NBA Miami Heat

Miami Heat Will Finish Top 3 In The East

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Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Who hasn’t doubted the Miami Heat this season?

Go look up season previews for this season and you will see a pattern: Miami is not placed in the top four teams in the East. As a matter of fact, most place them at sixth or seventh, if they can stay healthy. But I think that is incredibly wrong. I think it’s wrong for a few reasons.

The first is they are the best team in their division. Most doubters would say, “What about the Washington Wizards?” To which I reply: absolutely not. The Wizards were a decent team last year that made the playoffs in a weak Eastern Conference and took advantage of some matchup problems other teams had. They made the playoffs tied for the fourth slot with 44 wins. That is not something I would be too amped about if I was a Wizards fan. They didn’t get that much better. They picked up Paul Pierce, who is a slightly better scorer than Trevor Ariza, but who is also much older and not as good of a defender. They gained some and lost some. Meanwhile, the Eastern Conference got better. The Wizards beat the depleted Chicago Bulls last season in the first round, missing Derrick Rose and playing against the “Captain Ahab” version of Joakim Noah. That said, I think they are a little bit overrated, if we are being frank. After the Wizards, who else is left in this division?

Even though the Heat hadn’t played the kind of defense they had been used to playing, they still had one of the better defenses in the league. Only the Indiana Pacers and the Bulls allowed fewer points per game last season against their opponents. Much of the same defenders are returning this season, with the exception of LeBron James. From what I can tell, LeBron played in every game with the exception of five. Two of the five were the last two games of the season, where the games were primarily for resting and keeping bench players in rhythm. Opportunities to start for Shane Battier, James Jones and Toney Douglas were evidence of that. The other three games were in the middle of the season, and opponents averaged 95 points per game. Numbers can be tricky and misleading, but they don’t lie, that is for certain. So I don’t anticipate this defense being a bad one, because the structure is in place for them to succeed.

Their offense has been subject to question as well. But they have looked pretty decent on offense in the preseason considering they are trying to get used to roles that they didn’t previously have. Chris Bosh is looking to be more assertive on offense, and Dwyane Wade has to make plays for himself and others. He has to be more of the all-around player LeBron was for longer stretches of time than he had to last season. But Bosh is a player that doesn’t need to bang with big men in order to score, preserving his energy. And Wade has undergone a weight loss program that makes him look like he did when he was 28 or 29. He isn’t jumping as high or as often, but he is using the wisdom he has gained and picking shots that he knows he can make. Other than them, they have a good supporting cast in Luol Deng, Chris Andersen, Mario Chalmers, Shawne Williams and Danny Granger. James Ennis should be a surprise as well, although I don’t predict him to have a major role, especially down the stretch of the season.

Overall, Miami has a good team, with good players. I predict them to be third in the East behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago.

Christopher Cruz is a Miami Heat writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @_chris_cruz, or add him to your network on Google.

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