The Heat Are under an Arctic Chill Warning

Published on 16-Jan-2014 by Towner Park

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Review

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The Heat Are under an Arctic Chill Warning

Wednesday night's Miami loss to an average Washington Wizard team was, in a word, undisciplined. 

The Heat pride themselves on a suffocating and merciless defense, which is the one of the reasons why they have won two consecutive NBA titles. 

Apparently, their defense decided to take a vacation againgt the Wizards. 

Blame Obama. Half of the country already does for a plethora of hotly debatable topics. Maybe the Heat's inexplicable porous defense could be the direct result of their visit to the White House, courtesy of an invite from our President. 

Quasi-political banter aside, this latest loss is the third consecutive for Miami, who frankly seem lethargic in all facets of the game these days. Lebron James had a few highlight-worthy moments, but as a collective unit, they stunk up the Verizon Center against a team that hasn't done anything since Gilbert Arenas was gun-free and competing at a high-level. 

When the Wizards went on a 20-0 run in the first quarter, Miami had no answer. Sure, they tried to disrupt Washington's offensive flow with some quick timeouts, but that was never going to plug the dike for long. They even gave up a season-high 28 fast break points, which has been unheard of since Lebron James decided to "take his talents to South Beach". In the end, the Heat, who were down by 30-plus points at one time, eventually lost, 114-97. 

My first post-game thought was that the Heat are seriously coasting through the regular season. It couldn't be more obvious. As I've previously mentioned, Indiana is doing everything within its power to secure that No 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and that all important home-court advantage. 

Miami, although it won't broadcast this, seems content with resting its studs, working on rotational cohesion, and locking up that No 2 seed in the East. I'm guessing the Heat's confidence in stealing a playoff game or two and not relinquishing a game at home is at an all-time high. 

Regardless, the last three games have definitely not been kind to the defending champions. On one positive note, Greg Oden made his Heat debut and contributed with six points and two rebounds in only eight minutes of work. His first bucket since the 2009 NBA season was a classic Oden rim rocker. James even commented that whenever Oden returns from the disabled list, he always seems to dunk the ball on his first field goal attempt. If you're a Miami Heat fan, you most definitely need Oden's physical presence inside, and hopefully, this is a good sign for Oden and the defending champs. 

Lebron, at this point, will take anything to get out of this three-game slide.