Miami Heat on Hot Streak as Matchup With Los Angeles Lakers Looms

Oh, what a difference a little nine-game winning streak makes.

Dating back to their final game of November against the Washington Wizards, Miami has clobbered opponents, winning each of their nine games by double digits, which includes a win last night over the 14-10 New Orleans Hornets.

They have finally begun to win games against the better teams in the league, beating three teams that boast a record above .500 on their current win streak.

That may not sound like a lot, but when you consider that they had won only one such game prior to this streak, that is a huge positive.

They have played the best defense possible over the stretch, allowing only 84 points per game over that time. Six times they held teams under 90 points and three times under 80 points.

I think what this says for the Heat is that when they are on, they are on and nearly impossible to shut down.

They still have many challenging games before Christmas Day against New York, Dallas and Phoenix until they face Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in the game everyone is talking about.

In order to keep their winning streak alive, they must do three things. Rebound, defend, and spread the ball around.

Rebound

Over the past nine games, they have out-rebounded opponents by a terrific 8.6 rebounds a game, punctuated by an astonishing game against Sacramento where they had 21 more rebounds than the Kings.

The only game during that stretch where they were out-rebounded was last night's against the Hornets.

This has led to an amazing number of second chance opportunities for Miami and has allowed them to take the wind out of the sails of other teams.

By being more aggressive, boxing out and grabbing every ball possible, they are able to get more possessions in a game than their opponent and pound them into submission.

Of course, this would be a lot harder to do if it weren't for their stellar defense.

Defense

Miami has had good defense all year long, but it has had magnificent defense during this stretch that has shut teams down and now allowed them to score 100 points.

Teams are making only 42.6 percent of their shots against the Heat, and only 30 percent of their three-pointers, which is an obvious recipe for success.

A contributing factor to this may be the addition of Eric Dampier to the second unit, who is now playing over the slow and ineffective Joel Anthony.

While he does not have gaudy numbers, he is a much better defender than Anthony.

Spreading the Ball

Another thing that the Heat are doing well over this stretch is spreading the ball among their Big Three.

During this great stretch, Dwyane Wade is averaging just a smidgen over 27 points a game, LeBron James is getting just over 25 and Chris Bosh is netting 18 a game.

This means that Miami's bench is scoring a not great 25 points a game, but while shooting a not terrible 43 percent.

If the bench keeps this up, they might be almost average.

If Miami is going to beat the Lakers on Christmas, they are going to have to overcome their flaws, which include the lack of a dependable point guard and a presence under the hoop.

Both of these flaws will be hard to overcome against the likes of Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher, and Steve Blake. But if Miami sticks to it's gameplan that has won them the past nine games, they just may come away with a victory.