With the season on the line, who needs to step up for the Heat?

It comes as no surprise that the majority of the attention being paid to the Heat goes to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, with maybe a dash of Bosh. Even with all the criticism that James has been getting, mostly for his 4^th quarter disappearing acts, he and Wade are both still putting up pretty solid numbers during the NBA Finals. Outside of those two though, the majority of the Heat's supporting cast has been lacking.

Out of everyone, D-Wade is putting up the best numbers for Miami during the Finals. He is averaging 28.4 points on 57.6% shooting, which is quite awesome. The only game he shot under 50% from the field was Game 1, and he has been carrying the load for the Heat, adding 6.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists to his scoring contribution. At this point we just have to hope that his hip injury doesn't hinder him during the final (hopefully) two games of the season.

As for LeBron, of course it's frustrating that he hasn't been producing in the 4^th quarter against Dallas the way that he did in the Eastern Conference Finals against Chicago. For most players, averaging 17.2 points on 45.3% shooting is pretty solid, but not for LeBron James. You could argue that he has been helping in other ways since the Mavs have been throwing all kinds of double teams at him, contributing 7.8 boards and 7.0 assists per game.

Still, during the season he averaged almost 19 shots per game and was on the same pace during the first 3 rounds of the playoffs, but in the Finals is putting up just 15.0 shots, which needs to change. For those who think that Chris Bosh is getting phased out of the Heat offense, he is still putting up almost 2 more shots per game (16.6) then LeBron. His shooting is off though, making just 37.3% of his field goals, but he is still putting up 18.4 points and 7.2 rebounds, which is what you'd expect from Mr. Bosh.

Outside of the Big 3, the only guy putting up double figure points is Mario Chalmers. He is putting up 10.6 points and shooting the same percentage from inside and out of the 3-point line (42.9). Through 5 games he has dropped in more 3-pointers, 12, then anyone on either team. The Mavs have 10 from both Jason Kidd and Deshawn Stevenson. Rio is also adding 2.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists in his 26.8 minutes, and we can only hope he continues to knock down shots because right now he is the Heat's best bench scorer.

If I asked most people who was shooting worse in the Finals, Mike Bibby or Mike Miller, I think most would say Bibby since he seems to miss almost every shot he takes. However, Miller is actually shooting worse then Bibby. Miami's starting point guard is scoring 3.8 points on 35.0% shooting in 17.2 minutes, but the oft injured Miller is hitting just 31.8% of his shots, though he is making 41.2% from beyond the arc and averaging 4.2 points and 3.2 rebounds.

The final role player I'm looking at is Udonis Haslem. He gave the Heat a huge emotional boost and some very valuable minutes in the East Finals and has seemingly re-claimed his spot in the rotation for the Finals, playing 28.4 minutes. We have seen him doing all the usual things on offense that he is known for, taking that 18-foot jumper and cutting to the basket for layups. It may benefit the Heat to get him a tad more involved in the offense because his 45.2% shooting and ability to get to the rim is something that the Heat have been lacking a bit.

For what its worth, Udonis is averaging 5.8 points and 4.4 boards per game. It's hard to call out the Heat reserves and say they need chip in a bit more, especially after the bench put up a handsome 45 points in Game 5. When you have the kind of stars that Miami does in the Big 3, it makes expectations a little different for the rest of the team. The Wade, Bosh, LeBron combo did combine to average 70.9 points per game in the regular season but in the Finals are well below that at 64.0.

LeBron is a big part of that, averaging almost 10 points less in the Finals then the rest of the year (17.2 in the Finals compared to 26.7 during the season). As I mentioned, he is helping out in other areas but like we saw in the Conference Finals, we need this guy to be putting up points to really do some damage, especially in the 4^th quarter. Most of the team has struggled during crunch time though, which will hopefully change in the final game (or two), especially if they are going to come out of this championship series on top.