Tale Of Two Cities: Cavs 102 – Heat 86
About the only thing the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers have in common is that they’re both built around superstars. One actually has a cast that merits the word “supporting” before it and the other doesn’t. It’s really that simple. Just as the Heat did last night against the Celtics, they raised their level of play but reality settled in during the fourth quarter and the superior team closed the game out. It’s the same script for a double-header that played out exactly as we feared.
“The competition’s been better than us,” Wade said. “It’s realistic. You’ve got to be realistic. I’m that.”
I could also point out that LeBron James was spectacular as the primary ballhandler and was relentless on the attack. The Cavs were getting to the paint quickly at the outset of the game and took advantage of the Heat’s plodding transition defense. James is handling the ball because of injuries to the Cavs’ backcourt but why can’t Wade do the same considering we have no answer at the point anyway?
At this point it’s safe to say Quentin Richardson has to be taken out of the starting line-up, perhaps in favor of Dorell Wright. Both players are prone to disappearing for long stretches of time but Wright has more upside if he’s alert and can also be showcased for a trade.
Udonis Haslem must have been suffering from severe back spasms because there’s no other explanation for coach Spoelstra sticking with Beasley during crunch time. Yes, UD had been largely ineffective through the course of the game but that wouldn’t have stopped Spoelstra into playing him ahead of Beasley in the fourth quarter.
Wade may have made the flashier plays but Beasley had just as good a stat-line with 21 points and 12 rebounds. More importantly, Beasley only had one turnover as opposed to Wade’s six. Wade again faded down the stretch, the talent deficit too much to overcome against the NBA’s best team on the second night of back-to-back. Apart from a brief flurry of baskets in the middle of the fourth quarter, Wade didn’t make any other field goals during the second half.
There might be plenty of games left in the schedule but the Heat are dangerously close to battling it out for the right to be swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Cavs.
16 comments
can the heat sing wade again? or can james come to heat and play with D-wade imagine mario.Wade.james.beasley.haslem and caron butler and gay from the bench
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Hung around long enough for hope, but in the end – the talent just isn’t there. How many passes were tippped or stolen last night? That shows a clear lack of focus regardless of the back-to-back games.
Q-Rich isn’t likely out of the starting line-up to soon. He primarily defeneded Lebron last night, something he did pretty well in each Cleveland game thus far. Dorell, well, he just couldn’t contain “King James”. Both are good – yet both are either hot, or not.
Beasley played very nice, my fan-dom for him grows each day and he is really picking it up.
At the end of the day we just don’t have the talent to battle down the stretch. But it would help if our superstar wouldn’t go so cold in stretches to. Ever since that last Cleveland game where he had 31 in one half and 2 in the second, there has been a trend. He’ll go a quarter or so and not score. Last night 0-8 in the 3rd – that simply cannot happen for one of the top 3 players in the L.
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Thanks for your comments. Lebron is going to get his points and fill the stat line regardless of who defends him but I do agree that Q-Rich is more effective against him than Wright, who has the height but is overmatched in strength. The Heat needs more from him on offense (zero points?) if he’s starting. The lineup needs to be shaken up but unfortunately there isn’t much to choose from. Given the choice between the two, I would go with Wright right now but ultimately it might mean little in terms of wins or losses at this point.
Teams are finding it easier to shut down Wade lately since no other teammate is making them pay for focusing their defense on him. Especially when Haslem is on the floor instead of Beasley at the end of games.
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I have said it here before, it seems when Q-Rich (and JO as well) are good, the Heat do good. By now Wade and the coaches should know he;s going to be double and tripled team – this isn’t his first year. Therefore, who is open? Whoever it is, needs to be ready to make a play.
I really feel that at the begining of the year the staff overstated how well this team played in the offseason and still in practices. It more or less gave this fan base a lot of hope going in and slowly that hope has dwindled has the Heat have just gone through their first 4 game losing streak of the season.
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I refuse to jump on the Ira Winderman band-wagon. He’s continuing to be-little and bemoan the roster….saying Wade is surrounded by dross….lots of others are following suit. I’ve been very annoyed recently by performances but think that there is much more to this than the pure “talent” argument.
There is something fundamentally wrong within the Heat franchise….Erik Spoelstra is powerless to command the dressing room…his coaching is grounded in fear. There is just a bad, bad smell eminating from the whole thing just now.
I’m sick of the 2010 debate. I’m of the mind that you make the best of what you have and at least give it a try……because they have heard it so often, from so many corners, the Heat bench players, and some others, are beginning to believe that they don’t belong on court with Wade.
There’s an air of negativity about the whole thing….to answer your point about the double and triple teams Jake….you’re right, it isn’t rocket science, hit those goddamn shots….however would you put yourself in the sneakers of the open players ….knowing that you are “not talented”, knowing that everyone expects you to miss because your skills aren’t good enough for the NBA, knowing that you want that ball to go in so badly that it’ll clank 8 times out of 10, knowing that Wade will glower at you for letting him down yet again….
