NBA: Milwaukee Bucks On Verge Of Rare Feat

2008-09 Miami Heat

It’s easy to forget that Hall of Famer Pat Riley’s final year as an NBA coach was a disaster.

If it’s hard to imagine a team that had Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Marion, Alonzo Mourning and Anfernee Hardaway on its roster going 15-67, well, the 2007-08 Heat made it happen.

Wade was limited to 51 games because of a knee injury. O’Neal was also slowed by injury before being dealt to the Phoenix Suns for Marion and Marcus Banks in early February.

Hardaway was a shell of his former self and at age 36 played in just 16 games, scored 60 points and was waived in December.

Marion played well upon arrival, but it was too little, too late at that point.

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Sir Charles In Charge

Ricky Davis was the only player who appeared in more than 70 games for the Heat in 2007-08 and a whopping 22 players slipped on one of their jerseys at some point.

Moving forward, Riley relinquished his coaching duties and turned the bench over to young assistant Erik Spoelstra.

In the draft, Miami took Michael Beasley out of Kansas State with the second overall pick and traded for the draft rights to NCAA championship game hero Mario Chalmers from Kansas.

In free agency, the Heat brought in James Jones and later added Jamaal Magloire—a former All-Star center—as a reserve.

But the biggest key to the turnaround was health. Wade played 79 games and won the scoring title. Udonis Haslem came back from an injury that limited him to 49 games in 2007-08 and solidified the power forward spot. Beasley scored almost 14 a game, mostly as a reserve, and Chalmers was a solid contributor as a rookie as well.

Marion was traded in mid-February to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Jermaine O’Neal, who started the final 27 games at center, averaging 13 points and two blocks.

Miami showed resolve in the playoffs, bouncing back from a 90-64 pounding in Game 1 at Atlanta to beat the Hawks on the road in Game 2, 108-93.

The teams split Games 3 and 4 in Miami, this time with the Heat blowing out the Hawks in Game 3 before Atlanta bounced back. The Hawks also won Game 5 handily and the Heat responded with a Game 6 blowout.

With a 91-78 win in Game 7, Atlanta advanced and the teams set a record of sorts for the most lopsided seven-game series in NBA history—every game was decided by 10 points or more.

Wade averaged 29.1 points a game in the series, but didn’t get a lot of help. Chalmers shot just 40 percent in his first taste of the NBA Playoffs and O’Neal was limited by an injury in the series missing all but 42 seconds of the final two games.

Next: Rising Briefly From The Swamps