It's almost funny at this point to look back to November, when the Miami heat had lost 7 out of 12, including a 16 point home defeat to the Indiana Pacers. Erik Spoelstra's job was on the line, and people started to think that just maybe Lebron and Wade were too similar to win a championship together. And maybe Chris Bosh wasn't worth the contract he got.
Well here we are on Christmas Day and after watching 13 consecutive hours of basketball (thank you NBA and Disney for making this beautiful day a reality) there is really one main thing I took from today. The Heat are for real, and they showed it by beating the two time defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers on their home court by the score of 96-80... and it wasn't even that close. They may not win 70 games like people originally thought, but they could come closer than most would have imagined a month ago.
The thing that has been so impressive about the Heat has been the defense. I don't know where Joel Anthony came from, but he is quite the low post defender. He held down Amar'e in NY a week ago better than anyone else has all year. Obviously Lebron and Wade are as good of on the ball defenders as anyone in this league, but it is the team defense that has enabled this impressive run of domination the Heat are on right now.
He still may not be worth the contract, but today might have also been Chris Bosh's coming out party as a member of the Heat. He looked inspired by the Christmas spirirt, driving into the paint with purpose and throwing down slam dunks with attitude. If he can stretch the offense and bring his defender out of the paint, Lebron and D-Wade will be able to get to the glass all day and NO ONE will beat this team.
Bottom line is that Wade, Bosh, Miller, Chalmers and company is a far better supporting cast than anything Lebron had in Cleveland, and LBJ hasn't lost a step, so it was only a matter of time until this team was borderline unbeatable. This Heat will be playing deep into the playoffs, and you can't call them the favorites over the Celtics who have dominated the East the past few years, but they are certainly on that level.
How can you argue with swagger like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BqUBYaHlM
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