Miami Heat's Big Three: Three Big Reasons the Team Is Struggling

Watching the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat square off on the basketball court last night was a game showcasing what should be the two best teams in the Eastern Conference. After all, with the talent of Miami and the experience of Boston, they really should be the two teams with the best chance to derail Los Angeles' quest for a three-peat.

However, as the clock ticked down to zero Thursday night, it was clear that there really was only one great team on the court.

And it certainly wasn't Miami.

At 5-4, Miami has failed twice in its two biggest tests (both against Boston), and they haven't looked good doing it. Boston is the team that every other organization in the East is measuring itself against (and rightly so), and Miami has failed to live up to the standard that the Celtics are setting right now.

Looking at the best teams in the conference, Boston and Chicago are the two teams that reign supreme. Miami is probably third at the moment.

That's because for all the hoopla and excitement around the arrival of LeBron James and Chris Bosh to South Beach, nobody on this Heat roster has stepped up in a meaningful fashion. For all the talent it has, Miami is missing so much. It's a shiny new Ferrari that has a major leak in its gas tank.

Actually, make that three leaks.

As the young season progresses, it is clear Miami is plagued by three problems, two of which are correctable through personnel changes. The third is going to have to come from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade themselves; it'll be a gut-check for them. And that's something nobody out there can help them with.

But that will be addressed in a moment. First let's look at what's much more easily correctable.

For starters, Miami would benefit from a more consistent outside presence. Eddie House did drain some three-pointers the other night, but the Heat would be a much more complete team with the addition of a consistent threat that can make teams pay for clogging the driving lanes of Wade and James.

Fortunately for Miami, this is easily curable, as when Mike Miller returns to the court, Miami will have that outside weapon. Unfortunately, right now teams can sit back and clog the lanes, making it hard for the two big superstars to find room. If you saw James and Wade shoot some of the three-point shots last night, you know it's not their specialty, and that they excel when cutting and exploding to the rim.

For their careers, James shoots about 33% from downtown, and Wade connects on about 29% of his three-point attempts. Those numbers won't scare opponents, who will be more than happy to sit back and take their chances letting those two operate from beyond the arc.

Secondly, and this problem has been beaten like a drum so far, Miami is soft. Really soft. Like marshmallow soft.

The interior for Miami is brutal to watch, and while part of the blame has to land on Bosh for not using his size better, some of it must be directed at the front office, who failed to acquire a defensive-minded mauler who can bang down low.

Don't get me wrong, Bosh is a talent. But he's a tall, lanky power forward who plays a softer game. He doesn't bang well, and he can get pushed around by many of the thicker centers in this league. What he lacks is exactly what teams like Boston and Los Angeles have.

The Celtics trot out Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett in their starting lineup. When Kendrick Perkins comes back, that will be a third player on Boston's roster that can abuse Bosh. What's the common thread? All three players are big, tough, and, especially in the cases of Garnett and Perkins, nasty.

Players all around the league hate Garnett and Perkins. They foul hard, talk trash, hit you in the mouth and will never let you forget a mistake you made. They are oriented towards defense and rebounding, allowing Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo to do most of the scoring. Miami will get points from James, Wade and Miller once he returns. Bosh needs to be that defensive enforcer that, as of right now, does not exist on Miami's roster.

But that's not who Bosh is. If you watch his YouTube videos, you know that Bosh is a fun-loving guy who doesn't really want to get on your bad side. And while that certainly is not enough evidence in and of itself to prove Bosh is soft, couple that demeanor with a play like this and you can come to the conclusion that Bosh cannot protect the paint like the Heat need him to.

In case you didn't see the link, it's a clip of Rondo, a 6'-1" point guard, driving down the lane and throwing down an emphatic dunk while Bosh, a 6'-11" power forward, just watches. If that was Carlos Arroyo driving into Garnett or Perkins' space, he'd be on the floor.

Right now, teams know they can penetrate and generate all kinds of offense in the paint against the Heat. That's how the Utah Jazz came roaring back, and that's how the Celtics picked apart Miami in both games.

However, the front office failing to know or observe that Bosh was not going to be the type of enforcer Miami needed is a major oversight on its part. Signing Bosh was fine, but the Heat needed to complement him with a center that could play nasty. Zydrunas Ilguaskas and Udonis Haslem don't qualify, by the way.

Again, this is correctable, as the Heat can certainly shop around and try to obtain someone of the mold. They may have to break up the new Big Three to get it done, but a Heat team without Bosh and a true hard-nosed center will be far better than a Heat team with just Bosh.

Those two problems are certainly fixable, and they can be fixed by mid-season, giving the Heat enough time to regroup and then proceed to come together and decimate the rest of the Eastern Conference on their way to a showdown with the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

But there is a third problem, one that nobody in the front office can help this team with. It's going to have to come from it's stars and leaders.

The Miami Heat need to learn to check their egos and play together as a team.

Granted, it takes awhile for team's to gel; chemistry doesn't develop overnight. This could certainly be a reason why the Heat haven't been as streamlined as many would like them to be. It's a natural process that takes time.

However, if you watched head coach Erik Spoelstra's halftime speech on the TNT broadcast last night, he mentioned something very interesting: In order to get back into the game, the Heat needed to check their egos at the door.

I thought that already happened, what with all the promises to play together and all the preseason shenanigans that went on. You can say what you want about Spoelsta and his coaching abilities, but he knows his players better than anyone else. He's with them everyday, so if he's saying this team still has a bit of an ego problem, then there's probably more to it than just pure speculation.

As of right now, Miami looks disjointed out on the court. In time, they will learn to play together. However, right now, it appears as if maybe these three superstars aren't willing or able to check their own personal ambitions at the doors of the arena.

The only reason Boston's "Big Three" worked out was because Pierce, Allen, and Garnett all accepted reduced roles. It was understood not just by them but by every other player as well that Pierce was still the captain, Garnett was going to be the gutsy defensive leader, and Allen was going to receive a reduced role from what he was used to. It wasn't the pure talent that pushed Boston over the top, it was the cohesiveness that those three developed in understanding their respective roles and learning to be OK with it.

Let's face it, Bosh, James and Wade are still relatively young; certainly younger than when Boston's trifecta of superstars joined forces. Maybe it's something that will come with age and maturity or the hunger of having never won a ring in James and Bosh's cases.

When Miami made the game close in the fourth quarter Thursday night, it wasn't because they were a better team than Boston. It was because they have more raw talent than Boston does. But, as Boston has proved twice now this season, raw talent can only get a team so far.

If Miami wants to be in on the party come May and June, it's going to have to change—soon. Because when Carlos Boozer comes back in Chicago, there are going to be two teams in the Eastern Conference that are better than the Heat in the categories that Boston has proved matter most: chemistry and guts.