Shaquille O’Neal was a key part of the 2005-06 Miami Heat championship team. (Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com)
The whole universe was pretty much ready to crown the defending champion Miami Heat, there and then, as Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook went down with a torn meniscus. After all, who was now going to challenge such a loaded Heat squad? Turns out coach Tom Thibodeau’s Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls didn’t get the memo because they are currently giving the champs all they can handle right now and I genuinely fear they may actually pull off the series win.
Nonetheless, despite the 2012-13 Miami Heat team is struggling to fulfill its ridiculous potential, this is arguably the best Miami Heat team of all time.
Hardaway and Zo
First, there was the 1996-97 team led by Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway that set Miami’s long-standing record in wins by battling to 61 victories in the regular season. In any other season (or era for that matter), that would’ve probably been good enough to earn top spot in the NBA. However, as we all know, the ’90s were the all about some guy named Michael Jordan and he ended Miami’s championship hopes during the conference finals. Besides, this current Heat team raced to a league-best 66 wins to become only the second Heat unit to record 60 wins and set a new team record in the process. Advantage 2012-13.
Rise of Dwyane Wade
The Miami Heat came back to win their first NBA championship against the Dallas Mavericks to end the 2005-06 season. With Miami in a 2-0 hole, Dwyane Wade established himself as a true NBA superstar as he took over the series and led the franchise to four wins in a row to clinch the championship in six games. Fast forward to this year’s team and Wade is playing Robin to LeBron James’ Batman and is just past his prime, but by no means has he completely lost it. It’s inevitable that Father Time catches up with everyone. However, 2013 Wade, even with the career playoffs low scoring at 13 points a game so far, can still do a pretty damned good job defensively.
Although he wouldn’t be able to completely neutralize his old self, he could at least make it difficult, especially with that stellar Miami defense, which allowed a fifth-best 95 points a game, backing him up. If all else fails then the 2013 Heat can just deploy LeBron James. Just ask Derrick Rose how that feels.
That got a little bit weird.
The Big Three
In 2010, the Heatles assembled and everyone expected dominance. Jeff Van Gundy even went so far as to claim that the “Superfriends” would break the NBA’s mark for the most wins in the regular season. That didn’t exactly pan out as the Heat stumbled to barely over .500 in the first 17 games and coach Erik Spoelstra was ostracized as many didn’t feel he was up for such a big task. This “unintentional” bump didn’t exactly do him any favors either.
Nevertheless, the team found the right mix and found their way to 58 wins and the NBA Finals. Unfortunately LeBron James had stage fright and Dallas had revenge for the 2006 NBA Finals, winning in six at Miami’s home this time. Today, King James has fixed his mental fragility and in a nutshell, current Miami trumps old Miami Heat.
2011-12 champions
In 2012, the Miami Heat won the franchise’s second NBA title and in my opinion, the 2011-12 Miami Heat was the best squad ever assembled in South Beach. That is until this year’s team came about.
OK, the Heat are finding it difficult to handle a depleted Chicago team, but this year’s team is extraordinary. At one point they were chasing history until their winning streak was ended at 27. Still, that’s the second-longest winning streak in NBA history and they set the franchise mark for wins in the regular season.
On top of that, an already great LeBron James got even better somehow as he posted career highs in rebounds (8.0) field goal percentage (56 percent) and 3-point shooting percentage (40 percent), not to mention his second-highest assists output with 7.3 a game.
The team as a whole also continued to improve as they added pieces such as Ray Allen, who continues to still be one of the best shooters on the planet, and added Chris Andersen, who has given the team the size and depth it lacked last year.
In my opinion, yes, this is the best Miami Heat team in the franchise’s history and they should win the NBA championship this year. Particularly when you realize that their biggest threat (Oklahoma City) is missing their second-best player.