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As of Friday January 11th, the Miami Heat have not won a road game in 2013. In 2012, the Heat were 7-5 on road this season, but the new year has them 0-3 away from American Airlines Arena. Thursday night was an epitome of why the Heat’s road struggles have been so prevalent as they let the Portland Trail Blazers sneak back to capture a come from behind victory.
The NBA‘s best player in LeBron James has been a shell of himself in these last three games in terms of scoring and he was especially off versus the Trail Blazers on Thursday. In fact, LeBron’s streak of scoring at least 20 points was halted at 33 by the Trail Blazers. On top of that, LeBron was also one assist away from pouring in a triple-double. The most important part of this game was of course Portland’s dominance in the last eight minutes as the Blazers went on a ridiculous run of 24-10 in that time. And thanks to two knock-down threes by Wesley Matthews, the club was propelled to victory as Miami turned the ball over three times–which led to eight of those 24 points.
For Miami the silver lining will always be their success in the playoffs last season and all the power behind the trio of LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. The three contributed to 71% of Miami’s scoring as the other two starters combined for two points while Ray Allen contributed 15 off of the bench.
At the end of the day, the Heat’s issues center around the inability to close games out on the road. With two road games on tap against the disappointing Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz, the hope is that the road skid will end at three. However, the club can’t turn the ball over late and must get contributions from the role players if they have any hopes of repeating as NBA champions.
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