Miami Heat's Only Opponent Is History...For Now

It's a good thing LeBron James and the Miami Heat have history to contend with because the Milwaukee Bucks sure aren't putting up much of a fight.

Miami cruised past its first-round opponent for the third straight time on April 25, absorbing what was clearly the Bucks' best effort in the first quarter and casually dispatching them over the balance of the game. The Heat notched a 3-0 series lead with their 104-91 win.

Beating an overmatched Bucks team is hardly historic, but much of what the Heat have done this year has been.

After stringing together the second-longest winning streak in NBA history during the regular season, the Heat have continued to do battle with the record books during the playoffs. But let's back up a bit before getting to some of Miami's more recent history-making efforts.

For starters, nobody had ever put together a season-ending stretch on the road like the Heat did this past year:

Going further back, March was also a historically good month for Miami—and not just because of the beginning of spring break:

Much of Miami's dominance is attributable to James' superhuman season. Full coverage of his record-smashing campaign would take a handful of books to chronicle, but a couple of big ones stand out:

With a brilliant performance from James all year, the late surge both during and after their 27-game streak and three easy playoff wins, it's no surprise that the Heat have amassed a remarkable 42-game stretch that has put them in rare air:

Admittedly, that's a somewhat obscure stat with an arbitrary cutoff. But hey, the Heat crush their opponents with an efficiency that has recently bordered on boring. Would you rather read about how the Bucks can't seem to straighten out their defensive rotations to deny Ray Allen wide-open corner threes?

Didn't think so.

However, that particular area of Milwaukee's ineptitude does lead into yet another record in the Heat's 2012-13 yearbook. Allen set an NBA playoff record of his own in Game 3:

You'll note how ridiculously open Allen gets in the corner on his record-setting triple:

The road to history is apparently paved with the egregious defensive mistakes of others.

The personal marks didn't stop with Allen either. Even though Dwyane Wade had a shooting night to forget, he also made a little team history:

Eventually the Heat will run up against an opponent that'll give them a real test. Of course, that might not happen until the NBA Finals, but sooner or later, the Heat will compete against a worthy opponent.

For now, all the Heat have to keep them occupied is a collective pursuit of history that might very well end up with them finishing the year as one of the most dominant teams to ever play.