The Miami Heat are the two-time defending NBA champions trying to make it a three-peat this year. There are many hurdles they will have to overcome in order to be the last team standing in June 2014. Can they eke out another ring or will they succumb to the NBA grind and become an aging team that ran out of gas?
If you look at the roster not much has changed from last year except everyone has gotten a year older. Mike Miller is gone and nine players have ten or more years of NBA service with Ray Allen the elder statesman with 17 years. The role players will have to step up because this team will need them. Every night is like a playoff game when the Heat come to town. Teams circle the date on the calendar and try to gauge how they stack up against the NBA elite.
Dwyane Wade has played in 24 of the 32 games so far. His knees are a major concern and could be the reason the Heat do not win this year. They seem to have adopted a rest strategy for him in the hopes that they can have him fresh for the playoffs. The NBA grind does not lend itself to any easy nights.
The lack of any real size other than Chris Andersen in the post makes it harder to repeat with the likes of Roy Hibbert lurking for seven brutal games. Chris Bosh is not a center and teams have figured out how to go inside to make the Heat pay late in games.
The Indiana Pacers lost a very tough series last year to the Heat that they should have won. Coach Frank Vogel learned a lot in that series and got outcoached in key moments of several games. The Pacers have gotten off to a fantastic start this year because they hope to get home court advantage if they meet the Heat in a seven game series. They feel that if last year’s game seven was in Indianapolis they would have been crowned champions. Indiana has the players to beat the Heat this year.
Teams that compete at a high level like the Heat lose focus during the season when the competition is less than stellar. It is very difficult to turn it on and off over a whole season. That is why you see the Heat with eight loses to date. If Wade continues to be in and out of the lineup look for the chemistry to suffer a little. How many more last second jump shots can Ray Allen hit as he continues to age? The Heat have also played a ton of games including the playoffs over the past three years. Eventually the grind catches up to you and it can be enough to upset the team mojo.
I have laid out many reasons why the Heat will not repeat as champions this year. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. I will sit back and watch them scrape by and hope that the Pacers are ready to step up and take the challenge this time. We might crown a new champion this year. I surely hope so.
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