It’s just a thought.
These untalented players can’t be expected to hit everything….can they?
Tell someone something often enough and after a while they start to believe it and it becomes a reality (24-26).
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:25 am
I agree that the negativity has to be toned down a bit. If you objectively look at the roster on paper you can’t really be surprised about their current record. However, these players (individually and collectively) need to step it up and bring back the level of play from earlier in the season when they were beating quality opponents. If the rest of the team can at least keep them in the game until crunch time then the Heat will at least have a shot at winning the game with Wade on their side. If Wade has to run around at both ends of the court throughout the game just to keep them afloat then he’s going to run out of gas eventually.
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ok this season we barely see the d-wade we are use to seeing and sometime I get mad to see he doesn’t take over,but on the other hand the 1st problum I see is that d-wade is playing 1 on 3 and 1 on 4 alot thats one problem I see 2nd is he barley get a rest as soon as he come out he has to go right back end because they falling far behind, the team just don’t hit the shots and look at what all d-wade does he the pg and the score the best def playing the shot blocker hell how many guards u know exspeacilly at 6-4 blocking center shot not none,and on the other hand I think dwade knows his team not going no where so he not trying to burn hisself out or resk getting injurd
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I do think the heat has talent,but not consisten u see when people hit there shots dwade plays better and they win, when wade gets the ball teams start to catch on now keep at lease 2 people on d wade and when he’s about to drive to the hole send 1 or 2 more players so he pass the ball to team mate teamate either stand around and give the ball back to d wade or take a dum shot who else drive the hole and creat shot 4 everbody esle beside d wade that why they pick up alston becaus nobody else was doing it u see alston come d-wade fg% went up but dwade needs another dominate scorer with him to free him up some hell even mj had to have someone else on the team to put up 20/30 points to free him up so we all can’t get mad at wade because he has no help because trust me I was made as hell
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:15 am
hooper,
But the Heat do have a great scorer in Beasley that would have no problem potentially scoring 20 a game if he wasn’t averaging barely more than 30 minutes a game. I think the even bigger problem is the lack of help from the bench and at point guard. Chalmers, Cook, Jones and Rafer have not put together a good string of shooting games all season and that means the Heat will always have to struggle to keep up with other teams no matter how many points Wade can score on his own.
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Kenny Smith made a great point last night about our offensive struggles – far too often we settle for long 2-pointers, or contested layups, or midrange jumpers… from our bigs. Look at the chart, and read the article, here: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/12/29/mapping-the-nba-inside-out/
We’re just ridiculously inefficient on offense. A lot of that has to do with our lack of 3-point threat, which allows defenses to stack the paint. No wonder we’re so damn pathetic on the offensive glass. That bad offense leads to fastbreaks for the other team, and we all know how our transition defense is.
And even as great as our half-court defense can be (I’d say it’s Top 5 in the league on a good night), it’s let down by our embarrassing defensive rebounding. What good is strong initial defense when you just give up second chance points like that?
Anyway, our half-court offense has already proven itself to be way too unreliable, so why not start experimenting with alternatives? Contrary to popular belief (and Spoelstra’s philosophy) I think we CAN pick up the tempo to some success – I’m thinking a lineup of Anthony, Beasley, Wright, Wade, and Chalmers could really cause some damage… if Coach would just let them play and push the ball upcourt in a hurry.
Whatever it takes to get our offense going – and shots falling consistently – will only play to our strength as a half-court defensive team.
We DO have talent. How will we know how good it can be unless we get creative? We sure as hell aren’t going very far in the playoffs if we don’t change what we’re doing, at least on the offensive side of the ball.
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Jake Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:41 am
It’s true. Most of the defensive strategy seems to be to pack the paint and dare the shooters to shoot. But you don’t see that kind of effort on the offensive end, with very little offensive rebounding.
The Heat settle for alot of long jumpers and just bad shots. Alot of times WAY to early in the shot clock – or they get a O-bound and don’t set a new play up.
Spoelstra at times can be seen telling the team to push the ball as he yells, “pace! pace!” but it doesn’t happen. One thing I notice, Chalmers used to cross half court with like 18 seconds left on the shot clock. Arroyo 20. Rafer races it up with 22ish.
I agree that this team should try some new things on the offensive end. If anything, to see if it can get a spark lit.
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Ray,
No question that this offense needs to be shaken up. I always read about how Spoelstra is constantly imploring his team to push the pace but either he’s not telling the truth or the team is ignoring him. I don’t want to see Chalmers or Alston walk the ball up and hand it off to Wade at the 3 point line anymore. I already saw that a couple of years ago during the 15 win season with Chris Quinn at the point.
