Miami's leisurely stroll through the regular season

There’s been something quite cheeky, dare I say arrogant about the way Miami have conducted themselves this season.

The reigning champions haven’t really hit the highs this year, certainly haven’t pulled away from the rest of the league, let alone the East, and seem to regard the regular season as nothing more than a boring chore that has to be served before they can participate in the play-offs.

Sure, the Heat do share a lead in the East, but the fact that there’s no less than 12 other teams within the entire NBA who have won within 3 games of their 29, speaks volume.

There are two main reasons where Miami give me most reason for concern. First is their response to the occasions that do have good wins. The second pertains to their road form which has been patchy at best.

Since Christmas the Heat has won 7 games by double figure margins which is something they can certainly hang their hat on. Yet how have they performed in the follow up game? They’ve lost 6 of their next encounters. I don’t know about you, but a 1-6 record following wins by 10 or more for me paints a picture of an arrogant student who thinks he doesn’t have to attend all the classes he signed up for.  

Meanwhile Miami have an 11-11 road record which ranks them 9^th in the league, having lost on the road to their closest conference rivals Indiana and New York 3 times and by an average of 14 points. In each of those matches Miami failed to score more than 89.

I get the feeling that the public and the markets wouldn’t be treating Miami so respectfully and so patiently had they not won it all back in June. In addition, had they not been getting the outrageously brilliant, night in, night out contribution from LeBron James, then surely more probing questions would be asked of the other South Beach squad members.

My expectation based on what we’ve seen in the first half of the season is that Miami will continue to coast until the playoffs which may or may not be enough to land them top seed in the East. From the playoffs onwards I don’t really have much confidence in Miami as they’ve truly demonstrated precious little to convince me otherwise.