ATLANTA — It's been tough for any squad to set itself apart from the pack in this compressed, uneven season. Win-loss records don't really mean anything, even if they do. Three losses separate Indiana and Chicago, but those teams, realistically, have totally different end-of-season hopes. It seems like every team out West — save Oklahoma City — has the same record. At the top of the NBA is one huge pack of teams, few, if any, conspicuously superior than their peers.
But when Miami plays like it did in its 107-87 road win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, it's tough not to believe that the Heat's ceiling is significantly higher than the competition.
The Heat won by 20, but, for most of the third quarter — before LeBron James and Dwyane Wade called it quits for the night — the margin ranged from the mid-20s to low-30s. They were in attack mode the whole game, playing with manic aggression until coach Erik Spoelstra called off the dogs.
Good luck getting anyone on the Heat squad to admit that, yeah, when they play with that kind of vitality — or, as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski likes to call it, "verve" — they can't be beat.
"Yeah, I think it's, uh, yeah, it's way too early for that," a careful Spoelstra said. "Our confidence is certainly high."
Yeah. Whatever, Coach.
"No. You never have those thoughts," Shane Battier said, only to somewhat relent and add, "Well, we know when we put it altogether, we're a handful."
You never have those thoughts, Shane? If you say so.
James chimed in.
"Any team can be beat," he said, as if that's what was really in question. "When we play our best basketball, we can beat anybody. But no team is going to be able to play an A-plus game every night."
The point is that, when Miami does play its A-plus game, no other team's A-plus game can compare. In fact, A-plus Miami can make some playoff teams look like community college intramural squads.
James and Wade agreed that Sunday's win was an A-plus effort. The evidence is on tape. Miami basically stalked into the Hawks' house, tracked mud on the carpet, kicked their Nikes up on Atlanta's coffee table, took over the remote control, raided the fridge and pretty much did whatever they wanted to do.
"We came in here and took care of business, like we wanted to," Wade said.
Spoelstra kept referring to Miami's "identity." When asked to elaborate on the Miami "identity," Heat players described their attacking mentality.
"We pride ourselves on being a defensive team first," Battier said. "With that said, with this personnel we want to be a disruptive defensive force. We want to get out on the break, score a lot of paint points. We want to live at the line."
They did all of that. After three quarters, Miami had made more free throws (26) than Atlanta field goals (25), had outrebounded the Hawks 43-24 and had 21 fast-break points. All that because they were in what Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch coined as "beast mode."
Atlanta had no answer. The Hawks were down just 19-18 with about four minutes left in the first quarter when the Heat bridged the end of the quarter and start of the second with 15 unanswered points. And, although NBA basketball is known to be "a game of runs," in this game, Miami just kept running away. The Heat kept grabbing all the rebounds, throwing no-look passes, scoring second-chance points — even the missed dunks seemed to demoralize a Hawks squad that has the tendency to sulk.
You don't see any rousing team huddles. No "Wait a minute, we can't let this happen!" bravado. Instead, Atlanta often turns insular and broods. Joe Johnson's shoulders slump. Josh Smith goes to sit at the end of the bench. That was all on display for the home crowd in what could have been a statement game for Atlanta.
"Physically they got up in us, they knocked us off our cuts and we did not respond. You could read our body language," Hawks coach Larry Drew said. "When they did make that run, our body language was not very good. We have to get better at that. There's too much basketball to be played to hang your head like that."
Miami, more than any other squad, has that capacity to sap a team's will — even really good teams like Atlanta.
When Spoelstra was asked about bottling this type of Miami effort, he naturally said that's an elusive task.
"That's sometimes half the battle," he said, "to play to exactly who you are."
Later, when Battier attempted to articulate exactly who the Heat are, he said when they don't play to their identity, "we're beatable." Aha! So, does he mean that when Miami does play to its identity that it's unbeatable? Probably not. But he wouldn't be all that wrong, if he did.