Great point about our offensive rebounding. Opposing teams that are athletic and run the ball find it very easy to snag rebounds (especially long rebounds off of our many missed 3 pointers) and outrun the Heat en route to easy baskets. This is how the Cavs and Thunder opened up leads that the Heat could not overcome. It’s a catch-22 though for the Heat; do you hang around and try to grab an offensive rebound and risk an uncontested dunk/lay-up at the other end or do you start running back on defense as soon as your teammate launches a jump shot so you can cover your man?
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Kenny Smith made a great point last night on TNT. Far too often the Heat settle for long 2-pointers, or contested layups, or midrange jumpers (…by our bigs no less). As you can see on the graph here (http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/12/29/mapping-the-nba-inside-out/) we’re among the league’s most inefficient offensive teams. We have no credible 3-point threat to space the floor, so teams can afford to stack the paint against us, and not surprisingly our plodding half-court offense struggles.
It doesn’t help that we’re miserable on the offensive glass. When we miss a shot, the opposition gets out on the fastbreak and our pathetic transition defense is caught helpless. Our half-court defense is stellar, Top 5 in the league on a good night… but that’s only on the initial 24, as after all the hard work we put in pays off, we simply give up the defensive rebound for easy points.
Contrary to popular opinion, I think we DO have a lot of talent on this team, but I wonder whether it’s being wasted on an overly conservative offense. With young, energetic, athletic guys like Joel Anthony, Michael Beasley, and Dorell Wright (and of course one of the best open court players in the league in D-Wade) we should start experimenting with a more up-tempo offense, pushing the ball in transition rather than just powerwalking across the court.
If lack of size, rebounding, and perimeter sniping are our biggest shortcomings, we should seek to play around them by using our speed and energy. It’s not like the status quo has been very reliable. I’m not saying we should totally abandon our half-court game, just that Spoelstra should try thinking outside his philosophy and let the players play more often. Creativity is a must not only if we’re to stay alive in the hunt for a playoff spot, but if we want to get past the first round.
The more success we have on offense, the more we can showcase our half-court defense. Every shot that goes in for us forces the opposition to inbound the ball while we set up our defense, while every miss of ours means more fastbreaks to defend against. I just don’t get why Spoelstra thinks our offensive pace has to match our defensive pace. This oversight is why we can smother an NBA finalist one night and get blown out by a really young, inexperienced team the next.
If we want to remain a slow-paced team, we definitely need to pick up a legit big this offseason. We have virtually no post presence, as J.O. is more of a finesse player nowadays, Haslem is more hustle than power (enough reason to keep him, though), and Beasley is still learning how to throw himself around with getting into foul trouble. If we don’t address that, then we definitely need to be running more often.
Sorry if I wandered there, I had a more concise post that was eaten by the Internet. But those are my thoughts as I watch the Heat wander aimlessly through what’s in danger of becoming a lost season.
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Surya Fernandez Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:56 am
(Your first post was incorrectly filed under spam and not eaten by the internet, BTW)
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I guess my first post did go through, there was just a really long delay for some reason…
Anyway, in reply to what Jake said:
“Spoelstra at times can be seen telling the team to push the ball as he yells, “pace! pace!” but it doesn’t happen. ”
Really? Damn, shows how much I pay attention to what the coach is trying to tell the team. But I feel like a lot of times he’s been seen motioning for them to slow it down. If the team is doing what he says and is still struggling, then I say it’s on him to make changes. If the team has actually been ignoring him, then maybe the captains need to step it up in the locker room if they’re serious about winning.
Maybe it’s insufficient conditioning or something like that. I know Beasley was reported to have fatigue issues late in games, and if that’s really the case considering how slow we play then that might explain why we don’t push the ball more often. But it just seems to me like D-Wade wants to get out on the break more than we do but forces himself to settle down.
If we’re not going to up the tempo, then we definitely need more aggressive rebounding and/or some 3-point shooters – or both, which is why I’ve long been in favor of the Heat picking up someone like Troy Murphy. There’s a reason the midrange jumper is sadly dying… it’s just not an efficient way to play.
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In reply to what Surya wrote:
“It’s a catch-22 though for the Heat; do you hang around and try to grab an offensive rebound and risk an uncontested dunk/lay-up at the other end or do you start running back on defense as soon as your teammate launches a jump shot so you can cover your man?”
Good point. We definitely have to pick our poison. We often have the hustle (especially with Haslem, Wright, and D-Wade) for rebounds, but not the positioning – which can probably be addressed somewhat – and definitely not the size.
That said, our transition defense is really bad already, and I honestly wonder whether it’s worth the time and energy fixing it at the expense of fixing problems that affect us every possession. If we continue to keep our turnovers low, then sacrificing work on transition D might be worth it. But there would definitely have to be improvements elsewhere.
I guess what I’d like to see is the Heat only take quick shots when in transition. If we are going to stick to a half-court offense, we need to get a lot smarter about it – and probably more intricate, considering how often we set a good screen only to waste it, sometimes on more difficult shots.
We only have a talent deficit if we continue to actively seek uphill battles.
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