National Basketball Association

Good or bad, Heat trying to ignore outsiders

Published May. 6, 2011 5:58 p.m. ET

foxsports

When his team was off to a shaky 9-8 start, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra ordered his team to ignore what he called ''the noise,'' his term for outside perceptions of the club.

When they were losing five straight games after the All-Star break, Spoelstra issued the same edict.

And now, with a 2-0 lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, the same thinking applies. In short, Spoelstra is taking pains to ensure that his team doesn't allow itself to get wrapped up in talk of anything beyond Game 3 on Saturday night in Boston.

''This is the absolute threat of the human condition,'' Spoelstra said Friday before the team flew to Boston. ''The bandwagon will sway so flagrantly to each side after each game that it's hard to keep track of everything. And that's where our mental discipline must come in.''

It's nothing new for the Heat, who have been lighting rods ever since LeBron James and Chris Bosh arrived last summer to join Dwyane Wade in Miami. Every word, every win, every loss has been dissected, and all the attention - not to mention the feeling that they were considered almost villainous in most NBA arenas - was a constant issue for the team this season.

But now after winning two games against reigning East king Boston, and with the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in trouble in their series with the Dallas Mavericks out West, the Heat almost seem to have gone from reviled to revered in the court of public opinion.

They find it mildly amusing.

''We understand that as we win games, people will try to crown us. It's bizarre,'' James said. ''We've just got to go out there and continue to play our game and not care what too many people think about our game.''

Wade expects nothing less.

''You understand, that's how it is in the world,'' Wade said. ''It's up and down. It's ebb and flow. What we've said all year is never get too low, never get too high. Our goal is to try to stay even-keeled as much as possible. In the playoffs, you have to do that, especially when you've done nothing but win two games at home.''

Bosh smiled at the notion that the outside perception of the Heat may be changing, but he's paying little attention to any of it, good, bad or otherwise.

About a month ago, Bosh said he would try to avoid all media accounts, print and electronic, about the playoffs.

''People are going to have different opinions when you have a little success,'' Bosh said. ''But we haven't done anything yet.''