Are The Heat Really In That Much Trouble?

The headlines this morning after the Miami Heat’s Game 3 loss to the Spurs make is sound as if the finals are already over, when in fact their are still at least two games left to play, if not more.

I am no fan of hyperbole, but I, like most of you, watched Game 3 last night, and it was a complete devastation to the team.

The Heat got beat by the San Antonio Spurs in a very convincing way. Their were no broken air conditioner excuses this time, as the Heat had home-court advantage. All the environmental factors were in the Heat’s favor and yet the Spurs dismantled the Heat’s defense.

The Spurs shot 19 for 21 to kick off the game and never really looked back.  They forced LeBron James to commit an NBA Finals high seven turnovers. During the first half the Spurs shot with over 75 percent accuracy, a first for the NBA Finals.

The Heat’s offense was their. They shot for 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc and still lost by 19 points.

It also cannot feel good that the one time they have beat the Spurs this series was by two points and the two times the Spurs beat the Heat was by a combined 34 points.

The Heat are now down 2-1 in the series and could be looking at elimination if they drop Thursday’s game. With the loss, they also relinquish home-court advantage and prepare for a trip to San Antonio.

With Miami’s offense nailing over 50 percent of their shots, one has to look at their defense as the cause of their woes. During the regular season, the Heat’s D’ finished outside of the top 10 for the first time since 2009.

Despite all this, the Spurs are simply not going to shoot like this every game. As coach Gregg Popovich said in regards to the Spurs shooting “That’ll never happen again. That’s crazy.”

With that said, expect the next game to be a bit closer. The Heat are not having to play for their playoff lives yet, so hold off on writing their epitaph in your headlines at least for another game.