Twistity Sports Exclusive: IT AIN’T THE HEAT

 
The NBA is packed with terrible teams. The winless Philadelphia 76ers, the Detroit Pistons, the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers, all are painful to watch, and the 76ers seem on their way to historic awfulness with their 0-17 record (they once lost 26 games in a row).

So we can’t call the Miami Heat terrible. They’re just not what we grew accustomed to during LeBron James’ tenure, through four trips to the NBA Finals and a pair of championships.

The Heat remake sans James has them at 9-8 after their worst loss of the season, a 107-86 road loss to the young and rising Washington Wizards on Monday night. And that boils down the problem for the Heat – they’re neither young, nor rising.

Veterans Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are the heart of the Heat, but Wade’s hamstring has kept him out of a number of games. He’s not a day-in, day-out player anymore, nor was he last year. Much of the rest of the roster also returned after James opted to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but losing the world’s best player isn’t easily mitigated.

Oddly, the Cavaliers aren’t exactly dominating with James onboard. They’re 8-7, third in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division; the Heat are third in the Southeast Division, behind the Atlanta Hawks, whom they play on Wednesday night.

The Heat will find a chemistry as the season unfolds. It’s not a pretty process when they struggle, but it beats a complete teardown and rebuild. How far above .500 they can climb is now the question, not whether they can win a title.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .