Why is our Heat the team to go to 4 straight Finals?

[theFRANCHISE]

The last team was actually the celtics that went to 4 straight finals. (1984-1987)

If my memory serves me right, the Heat have always lost consecutive games in January because of those long road trips they go on. As long as they are healthy going into the playoffs I think that's what is most important. I wouldn't panic over these loses. Any team can win 1 game in the regular season. Do you guys think the Nets, Knicks or Wizards would beat the heat 4 times in two weeks? I saw the lebron interview after the wizards loss. I honestly think the heat are getting bored with the regular season, lebron didn't want to say it out right tho.

[narmerguy]

Just...stop thinking about the RS. I'm over it, you can't extract any sense of the team's chances from games they plainly don't give a crap about. Wake me up in when the playoffs start.

[Aiolos]

The last team was actually the celtics that went to 4 straight finals. (1984-1987)

If my memory serves me right, the Heat have always lost consecutive games in January because of those long road trips they go on. As long as they are healthy going into the playoffs I think that's what is most important. I wouldn't panic over these loses. Any team can win 1 game in the regular season. Do you guys think the Nets, Knicks or Wizards would beat the heat 4 times in two weeks? I saw the lebron interview after the wizards loss. I honestly think the heat are getting bored with the regular season, lebron didn't want to say it out right tho.

Youre right! I missed it!

The Celtics were the last team to do it with that the team going 59-23 on the last trip.

[SweetTouch]

That thread title was hard to read

[dwightdwayneIII]

We have LeBron and they do not.

Right now were being out-coached and out hustled.

Playoffs, LeBron does everything and we over come all our short comings; Size and Coaching

I REALLLY really hope so.

The only thing you need to hope for is for LeBron to be healthy. The regular season is a time where star players take games off and sub par teams/players look to take out the top dogs to give there fan base hope. You look at the attandance records for this year and every where the HEAT play, the arena is packed and its that teams Super Bowl. Its hard for LeBron/Wade/Bosh to care every game. To me, Its about coaching right now. During these down times, we need a coach to find the right combination, find the right player and ride the hot hands to victory. SpoBot refuses to adjust during games or ride the hot hand or play those who seems to be deserving of minutes. This year how many times has a role player gone off? This year when Beasley or Mario are on fire, have they played 35-40 minutes or played there normal minutes? Nope! He sticks to his guns and doesn't adjust. Spo knows who is coming in and at what time in the game. It doesn't matter what happens on the court, he rides that rotation and adjusts a few games later. Thats the difference between winning a few games vs. teams that are trying harder than you. Come playoffs, BIG 3 care, they play 42 minutes which makes Spo's dumb rotation worthless as its not enough time to make an impact on the game from a coachign stand point. Look at Lewis numbers and look at minutes? Look at Beasley and look at minutes? Look at UD right now and look at minutes?

This is all true about Spo not riding the hot hand. But on the other hand, this season's heat present a bit of a unique problem, in that there is almost too much talent. How do you find minutes for all these guys: Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Ray Allen, Michael Beasley, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Rashard Lewis, Udonis Haslem, Greg Oden. That's eleven legitimate guys and only one has a question mark surrounding him at all (but if you saw Oden's first play of the game, and add it up with his first play in the single pre-season game he played, you wonder how much there is even a question mark there). Spoelstra could definitely be more dynamic with minutes but on the other hand this roster is so stacked it is really almost unfair. Which is why I find threads like this sort of funny. The Pacers got better, but so did the Heat. And the Heat beat 'em last year.

[EscapoTHB]

What makes Spoelstra a good coach is that like guys like Popovich he doesn't coach for the regular season. He doesn't coach to just win a random game in Toronto--he has the big picture in his mind--so a lot of the things that don't make sense to the casual fan are him expirimenting with different things so he can figure out combinations and rotations for the playoffs. It's more about "how does this guy play with that guy in this situation" than "ride the hot hand".

I think our playoff rotation will be:
Rio
Wade
Lebron
Beas
Bosh

Battier
Ray
Cole
Oden/Birdman(depending on fouls and if the other team is playing a center or not)

Beas to the starting lineup will happen eventually if he keeps progressing. He just offers so much better spacing and rebounding than Battier. You lose Battier's awesome rotations on defense, but if the HEat can have Beas at even a good level on that, then it's a fair trade off. Plus at this stage of his career i think Battier can be more effective off the bench as an impact sub. I think his shooting slumps occur because his back and knees aren't up to guarding 4s anymore and other teams go right at him.

[RexBoyWonder]

^ It's unrealistic to Say Spo will start Beasley in the playoffs as long as we see games like we just did

Michael Beasley - DNP coach decision

[SweetTouch]

I thought it was already said that beasley is under the maintenance program now since Battier went through it

[xStanton27]

Success in the regular season is completely different to success in a 7 game series.

[daschysta]

We really only have to beat one team to get back to the finals this year. I think everything about how we're playing this season is correct so far. If we can get to the Pacers with a healthy Wade a healthy bosh, a healthy Oden, Michael Beasley integrated into the rotation, and Lebron not completely gassed...we're more than ready to take them.

Meanwhile the Pacers are going balls out in the regular season. Maybe they'll be the ones injured and tired by the time they get to us this year?

I also like not having homecourt against them, I like having the chance to steal the first two games and make it a short series.

Indy doesn't play their players that many minutes. Pg barely plays 36 mpg. This isn't a bulls situation where the coach is killing his players for regular season wins. Yeah the players are trying to win, but they haven't really had to exert themselves that much. Their rotation players played more minutes per game last season and they were healthy then.