Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Heat’s year of pain
Loss of Bosh just the start.
MIAMI — Let’s blame someone. That’s how we watch sports. So when the Heat lose again Monday night in AmericanAirlines Arena, blame must be ladled out and angry messages sent.
“Why don’t you report on the dismal state of South Florida pro sports teams?” a reader wrote even before the Heat’s 114-103 loss to the New York Knicks. “Now the Heat are members of the bottom feeders.”
Sometimes it’s important to say the obvious. Sometimes you have to step back to even see the obvious, though.
Because when it comes to the Heat this season, you can point at problems and point at people and point at the mounting losses and still know that, deep down, you’re really not correct.
There are two things — and maybe only two things — everyone agreed on about the Heat even before a litany of injuries struck it in the opening stretch.
First, with Chris Bosh gone due to blood clots, they’d be pressed to make the playoffs.
Second, missing the playoffs wouldn’t be such a bad thing
for this franchise in the long run because they’d reassemble their team with a high draft pick and a lot of free-agent money next offseason.
Everything looks on course for next summer, too.
“We’re nine strong,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Monday’s game, meaning nine Heat players were healthy enough to play. “We’re more focused on who’s available than who’s not.”
That’s admirable of him. But for the rest of us, the question is how much the six roster players who couldn’t play (Bosh, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, James Johnson, Dion Waiters, Luke Babbitt) would be favored over the nine players who could.
The run of injuries has been so deep that Spoelstra even got undertandably confused about who was out what games. Three missed Saturday in Portland? Or four with Babbitt, too?
No one wants to hear this, of course. Everyone has moved on from Bosh’s absence and expects the Heat to be able to do so, too. The Marlins should be replacing the late Jose Fernandez at the winter meetings, too, right?
The Heat are the one franchise in town run well this millenium. That doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes. Not making peace and letting Dwyane Wade leave because of ego issues and not money was a blunder.
Still, they think big. They win big. They act professionally and don’t throw away seasons or waste fans’ money with three-year plans that never materialize like the three other pro teams in town this millenium.
They lost their best player, Bosh, for good this season. They’re operating at three-quarters of the salary cap. They’re still playing hard. They’re just losing. And you can be angry, depressed or frustrated by it all if you’re a fan.
But what would you have them do? What the Knicks did? That was the other option. The Knicks overpaid veteran free agents like guard Derrick Rose and center Joakim Noah in the hopes of fielding a competitive team for once in Phil Jackson’s reign.
The Knicks succeeded at that. They’ll be competitive. They’ll make the playoffs. But they won’t come within a sniff of a title and will be handcuffed from making any moves in the future.
The real shame of this Heat season isn’t the losses. It’s the youthful core of tomorrow can’t get on the court together. Whiteside, Winslow, Richardson and Tyler Johnson have been healthy to play in five of the 21 games thus far.
How can they develop into something if they can’t play together?
“I do really like this team,” Spoelstra said. “It’s shown some growth, some toughness. We lost some tough games at home. But we’re a much different team than the first two weeks of the season.”
On Tuesday, the Heat’s nine players had a onepoint lead at half. Goran Dragic finished with 29 points. They still lost. They’re 7-14. Go ahead and blame someone if it makes you feel better. You know, deep down, you’re not right.
“I do really like this team. It’s shown some growth, some toughness. We lost some tough games at home. But we’re a much different team than the first two weeks of the season.” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra