So the Miami Heat are taking losses hard, huh? But crying -- really? I think the whole thing is being a bit over-dramatized but I'm sure there are some upset players in the Miami locker room, particularly following the latest loss at home to the Chicago Bulls Sunday.
Chicago is reinforcing my belief that it will be the Bulls, not the Heat, battling the Celtics for the Eastern Conference championship. Trust me;, it's no accident that Tom Thibodeau, Chicago's head coach and former architect of the great Celtics defence, has a handle on how to stop the Heat and all their firepower.
Boston and Chicago do have similar personnel in key spots. Joakim Noah resembles the defensive anchor on the back line that is Kevin Garnett for the Celtics. But when you look closer at Miami's numbers against Chicago, you can see that in the three losses to the Bulls, they have only four more assists than turnovers.
Teams like Chicago and Boston are too good to play one-on-five as the Heat seem to do by simply putting the ball in the hands of their stars and hope they make a play. The Bulls and Celtics have well-established defensive concepts. So if you don't move the ball and they are allowed to lock in, then you're done.
A lack of ball movement has been Miami's penchant all season as they sit 29th in the league in assists, just ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks as they average less than 20 assists per game. To make matters worse, the Heat are averaging just over 15 assists per game against the Bulls and shooting less than 45 percent from the floor and a touch under 37 percent from behind the arc.
So unless head coach Erik Spoelstra helps his team figure out how to move the ball, I don't see Miami making to the finals in June, particularly if they have to go through Chicago and Boston.
For those asking, the London experience was great. It was nice to be part of the first ever regular season games outside of North America. We were well received and shown great hospitality. It would have been nice for the NBA to build some time in for the players, particularly the young American kids who have never had the opportunity to see London and become a bit more educated on such an historical place.
Head shots, head trauma, and head injuries rank among the hottest topics in sports right now. With Chris Paul leaving the court on a stretcher Sunday in Cleveland and then sitting out last night's lossto the Bulls brought to mind something that I happened to read about a month ago when I was in Milwaukee.
Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is one player that believes there should be some sort of standardized testing to make sure that a player is fully recovered and free of any symptoms before being allowed to get back on the court to play. It would be nice to make sure that a player is healthy but with the pressure to play and achieve goals such as winning, entertaining and putting fans in seats, it may not happen without someone being upset that a player is sitting out.
