Miami Heat Breakdown: Wade's The Only Hot Stuff The Heat Have Going

The Jekyll-and-Hyde Miami Heat continued their descent down the Eastern Conference standings after falling in Cleveland to the Cavaliers 102-86.

The Heat were able to hang around for three quarters, but when Cleveland’s defense buckled down in the fourth quarter, Miami’s offense fell apart.

Here are the particulars:

Dwyane Wade is Miami’s resident superstar, and he certainly filled up the stat sheet—11-26 FG, 1-3 3FG, 1-2 FT, 3 REB, 9 AST, 6 TO, 4 STL, 24 PTS. However, his performance was uneven from half to half.

In the first half, Wade had no problems splitting loose double teams, penetrating to the cup, and posting up once for a short-made jump shot.

In the second half, Cleveland was more cognizant in playing tighter screens/roll defense and occasionally outright double-teaming Wade behind the three point line. Cleveland was more alert in loading up the basket from the baseline and forcing Wade to beat them with passes or from the perimeter.

Because of this, Wade recorded six of his nine assists after halftime—mostly on screen/fade jumpers by Jermaine O’Neal—but only tallied six of his 24 points.

Defensively, Wade attacked sloppy passes, but tended to lose discipline for too many stretches, fouling jump shooters, turning his head, and playing uncharacteristically lazy.

Usually Wade plays MVP-caliber defense, but there’s one element of his game that holds him back from MVP-caliber offensive players such as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Whereas Kobe is a terrific jump shooter and LeBron has improved his shooting each year in the year, Wade is still iffy outside of the paint.

Against the Cavs he was 3-13 from the midrange and beyond and couldn’t shoot well enough to spread Cleveland’s defense away from the basket.

Plus, Wade’s jumpers mostly fell off the front of the rim in the second half—a sign of fatigue. Too bad he didn’t get much help from his supporting castmates.

Michael Beasley started off the game successfully. A pair of speedy lefty drives from the right midpost resulted in lay-ups, and he was able to either catch and shoot or dribble in place at either elbow before connecting on a trio of jump shots.

As the game drew on, Beasley simply faded. He airballed a baseline jumper, badly missed another baseline jumper after catching an offensive rebound and fading away for no apparent reason, and botched a lay-up.

Beasley’s talent is apparent but he’s a touch soft and takes his time to make decisions. He’s also much more adept at going to his left than to his right and good defenses can take advantage of his indecision and set their defense up to force him into help spots.

As a passer, he made a pair of nice passes out of the midpost to find cutters darting through the lane.  After a Wade screen was strung out above the three point line, Beasley slipped the screen, caught the pass from Wade, and instinctively found Dorell Wright in the corner for an open triple.

Defensively, Beasley was slow to anticipate off-ball screens, was lazy in his show and recovers, and is still at a rookie’s level in understanding help situations, though he shows better timing as a shot-blocker. Beasley also tended to get outworked on the glass. The majority of his 12 rebounds were completely uncontested, and he doesn’t always box out.

Beasley’s a future talent, but he’s still not where he needs to be in able to provide a reliable second-option to Wade. Because of his tendencies to make mistakes on defense and his slow reactions on offense, he’s not even trustworthy for Eric Spoelstra to give him minutes late in games—despite being Miami’s second most talented player.

Jermaine O’Neal was overwhelmed by Shaquille O’Neal and banished to the bench with early foul trouble. He was lead-footed on Cleveland’s drives, slow on rotations, and provided minimal resistance in the paint.

Offensively he’s become little more than a pick-and-pop jumper shooter (6-12 FG, 14 PTS) who can post up or isolate only against the worst opponents. He’s also weak on the glass—three rebounds in 25 minutes.

Nowadays, O’Neal can only put up one or two good games every couple of weeks.

Quentin Richardson turned his head on defense and disappeared on offense in a useless performance—0-7 FG, 0-3 3FG, 0 PTS. Of his four attempts inside the arc, three were blocked—a marker of Q-Rich’s increased age and diminishing athleticism.

Rafer Alston is still learning his new offense and teammates, and one of his turnovers came when he expected Beasley to dart hither, rather than thither.  His jump shot has failed him this season. He’s always been a wimpy finisher, and his defense is average at best.

Carlos Arroyo hit a pair of open jumpers, but takes too long to get Miami into their offense and is a poor defender. He’s strictly a fifth body on the floor for the Heat.

Joel Anthony wreaked havoc on the offensive boards, shows well on screens, and plays a better Udonis Haslem than Haslem does.

For his part, Haslem bricked a trio of open jumpers, including an airball, and is limited by a bad back.

Wright is an accurate shooter (2-6 FG, 2-4 3FG, 3-3 FT, 6 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 9 PTS), a high-skiing rebounder, and an awful defender who plays defense with his hands and not his feet. He was guilty of botching at least six help assignments.

Jamaal Magloire is a bull in a china shop, but his rough-housing didn’t faze Shaq.

Any minute Daequan Cook plays is too many minutes.

The Heat tried putting Wade at point guard for the final quarter with disastrous results. With Wade operating as a facilitator, the Heat couldn’t draw up any creative way for him to get the ball in an attack position aside from presenting him a high screen. And while Wade made good decisions, his teammates couldn’t convert open looks.

In 13 possessions with Wade at the point, Miami:

• Had Beasley isolate where he missed a layup.
• Used a handoff-and-roll with Wade and O’Neal.  Wade missed a jumper, grabbed his own rebound, and missed another jumper.
• Used a high screen to get Wade into the paint where he kicked to Beasley who made a three.
• Set up an O’Neal isolation where he drove the baseline and missed a layup. After Miami grabbed the offensive rebound, O’Neal missed an iso pull-up.
• Had Wade deliver a pinpoint pass to Richardson all alone under the basket, but Richardson missed the layup.
• Another screen/roll had O’Neal rolling to the hoop and timidly passing the ball to Beasley on the baseline. Beasley had nowhere to go, but a Cleveland defender turned his head and Wade cut to the basket for a score.
• Wade found O’Neal for a jumper, but O’Neal missed an open attempt. Somehow, Wade spectacularly tipped the ball in from at least six feet out.
• Wade went away from an overplayed screen, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas let Wade dunk uncontested.
• Wright missed a catch-and-shoot three.
• O’Neal isolated and Richardson cut, but after O’Neal passed to Richardson he was half stripped, half blocked at the rim.
• Wright occupied two defenders on a baseline screen/roll. The Cavs didn’t close out to O’Neal, who hit a jumper.
• Beasley missed a screen/fade jumper.
• O’Neal isolated and was fouled (he missed both free throws).

That's 13 possessions, 11 points—an unacceptable ratio.

With Wade’s supporting cast teetering between inconsistent and inept, it’s a small wonder they’re even close to .500. O’Neal and Richardson are too old, Beasley is too young, the point guards are pointless, and what Haslem and Anthony have in heart, they lack in raw size and strength.

When O’Neal and Richardson aren’t bogged down by the weight of their long NBA careers and the weight of innumerable injuries, when Wade is making the impossible look routine, when Beasley is making more shots than mistakes, then the Heat can beat anyone at anytime.

But because the Heat can’t rely on all of those events happening, they’re doomed to uneven, sporadic performances, the predicating factor behind their bizarre number of blowout wins and blowout losses.

If there’s one thing the Heat can rely on, it’s that they’re a .500 team and will remain that way the entire season.