ESPN NBA

TORONTO -- Erik Spoelstra might have achieved a season high Friday night ... in cursing.

The Heat’s coach stomped up and down the Air Canada Centre sideline, frequently seeming infuriated by his team’s play. The hips of his finely tailored suit took some undue wear as he repeatedly jammed his hands there in concert with his head snapping back and his eyes rolling upward. He called angry timeouts, huffing out on the court with his arms raised above his head so he could bark at assistants, which was probably more prudent than immediately going into the huddle while still so raw.

This is where it should be mentioned that the Heat won, 113-101. In fact, they had their best offensive game in weeks, which, considering the circumstance that they arrived at their hotel at 4:30 a.m., was not totally expected.

So this is where the Heat find themselves as they enter the last month of the regular season. They are clearly not playing to the standard Spoelstra wants or, perhaps, to the level their overall talent suggests they should. They have the third-best record in the league which is very good but not great.

But with little legit motivation in the standings -- barring a significant change of events, the Heat appear to be a lock for the No. 2 seed in the East -- and so much season left to go, the Heat are cruising a bit right now. Their coach is accepting it through gritted teeth.

“I’m encouraged by our no-excuses attitude,” Spoelstra said. “We had to stay the course.”

Thank goodness for that 20-minute postgame cooling-off period. In addition to studying the advanced stats his assistants provided him, in that time the coach also realized that getting a road win in a challenging Miami-to-Toronto back-to-back is going to have to suffice for now.

Even if the Heat did give up 54 percent shooting to a Raptors team that used three players who have spent time in the D-League this season.

Miami basically got away with playing 12 good minutes, but they were the last 12. The Heat won the fourth quarter 30-18 to break a tie and move on to Boston for a Sunday afternoon game that should get their attention a little bit more.

LeBron James had 26 points and nine assists and, by going 11-of-18, had his best shooting game in three weeks. Dwyane Wade had 30 points, 11 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Chris Bosh had 30, too, the Heat spending the final minute trying to get him the last bucket to hit that threshold in front of his old fans who only went through the motions in booing him.

“At the end of the day, it is about just winning,” James said with a shrug. “You want to play to your abilities, but the win/loss column doesn’t lie.”

If Spoelstra could speak freely, he’d probably say that that is not a championship mentality. One of his go-to themes has been to “build good habits.” This is a standard coaching principle for a reason: It’s proven to be rewarding over the long haul. It could be said that the 1995-96 Bulls, for example, would not settle for simply playing one good quarter against a 17-35 team like the Raptors.

But there’s a difference between legend and reality, of course. The Heat are not playing like a title team right now; their 4-6 road record since the All-Star break speaks to that. But they also don’t have to play like a title team in a prototypical trap game in the last week of March.

They will be judged on the end result, not how they get there. Right now the journey is not following the script that the coach wants, the style the Heat were showing off a month ago. But as much as the coach curses and prods, it seems like this team is going to ease its way to the defining moments of the season.

Perhaps saving energy for the playoff grind is smart. Perhaps the Heat are showing cracks in focus that will eventually doom them. No matter what anyone thinks, the correct answer has not yet presented itself.

Check back in a few months to see how it worked out.

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat visit the Raptors (17-34).

1. Fact or Fiction: Last night's win was the Heat's biggest since All-Star break.

Tom Haberstroh: Fact. As far as March games go, they needed that one. Considering the emotional baggage that comes along with playing the Dallas Mavericks in Miami and how ugly the Heat's play has been as of late, there's really no other game I could point to recently that trumps Thursday's. One of the five-best wins of the season for them.

Michael Wallace: Fact. Considering what had happened the previous two games, and the general reaction had they lost a third in a row, the Heat got an important win. A big win. It also helped that they won with huge contributions from just about all who had been struggling.

Brian Windhorst: Fact. Not just because it was the Mavs. More so it was a response to the challenge to re-focus after that poor road trip. I'd still like to see them win a few important road games. But it was the best all-around performance they've had in weeks.

---

2. Fact or Fiction: Your best guess is that LeBron is above 75 percent healthy.

Haberstroh: Fiction. As preposterous as it is to use this as a measuring stick, I can't remember the last time I saw LeBron smile on the basketball court or elsewhere. The happy-go-lucky dude that he promised before the season has suddenly turned into Kendrick Perkins on a rainy day. He's literally bent out of shape, physically and emotionally it seems on the court. I say he's closer to 60 percent.

Wallace: Fiction. It's impossible to know anything for certain with regards to a player's true health status. But LeBron had to compensate for a lot just to get through Thursday's game. What I do know is the man has as high a threshold or tolerance for pain as just about any player I've seen in the league.

Windhorst: Fact. He's got some little issues and by not detailing them publicly he leaves room for speculation. But watching him move around and shoot, he doesn't seem to be bothered. I still contend that head injury was more than he or the team let on but that's just more of that speculation.

---

3. Fact or Fiction: This is a legitimate trap game for the Heat.

Haberstroh: Fact. Not only that, it's a big ol' bear trap game. Defensive guru Dwane Casey's going to have all sorts of tricks up his sleeve, especially knowing that LeBron is hobbled. The Heat will say that they're not looking ahead to Boston on Sunday, but that doesn't mean they're being honest.

Wallace: Fact. By definition? Yes, it's a trap game. This stop in Toronto is nestled between Thursday's win against the defending champs and a game at a Boston team that recently was the Heat's biggest villain. For Miami to take such a step back after such a promising step forward would be every bit of a disappointing stumble.

Windhorst: Fact. It's not even a trap game, it's a clear situation where the Heat are at a disadvantage. I just traveled from Miami to Toronto on a couple hours sleep and I'm really feeling it. But it's nice to have three All-Stars and that should be quite an equalizer.

