Dwayne Wade is force choking the Heat to death. Listening to the 'experts' of certain sports stations only, it would be reasonable to assume that the Heatles are just going through growing pains and chemistry issues and Lindsay Lohan's police record. And maybe puberty, I'm not even sure at this point I've heard so many rationale's on the topic. The point is, they are all shenanigans reasons, and they ignore what is really going on. So let me help you.
Let's take a peek at a 3 game section that seems to me to be an incredibly enlightening cross-section of the season thus far for the Miami Trice. Bulls, Wiz, Knicks. The loss at the Bulls was attributed to the horrendous shooting of Chris Bosh on that particular night (1-18 is never quality). While there is no question that Bosh's class on bricklaying didn't help their cause, the Heat were right there the whole game in spite of Bosh's shooting, but they could never push over the top. Eventually they got buried by a Luol Deng 3 (of all people). 'Well if Bosh makes 25% of his shots, they win,' is true, but if Bosh makes his shots, they should be winning by 20. What gives? Dwyane Wade. Pure and simple. Yeah, he dropped 34 points, but thats just a stat, not a description of his on the court performance. Wade completely lacked the basketball acumen to not take crappy, heavily defended shots at several instances in the game that were obviously critical junctures in the game. Not only are those not good shots (sure, he makes those from time to time, but Joe Blanton also gets remembered from time to time), but they are deflating shots for the entire team. They limit teammates touches, they aren't good basketball shots, and they are typically coming from poor rebounding angles (like the baseline). So, the Heat make a great D stop that they need only to see a Wadeaway skip off the rim and go right into a breakaway the other way. Gaaaaaah. The nail in the coffin was him helping off of Deng when at no point was Rose beating Lebron. The key to help defense? Helping only when you're teammates get beat. Not when you think you're best defender, matched up against a smaller player, is squarely in front of them.
Against the Wizards (who are terrible) Wade went crazy, made all his Wadeaways, and looked like the best player on the team. Great. They are the f*cking Wizards. Sean Connery's costume covers better than the Wiz. Who cares? (That one guy on Espn who kinda has red hair, but I feel like he shouldn't have red hair, but now its getting gray and messing with me hair. He probably cares. But come one. With the hair. )
Then, the Knicks. First, everyone should beat the Knicks because A) they are a NY franchise and B) the Cavs beat them. That wasn't even a joke. The Cavs actually did beat them. For real. They have this guy. Sorry, I meant this guy. Again, with the Wadeaways, the crappy defense, and the complete lack of passing (Wade's averaging 4.4 a game to Lebron's 7.2), the Heat were within striking distance at the end. Yes, Lebron missed a 3 and got stuffed, but those were his first shots in quite some time. He's a rhythm guy. HE should have the ball every possession in the 4th. HE should be shooting at least half of those possessions. HE is the best player on that team.
I know everyone hates Lebron these days, but he is great. Hate all you want, but he is. He gets to the rim, he shoots the basketball from a fundamentally sound way, and he is a closer. Give the man the ball, tell Dwade to start fast breaking and not crushing the momentum, and utilize Bosh as necessary, and all will be right with the world. And if anyone doesn't like it, well... Thats fine. I didn't really support a lot of the claims above with stats. So, really, whatever you wanna do. But I'm totally right.
Side note, Tom Kite is kind of creepy looking. I'm just saying.
