National Basketball Association

This marriage may not be made in heaven

Published Nov. 11, 2010 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Now, it’s all in play.

Pat Riley as coach, Chris Bosh as trade bait, LeBron James as a bad fit and the team assembled around the Big Three as too soft, too small and not ready for this.

“We’re not there,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said after the Boston Celtics marched into Miami on Thursday night and handed the Heat a 112-107 reminder of how badly things are going.

“We did not play well tonight,” he went on. “But again, we have a different timeline and this is going to be a process and it won’t always be an easy one.”

That’s no longer good enough.

Look, this is a long season, and things may well change. But "The Decision," the talk about multiple rings, all of Miami celebrating in July like it just won a title, this stuff invites not just scrutiny but grand expectations.

Now, it’s nine games into both and the could-they-win-73 Heat are 5-4.

Maybe Spoelstra’s process starts with calamity and ends with a flourish and a ring. Maybe Bosh gets into a Miami groove — everyone, basketball player or insurance salesman alike, needs time to adjust to a new job. Maybe LeBron is just where he belongs.

Maybe the league-wide targeted, small, not-up-to-it-yet Heat frontcourt finds a way to get it done.

Problem is, there’s a trend developing here: Way too many maybes.

“We can’t hang our heads and think the world is coming to an end because we lost a game today,” Bosh said.

This isn’t just one game.

New Orleans.

Utah.

Boston, twice.

This is a pattern.

Bosh clearly isn’t happy here. It remains to be seen if LeBron is — so far this is Dwyane Wade’s team and kings often have trouble abdicating power. Spoelstra has a legend watching his every move from a few rows in, night after night.

This perfect union Miami celebrated — and much of America believed in and loathed — isn’t looking so perfect.

It’s looking shaky.

“Probably us coming out of training camp, you’re still on the honeymoon, you think it’s going to be a real smooth ride,” Spoelstra said. “But you need to face adversity, you need to stumble, you need to feel this pain, to be able to respond and actually grow.”

Married men of the world know what I’m saying here: It’s not a good sign for the marriage if life just after the honeymoon means facing adversity, stumbling, feeling pain and trying to reason with yourself that all you need to do is respond to it and grow.

“I’ll tell you this,” Spoelstra went on. “In the last 48 hours, we’re getting to know each other. This is good. This is what makes you stronger as a team, particularly when you need to be in the spring time.”

Ah, hmmm. Not so sure on that one either.

Still getting to know each other?

This sounds like a Vegas marriage spurred on by too much booze and a helluva night at the craps table, where the chips are rolling and it seems the good times will never end.

Bosh, Wade and LeBron got drunk on the hype and the hope of playing together. In NBA terms, they signed up for a lifetime together. The engagement felt joyous — a TV show (first warning! Eject!), a roaring city, talk of dynasties and multiple rings, the high life.

Then, dawn broke. Now, they’re finding out that in the harsh light of real life a party and a marriage — a dizzyingly exciting plan vs. its actual execution — are vastly different things.

“I think it’s reality now,” LeBron said. “Initially, when the team is assembled, you’re excited and you know how good you can be. These tests right here show us how far we got to go.”

This surging judgment of the Heat after nine games may not feel entirely fair, a sentiment the coach and many of the players are quick to express.

They do this in eloquent, sensible terms.

Too bad.

These guys signed on for this thing, they played the hype for all it was worth, they pulled off the greatest free-agent coup in sports. They — before us — talked about winning many NBA championships.

And they may still pull it all off.

Until they do, the scrutiny will and should continue.

There’s an argument in the halls of American Airlines Arena that all that matters for the Heat is that they make the playoffs. Only then, goes this line of thinking, will the real test begin. Everything before that is not a sign of real problems.

Wrong.

Bonding, figuring out how to play together, balancing egos, Bosh fitting in, letting a young coach take control of a star unaccustomed to that — and so much more — all start now.

The early stages matter.

I know a guy who had a shotgun-style wedding. Brief honeymoon. Long, long hangover. And he’s still married, happy, with kids and a nice life.

Can it work that way?

Sure it can. Sometimes.

Some marriages work. Some don’t. Certainly it rarely helps if they’re saddled down by huge stress, searing scrutiny and partners who find out they don’t really know each other very well.

“Of course you don’t think you’d be 5-4 at this time, no question about it,” Wade said. “But we are 5-4. You can’t run from your record. We’re the best 5-4 team in the league, how about that. But we have a lot of work to do.”

No, they can’t run. And yes, there is a lot of work to do.

Do it, and everyone’s a hero. Fail, and it could get ugly.

The future is unwritten. For the Heat, it could include a new coach or the same coach; a Bosh breakup or not; a coming together and a flurry of wins and rings or more turmoil and the dawning reality this is not what they signed up for.

The Celtics have shown how to make a marriage like this work, and their strength in that department exposed Miami’s lingering issues.

The Heat, struggling out of the gate with signs of stress everywhere, might want to think about that in the week ahead.

You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter.