Some Heat Fans Preparing For Failure
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami Heat fans are preparing for the worst as the team heads back to Boston to try and stave off elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Miami fans have been planning for the doom and gloom that will come if the Heat loses Game 6 since the final buzzer of Game 5. The Heat were outplayed, outhustled, outsmarted, and outcoached in Game 5 and fans are more than ready to start assigning blame.
The blame game has targeted everyone on the Heat not named LeBron James, who has played at an MVP level throughout the season. One caller to the Dan Sileo Show on WQAM targeted Chris Bosh who played his first game of the series on Tuesday.
"Shame on Bosh a little bit for not stepping up to Spoelstra or to LeBron and Dwyane and saying 'Hey man I can play. Let me in, let me do it,'" the caller named Joe told the show. "Maybe there's something that went on that we don't know about."
While Heat president Pat Riley has been insulated from many complaints from fans for the sheer genius of putting together the Big Three; after Game 5's loss, the gloves have started to come off.
"The reality of it is, you can bash everyone you want on the team, but everything starts at the top," Joe told WQAM. "Pat Riley has kind of put Spoelstra in a position to almost set himself up for failure."
Sileo agreed with the caller saying Spoelstra is the most unaccomplished guy of the whole group of the Heat.
Another caller questioned whether the Heat had the same pride that Celtics star Kevin Garnett had when he said he felt challenged when he was being perceived as too old to make a difference in the series.
"When I see a guy like Kevin Garnett, who is in this league for 16 or 17 years, I don't personally like him," caller Steve said. "But when he gets on TV and says you basically challenged me that I'm an old man, that I'm no good, I'm done. These guys have pride. And these guys [Heat] came down here last year and said we're going to win 5, 6, 7 championships, other players take exception to it."
Steve continued, "Now we're going to see what the Heat are made of. If they go out tomorrow night [Thursday] and play their damn best game and lose, I'm okay. But if I see that crap I saw last night [Game 5], lollygagging, not playing defense and looking for the sunshine; I'm done because it's very, very disappointing and you're going to need to blow it up."
So what do the Heat face in Game 6? Very long odds.
The Heat have lost 15 of their last 16 games against the Celtics in Boston. Throughout NBA history, teams that have taken a 3-2 lead have gone on to win the series 86 percent of the time. Plus, teams are 7-0 this postseason when they have a 3-2 series lead.
Needless to say, if history repeats itself and the Heat can't get it together to win Game 6 and 7, there will likely be some changes to an organization that just needs a closer to step up and put games away.
