Heat are struggling now but they have looked alot better at points this season than they ever did last year. I expect the big 3 to be shutdown shortly and for them to at least try to turn it up a couple notches come playoff time. The role players will have to wake up though, that last bulls game was unbelievably pathetic.
Yeah, when the season started and most people were out of shape, Lebron + Wade, + Bosh were able to dominate. It's hard to directly compare to last season. heat had a lot of advantages coming into this season having a young, athletic trio with no coaching change.
The entire league has gotten better at scoring the last 6 weeks except for a few teams, which include the heat (philly as well). They've gotten worse rather than hold steady. That is a giant red flag, IMO.
I'm not so worried about the core 3 of the Heat (sans end of game). But I would be worried about everyone else. battier can't hit open 3s and haslem can't rebound anymore.
Chalmers was terribad last year.
Keep in mind that Wade has been playing old man minutes this season. He'll be playing 40 minutes a game in the later rounds.
Chalmers is playing worse now than he was after the all-star break last season.
Wade is only 3.5mpg less. And since the all-star break, he's at almost 36mpg. That's over the last 21 games. As Wade played more, the team got worse (reality is probably he played more because the team was performing worse).
you're right that playing 40mpg will help. But will it be enough to off-set the cast? Like I said, Joel, Chalmers, etc played decent leading up to the playoffs last season. Right now, no one is playing well.