The Heat will have to forgive us, the Heat-seeking public, if we’re not overly impressed by this latest overture. It’s not that it wasn’t, that it isn’t, needed, it was and is. It’s a good sign. But it’s just one lost among so many other bad, bad signs.
After Saturday night’s 95-106 loss to the Mavericks, one in which they had pulled to within 6 with five minutes to go, only to see the Mavericks calmly and deliberately blast them back into a double-digit deficit, Yahoo! Sports reports the Heat held a players-only meeting. The tried and true measure of how bad things can get when the players decide to boot the coaches to talk amongst themselves in an effort to obtain some measure of accountability and refocus.
Again, pardon us if we’re not overly impressed.
This is a gesture, and gestures simultaneously mean something and nothing at all. Were the Heat to now get themselves “right” (whatever that is since we haven’t seen it yet in their existence during this incarnation’s 17 games), then the gesture was the start of their coming together, of pulling together and reaching at least some measure of their lofty goals they set for themselves. However, if the Heat go out versus the Wizards on Monday and Detroit on Tuesday, in preparation of “Bring Your Own Molotov Cocktail” night at the Q, then it’s simply another in a long line of indications that this team is all hype and no hope, the trend which it has exemplified through the first near-fifth of the season.
One problem with this team can easily be identified in their quotes:
From Bosh:
“We were just looking at each other and being honest, that’s what it’s all about,” Bosh told Yahoo! Sports about the meeting. “I think when you’re in situations like these and around guys all the time, you need to be honest with each other. Just talk and put our foot down about the season and put it in minds that we’re better than this, and we’re going to do better than this.”
To Wade:
“This is a new team, a new group of guys,” Wade said. “Guys need to understand and know each other and get to hear each other talk. And I think we all feel better after the talk we have.”
To James:
“This is a team that is new to each other,” James said. “It’s going to take time. But the thing we can do right now is just go out and just play, play harder, don’t have any lapses. I think the fact that we know we are so talented individually, we feel we can have lapses at times.”
Notice how in every instance it’s about “we” and not “I?”
Now, this is a tricky thing. If the three were all talking about themselves and what they need to do better, the media would no doubt be slamming the door on their hands about being selfish and thinking me-first. The Heat have every justification for saying they can’t win in this situation, and that they’re just trying to make it clear they think of themselves as a team, and not individuals.
The problem?
Responsibility can be shared but leadership needs to be expressed by the individual taking hold of his own shortcomings and setting an example to the rest that “this has to start with me.” There’s not enough among the three of talking about how they need to improve their own performance. There’s not enough about how they need to start leading, taking charge, and being the stars that they are.
In a crucial possession last night, Dwyane Wade did what he’s done a million times this season, seemingly. He drove past his defender. He reached the paint. He found the defender closing in to make contact and… jump passed to James Jones who badly bricked a three.
That’s not going to cut it. The Big 3 should make it easier on one-another to produce points with the attention they draw, not James Jones or Eddie House or Joel Anthony or Zydrunas Ilgauskas or whatever retread player they’ve filled the gaps in with. It starts and ends with the Big 3. And so far they’ve been a lot of talk, in front of and behind closed doors, and very little action.
We’ll see if they can capitalize on whatever it is they sorted out last night in the locker room or if this situation only continues to disintegrate, in this, the Big Letdown so far.
