The Miami Heat aren’t necessarily 8-6 because of the play of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t squarely blame the supposed super group for the uninspiring start.
The newly formed trio produces well enough on the court. Through 14 games this season, James is averaging 23 points, five rebounds and eight assists per game, while Wade adds 21, five and three to go with Bosh’s 17, seven and two. Certainly, most NBA coaches would take those numbers from their top three players.
Yet Miami struggles to maintain a winning record, in part because of a paper-thin bench, and in part because Wade, James and Bosh made the Heat the NBA’s most hated team.
After recent losses, Miami players talked about how they are getting every team’s best shot, which is one of the most bizarre — but also true — storylines this season.
It’s absurd to think that Miami is the team everyone is gunning for and not the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, who were not exactly silent during the offseason, either.
Not only are the Lakers’ key championship components returning, but the additions of Steve Blake and Matt Barnes arguably make this Lakers squad more dangerous than last year’s.
But even those who recognize that seemed to neglect the Boston Celtics, who pushed the Lakers to the brink in a thrilling seven-game NBA Finals series that came down to the closing seconds. This is the same Boston squad that knocked out Wade’s Heat and James’ Cavaliers in last year’s postseason.
Still, when Bosh and James decided to join Wade in Miami, it created an All-Star dream for Heat fans and media members. Some predicted the Heat would cruise to a championship and push 70 wins. Instead, Miami has struggled to an 8-6 start while Los Angeles jumped out to 12-2 and Boston sports a 10-4 record, which includes two wins over the Heat.
Look no further than Boston’s Paul Pierce when surveying how the offseason obsession with the Heat got under more-accomplished teams’ skin.
After Boston’s second win over Miami, Pierce tweeted, “It was a pleasure taking my talents to South Beach,” a reference to James’ often-mocked quote from his appalling one-hour “Decision” special on ESPN. That’s when James announced that he would sign with Miami.
Perhaps it’s ironic that James is taking the most heat for Miami’s start when he is in fact playing like the team’s best player. But really, after “The Decision,” the way he departed Cleveland, and even his idea to start a Twitter page with the handle “KingJames,” have all made James public enemy No. 1.
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Even after seven NBA seasons and no championships, “The Chosen One,” as his back tattoo reads, carries himself with arrogance and a sense of accomplishment rather than the passion of someone hungry for an NBA title.
That’s not to say Wade and Bosh are not innocent bystanders in the night-after-night gauntlet that Miami faces.
Days after James decided to sign with Miami, the trio came out in front of a large crowd on an elevated stage complete with pyrotechnics, colorful smoke and music blasting. They danced around and bobbed their heads as if they had just clinched the NBA Finals.
That kind of showing would have been over the top if it were the Lakers celebrating their second straight title. For the Heat to do it in celebration of signed contracts was downright ludicrous. That is why there is no sympathy, and perhaps no surprise, that Miami has the biggest target on its back in 2010-11.
But now that the smoke has cleared and the games are underway, maybe we are seeing the Heat for what they truly are.
The party they threw celebrating their signatures on pieces of paper might be the most telling thing about this trio — that they are simply paper champions.
