3 problem areas confronting the Miami Heat at the quarter season mark

Following a scintillating finish to last season, the Miami Heat have been unable to recapture the form that put the league on notice.

Just when you thought the Miami Heat may have turned the corner this season, things have generally turned awry.

After a recent three-game winning streak, the Heat followed up with a pair of embarrassing losses agains the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks.

But after having followed up from these losses with a hard-fought home victory against the Charlotte Hornets, the Heat started their next game admirably in trailing the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors 62-60 at half time. However, a 37-17 shellacking in the third quarter meant the Heat found themselves on the end of another blowout, their third in the space of a week.

Granted, the Heat aren’t the only team that will feel the wrath of the Warriors this season. However, it’s the regularity with which such outcomes have occurred, particularly recently, that will surely have the alarm bells ringing in the Heat front office.

Another example was their home loss just over two weeks ago at the hands of the Indiana Pacers. Having seemingly turned the corner following a gritty road win over the Washington Wizards, the Heat simply didn’t show up as the Pacers poured in 120 points on 60 percent shooting from the field.

Following this performance, head coach Erik Spoelstra’s message was straight to the point:

"“Look, I don’t have an answer to our unreliability right now….one way or another we’re going to get to the bottom of it…..I don’t have answers right now for why we gave up 120 points, and have an uninspiring play….We’ll find a solution, we’ll find a way to play Miami Heat basketball one way or another.”"

Unfortunately for Spoelstra and the Heat, things clearly haven’t turned around.

Following the loss to the Warriors, when asked to explain the three blowout losses in the space of a week, Spoelstra replied:

"“I don’t know, I can’t answer that at this point….Each game is different, I don’t necessarily see trends, but we’re going to dig in, and find solutions collectively that we can get to more consistency. That’s the bottom line, we’ve been saying that enough, but we’ll find a way to get that done.”"

Currently, the Heat are 11-12, and in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings. So what exactly is holding the Heat back, and what can be done to rectify this moving forward?