Jace

Basically, we need to figure out a way to hide Ray on D better, and possibly bench Chalmers. Cole hasn't been stellar, but at least he can cut off penetration.

I do agree we could use a different big from Joel. His D isn't good enough anymore to make up for the wrench he throws in our offense. Philosophically, Spo's positionless approach isn't exactly bad, it's just UD and Bosh get pushed around too much, one because of his body, the other because of his mind, and then Joel can't rebound or score at all. If we had a Manimal-type player instead of one of those guys, even if he's undersized, we'd be much better at that spot.

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ChosenFEW

A handful of them

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Adam

I'll always find it hilarious that people think one city or state's fans are better than another. The only difference with Knicks fans and other basketball fans is their outspoken belief of their superiority where others are unspoken.

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Wade2Bosh

"Hopefully this game will wake them up"

This thought has crossed my mind way too many times already this season.

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Jace

It's futile. I can hear the game quotes already "We're fine. Just wasn't our night."

-33 was the worst +/- of Dwyane's career. Sounds about right. The thing is, when it's clear it's not his night, he ignores it and keeps hijacking the offense.

We were only outrebounded by 3. Shot 42%, which is a % point higher than they shot from 3. That, and awful penetration D, is why we lost.

I don't know what to make of our shooting. It seems almost any time an opposing player gets an open look, and it's down. We have Ray and Mike missing wide-open 3's. Haslem and Bosh bricking their bread-and-butter J's. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Is it something going on behind the scenes? Is it the disease of self-satisfaction? Certainly that's not the case with Ray. Gotta expect a cold streak from him, though.

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Adam

I knew he was going to have a bad season when he hadn't even begun working out until October. He was promoting his book and taking it easy.

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Jace

Kind of reminds me of the Bulls handling us without Rose, behind JL3 who has turned back into a pumpkin in TOR, and Boston killing us in Boston last season. We're not a regular season team at this point.

I know Smithi called our winning the Indy series a fluke on the back of Haslem jumpers, but that's so shortsighted. We were great last postseason with Bosh starting. 9-1 I believe.

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Jace

My apologies for getting into it with BlackNRed, y'all. Just the combination of the game and (what in my opinion is) misguided and self-fulfilling analysis got me feisty.

Will never forgive him for "I probably didn't rehab as diligently as I should have with the book tour going on." Surprised I don't remember the exact quote, because I had to read it a dozen times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Was pissed when that tour was going on, but figured he was taking extra care of the knee to make up for it.

Worst part about losses like these is now I can't go near basketball for the rest of the night.

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Jace

Maybe it's karma. I'm going to start rooting for the Lakers, instead of against them.

Spo should just send that PR guy to the podium with a tape recorder of the same quotes every game.

I feel like this is a subtle jab at the stupid, early J's LeBron and Wade took tonight. But this is completely ignoring how horribly he diarrhea'ed on his opportunities tonight.

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Wade County

Im going to be in a foul mood until this New Orleans game.

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Jace

Did you say it's Saturday for us Yanks (do you guys even call us Yankees?).

Seeing a lot of "Heat would be 9-8 without Ray Allen savior 3's." That would be kind of funny if we matched that start this year.

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Jace

In the end, it's best to take a step back from the emotion and realize we hated this team pretty much just as much last year, and threw away all hopes of a championship for the Big 3. The doomsday Heat fans will call our title a fluke, but I know we're really great when we need to be. We'll make the playoffs. We'll have homecourt, at least for most of it, and we'll need great performances from LeBron, which he's more than capable of. It's clear he hasn't had the killer will these last couple games, and most of the season, even. I don't think he's satisfied with one title, like some will suggest. Not saying we'll repeat for sure, but the sky isn't falling.

I think this is true, but it sucks. Great teams shouldn't need to feel like the punching bag of the NBA to play to their potential.

Oh lord.

Hmmm.

One more embarrassing loss in the next few games, and a players-only meeting is coming methinks.

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Jace

Yup.

This guy writes for heat.com, does excellent write-ups on the Heat's X's and O's, and spends countless hours pouring over game film and all kinds of stats. Following him on Twitter, I'm surprised by how many games around the league he watches. He knows what he's talking about.

I hate to harp on this issue, but I asked him how much "small-ball" (and I use those quotes very intently) has attributed to the Heat's woes. His reply?

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Wade County

Yeah we do call American's yanks sometimes still .

If we lose to the Hornets, a meeting will be on the cards for sure. Hopefully we get a blowout win and sort everything out. Wade and Bosh should've joined Lebron with the postgame workout though.

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Jace

Yeah, I haven't read it yet, but Ira sent out a tweet linking to his article or blog post saying basically Spo, LeBron, and Bosh were all "angry," and Wade wasn't.

Yup, the reason is our 2nd-best player had more TO's than FG's.

More on the unassisted 3's:

I worry that a blowout win will be fool's gold for this team. The fear is we'll go back to bad habits thinking we're the bee's knees again.

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