal Magloire and James Jones injured, and Chalmers and Beasley in their first games as pros. Wade carried his team the first half of the year and kept them alive.

But the seond half of the season we have gotten better and adjusted, and Miami now has a very capable supporting cast.

At the beginning of the year, we weren't capable of taking pressure off of Wade and allowing him to play and dominate within the offense.  We just won games because he was so damn good he could do it for us. Now he has help and can really dominate.

Beasley has developed into a bona-fide 20 ppg scorer as a second optioin. The Heat traded for Jermaine O'Neal and Jamario Moon. They signed Luther Head. Jamaal Magloire got healthy and proved himself a very good backup center. James Jones got healthy as a three-point threat and is getting back to his normal self.

Daequan Cook and Mario Chalmers have developed. The team has developed. The coach has gotten better as time went on.

Miami has four offensive weapons in Jermaine O'Neal, Daequan Cook, Mario Chalmers, and Michael Beasley. If two of those four are on their game, they are very tough to beat.

With those four supporting Dwyane Wade's dominance, it allows him to focus more energy on defense too—as when he locked up Joe Johnson the other night. Two of those four should always be on.  All four are good and talented options—especially Beasley as a second option and Jermaine as a third. Cook is a great shooter. Chalmers is getting better by the day and can abuse Bibby off the dribble.

When two of the four get going, it also allows the role players to be role players—such as Haslem, Magloire James Jones and Jamario Moon. This allows them to contribute doing their jobs, which they're capable of, and doing it well.

It was a great game for the young Heat team. Jermaine just has to contribute every night. He doesn't have to play that well, but if we can go to him in the post as use him an option to keep teams honest, that's great. You gotta remember we went to Beasley and Chalmers a ton the other night, and they both had just average games, while we went to Cook and O'Neal and they had very good games.

But the key is going to each of those four every single game.  Whether one is having a terrible game or not, if we go to all four there will be two of them that will get it going each game.  It could be Beasley and O'Neal one game and Cook and O'Neal the next, and then Beasley and Chalmers the next that go off while the other two are just average.

But if we can get two of them on their game, that makes it so much easier for Wade. He can just flatout dominate within the flow of the offense and just kill the Hawks as our first option with that much help.

Plus, it lets him focus more on defense where he's our best player, and can take out Joe Johnson. Plus it allows the role players to be role players and do their jobs, which means Haslem and James Jones and Magloire and Moon do what they're capable of and contribute to the team.

Great job, Spo, in tightening the rotation and giving Wade some help by going to those four weapons. Great job sticking with them for being on their game too (Cook 35 minutes, O'Neal 39).  Great job sitting the other two (Chalmers 24 minutes, Beasley 22) who contributed with average games for defensive replacements to close out the game (Moon and Haslem).

Great win. Great job letting the game dictate who closes and great job on the rotation and great job putting guys in position to succeed. Hopefully that's the start of a trend—and he uses that rotation and gameplan personnel-wise on a nightly basis throughout these playoffs.

The Heat won their first playoff road game on Wednesday night, and they did it as a T-E-A-M.  Erik Spoelstra coached beautifully and finally put everyone in position to succeed.  The team showed heart holding off Hawk runs, poise, guts—and most importantly, teamwork.

The future is bright in Miami, and with a leader as good as Wade their may be championships in the future. The win on Wednesday was a huge step in that direction for the young Heat. It cmae over an Atlanta team that the champs couldnt even beat in the ATL last season—and the Hawks are better this year.

Great confidence-builder and great win for these Heat.  If Wade gets this much help its gonna be a longer postseason run than anyone would expect for the young Miami team.