MIAMI -- It's time for another Miami Heat players-only meeting. Right now. Without a moment's hesitation.
Raise your voices. Speak with candor. Let it out. But damn, guys, get it done today.
Because whatever magic materialized during the Nov. 27 meeting borne out of the Heat's embarrassing loss to the Dallas Mavericks that night might be the best shot Miami has to avoid March turning out a lot like November.
A time of disunity. A time of regression. A time of big losses and bigger doubts.
"We will have our breakthrough," head coach Erik Spoelstra said after the new-look Knicks marched into town and stole a 91-86 win. "And as painful as this is right now, there will be a time that we break through and are able to execute and win a game like this against a quality opponent going down the stretch."
Sure Erik, but when? Next week? The week after that? Some time during the 2011-2012 season?
This Miami Heat team wasn't supposed to be floundering against good teams 60 games into the most hyped season in any sport in years. The Heat weren't supposed to fold like youngsters against good teams. They weren't supposed to sit and look dumbfounded, time after time, after playing quality opponents.
But that's just what's happened to the Big Three and their still reeling team.
Like November, the Heat still have an awful point guard unable to do his job, take pressure off Dwyane Wade and LeBron James and D-up against the opposition (Mario Chalmers has replaced Carlos Arroyo here).
Chris Bosh still wilts when it matters (see him kindly passing the ball to Chauncey Billups for a late fourth-quarter assist that allowed the Knicks to win). LeBron James still isn't hitting the big shots that decide games and, just as problematic, Dwyane Wade still isn't taking them.
This team still looks shell shocked and doubtful much, much too often.
This team still seems to doubt its chance at absolute greatness because it still can't grasp why this is happening.
"I've got no theory (on it)," Wade said. "If we did, we wouldn't be losing them. It's something we've got to figure out."
Yes, but unlike November, the Heat's next 10 game don't feature six easy targets.
They feature 10 straight games against opponents that likely are playoff bound -- teams like the Lakers, Spurs, Thunder, Bulls and Hawks.
Do not underestimate how much this NBA version of March Madness matters to Miami. It will do more than just tell us how far the Heat have come since November and how well they've taken advantage of their time together. It's going to tell them, too.
"What you hope is the pain of a game like this resonates enough to make a change," Spoelstra said.
Hope, Erik, pain is enough to get those players alone in a room -- and are able to recreate whatever happened during their last players-only meeting.
Because anything short of that hasn't worked.
The loss to Boston before the All-Star Game. The losses to Chicago, Denver, Atlanta and New York last month. The loss to Chicago earlier this week, a game in which the Big Three were all healthy.
They all point to the fact pain alone hasn't done it.
What the Heat need is enough pain to trigger another come-to-Jesus moment.
Because Sunday's game against the re-tooled New York Knicks -- the same team that lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night after swapping out several starters for Billups and Carmelo Anthony -- was the Heat's warm-up for a stretch that will be much more difficult.
For the Heat, March will be a time to prepare themselves for the postseason. A time to hone their skills and build self-confidence. A time to show, finally, that they're formidable against teams that aren't hapless.
Or that they're not.
The NBA regular season is an 82-game opportunity to tune up for a playoff run. If Sunday is any guide, the Heat remain as rusty and ill-equipped against elite teams as they have been at their most vulnerable: Both that November stretch and, proceeding it, games against elite teams like Boston, Chicago and Dallas.
The Heat and the Big Three weren't built to be kind-of good, or to be extraordinary next season (which they will be), or to do OK in the playoffs.
They were built for supreme excellence, right now, today.
Yet here we are at the dawn of March, and a very good point guard still flusters the Heat to the point of defeat. LeBron still can't hit the big shot and looks like a man doubting his choice. Wade still seems, when it matters, to be an incredibly able part that doesn't quite fit when the game is on the line. Bosh remains unreliable in the big moments. Spoelstra is still talking about needing time, still saying that the breakthrough is coming.
Make no mistake, Sunday was an embarrassment for Miami, and everyone, from LeBron on down, felt it keenly. The New York Knicks marched in, played poorly, and stole a game that both teams were hungry to win. Melo brazenly volunteered to guard LeBron and, having done so, more than got the job done.
"It really felt like a playoff game, like my old Detroit vs. Miami days, coming down here in May trying to advance to the Finals," Billups said. "It really was high intensity out there."
Of course it was. That's the very time the Heat find their superpowers blunted and their rivals most often the victors.
The Heat are great at closing out against teams like Toronto, Washington, Indiana and Charlotte. Just not against teams that really test their resolve and greatness.
"I don't think we played badly," Bosh said afterward, as if, somehow, that was enough. "We controlled the whole game. It was closing out the last few minutes of both halves. We were talking about it in the locker room. We didn't even score in the last couple of minutes. That can't happen against a good offensive team like that."
So it was after Boston. And Chicago. And Boston again. And then Chicago again.
Heat players need to stop listening to their apologists and enablers and start getting real with each other.
Bosh is a good guy, and a fine player, and not great in crunch time, and often too honest. So it was in every respect Sunday night.
Someone asked him about how this loss reflects on the Heat's next 10 games -- that stretch of tough and critical games mentioned earlier.
"I guess I'm optimistic, if you will," he said, "It doesn't make it tougher — (we) move on. We have too many games and it's getting too close to the end of the season to worry about stuff."
With respect: Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It's too close to the end of the regular season not to worry about this stuff.
Worry is good. Worry motivates. Worry clears out the clutter and sharpens focus. Worry is what turned a debacle in Dallas at the end of November into a players only meeting that turned around the season.
Worry, with this March before them, is exactly what the Heat need once again.
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