Another Day, Another Loss

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it can't get much worse than this. With a 96-85 loss to Philly, Miami dropped to 8-21, the worst in the Eastern Conference. There is a lot to say about this team, but the bottom line is that this team is not very good and whoever put this team together should be fired.

I'm starting to doubt the Luke Jackson-Penny Hardaway swap the Heat made recently. I didn't like Penny Hardaway leaving the team, and it is becoming evident where he could become of use to the Heat. With Jason Williams dressed to play but not playing due to what the team is calling a "sore knee", Chris Quinn injured, and Smush Parker exiled from the team, the Heat would at least have a reliable ballhandler in Penny. Hardaway was also better than most of Miami's perimeter defenders and had his outside shot going for him, as he shot 42.1% in 16 games he appeared in. He was tentative when he started, but I don't know what Pat Riley was telling him. Maybe he was telling him to be a facilitator.

Well, Miami could certainly use a facilitator. Luke Jackson, meanwhile, shot 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from downtown. He has done nothing for Miami thus far. Pat Riley unwittingly played Luke Jackson in the fourth quarter, a quarter in which the Heat trimmed a 21-point lead into three with 5:08 remaining. I understand that the Heat have nothing to lose, but you also want to win games. Jackson should not have even been signed in the first place, and to play him in the final stanza of play was criminal.

Dwyane Wade opened up at point guard and Daequan Cook played point off the bench. Cook didn't do a bad job of directing the offense, but it compromised his scoring -- as Cook struggled offensively, going 0-7 from beyond the arc. Going back to Wade, I'm not going to blame this on him. He's working hard as hell to give this Heat a win. But the thing is, you're only as strong as your weakest link. And there's not much to do when you when you are fighting off a double-team while your other four teammates apathetically walk towards a timeout huddle.



This Heat team has no idea what they want to do. Whether they want to give it to Shaq, run an up-tempo game, or give it to Dwyane Wade. A couple of years ago, the Heat developed a great sense of spacing the floor and swinging the ball around, which gave Wade the opportunity to free himself up and Shaq to find open shooters or take it in himself.

The Miami Heat's offense may be in disarray with what happened, but what suffered most was defense. Pat Riley's style of defense is based on help defense and knowing one's assignment. With guys like Ricky Davis -- who is a horrible defender -- and inexperienced guys such as Daequan Cook, Dorell Wright, and Earl Barron, Philadelphia got open shots and easy paths to the bucket.

Dwyane Wade said that it's not his job to find the right mix of guys. The Captain, Udonis Haslem, refused to speak to the media. Miami is pointing the finger at each other at the expense of the team. Instead of controversy bringing the Heat together (a Wade-Payton bickering scene in the playoffs), the Heat are falling apart. Shaq is getting out-scored by people named Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth.

I've said this before, but I want to emphasize this. You are only as strong as you're weakest link. The Heat have a lot of weak links right now. And although this season is irretrievably broken, you might as well try to get some trades in right now to build some momentum going into next season. Miami can't have anybody holding them down. Everyone that is holding this franchise down needs to go. The Heat need an overhaul. If not, it may be years if not decades before the Heat return to contending status.