MIAMI -- Only LeBron James knows how much his elbow has been hurting, how the non-concussion hit he suffered last week bothered him or just what is wrong with his finger that may or may not have been dislocated depending on whom you ask.

What had been obvious was that James was in a slump, a five-game drop in production that coincided with the Heat’s overall standard of play sinking. The numbers were evidence enough but the eye test said plenty, James wasn’t looking like himself or playing like himself.

It was easily the most prolonged regular-season slump -- last year’s Finals are in a category of their own -- he’d had in a Heat uniform. Depending on your opinion, it was perhaps is biggest lull in the regular-season play since a few dry spells in the midst of the 2006-07 season.

In short, James has been in need of a breakout. The fact that Thursday’s chance was against the team that had crushed him in those Finals last year was almost irrelevant.

“I definitely put a lot of emphasis on this game,” James said. “I wanted to be well-balanced.”

His performance in the Heat’s 106-85 victory over the Mavericks was not dominant; actually, by his standards it was probably less than average. His 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists don’t even qualify as one of his best two dozen games this year.

But it was the first time in two weeks that James looked like the Most Valuable Player candidate he is. He was able to create offense for himself and others, make some key individual defensive plays that led to fast-break chances and get out and run to create the easy baskets that had disappeared from the Heat’s offense of late.

“He made so many winning plays out there,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I don’t think the box score tells the story of the impact he had on the game. He made winning plays when the game was in the balance, it could’ve gone either way.”

It is not normal that Spoelstra would have to qualify praise of James by saying he was “better than the box score,” because usually James’ numbers speak for themselves. But this performance did pass that hard-to-quantify eye test. He made a handful of plays in the second half -- two steals that led to dunks and two perfect assists that led to layups -- that came at times when the Heat needed them.

James also made half of his 16 shots, the first time in six games he’d done that.

“I didn’t get caught up in [being in a slump] too much; I’d missed a lot of shots I knew I should be making,” James said. “I was able to get three straight buckets to start the game and that got me going the right direction.”

James said he didn’t spend extra time looking at film or accept over-the-top encouragement from teammates and friends, the standard slump cures. It has been hard to assess just how much of what was happening was attributable to fatigue or those nagging injuries or just the fickle turn of luck.

For a much as James is known to embellish a hard landing or wayward elbow by slowly getting up during games, he’s often quite vague about how injuries affect him. He’s been that way over the past two weeks, not giving straight answers when given the chance to blame his downturn in play on the various things he’s dealing with. It seemed that not even his coach was on the same page with him this week regarding his finger.

He only begrudgingly admitted he was in a slump when the data became overwhelming. Is he out now? He’s not really into talking about that one, either.

“There’s not one person who is 100 percent this season,” James said. “I’ve got ailments and things like that, but when I put that jersey on my back I have to go out and help my team win.”

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat host the Mavericks (29-22).

1. Fact or Fiction: LeBron James should play Thursday vs. Mavericks.

Tom Haberstroh: Fiction. We know LeBron is tough. He just played through a dislocated finger on Monday and played pretty well in fact. He has absorbed a blow to his dome against Phoenix that would probably knock me out for months and that was after re-aggravating his right elbow injury. He's playing through it all, but for what? The Heat have a 4.5 game cushion on the Magic for the second seed. This seems incredibly short-sighted to me.

Michael Wallace: Fact. Although I'd rest LeBron the next two games - at Toronto and Boston - over the weekend. If I'm going to give him a few games off to rest/recover from nagging bumps and bruises, I'd do it on the road, if possible, instead of shorting the home fans.

Brian Windhorst: Fact. How bad LeBron is hurt depends on who you ask. Was the finger dislocated or not? Is he wearing a splint or not? He and Erik Spoelstra don't seem to be on the same page. He's a little banged up right now but not to the point where he shouldn't be playing. He agrees with this, too.

---

2. Fact or Fiction: The Heat should sign a veteran point guard.

Haberstroh: Fiction. As bad as Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole has been recently (and they've been really bad), it's still better than what they'd get out of Anthony Carter. If they want Carter's leadership, fine; bring him on as a coach.

Wallace: Fiction. The Heat should give Mario Chalmers a chance to work his way out of the doldrums. He certainly built up enough stock over the first half of the season to earn a bit more patience. Besides, LeBron and Dwyane do enough ball-handling down the stretch to bridge any gaps at the position.

Windhorst: Fiction. What veteran point guard? With all due respect to the likes of Anthony Carter, it's not like there's a Jason Kidd-type player sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. It is not a bad idea for any team to have a third point guard as an insurance policy. But that is all such a player would be for the Heat right now. Chalmers is mired in a slump and Cole is scraping along rock bottom and that's an issue. But the Heat's best chance is for those guys to pick up their game. They've done it before, it is within them. In the NBA, there is always time. These two have the time to recover.

---

3. Fact or Fiction: Joel Anthony should be Dirk's primary defender.

Haberstroh: Fiction. As much as I enjoy watching Joel Anthony's spider-like defense on Dirk, I still think that Chris Bosh should be the guy to guard him one-on-one. But to steal a Spo-ism, guarding Dirk is never a one-on-one affair. Keeping Anthony as a help defender maximizes the Heat's tools

Wallace: Fiction. It's a known fact that no one actually stops Dirk when he's on his game. But Udonis Haslem has defended him as tough as anyone over the years. Bosh should also step up defensively. I don't favor putting Joel on him because it takes Miami's top shot-blocker away from the paint.

Windhorst: Fiction. The Heat will change up the look they give to Dirk throughout the game, this is something that is standard in the game plan against a star. In the past, both Udonis Haslem and LeBron have guarded him and done a decent job. Anthony, because of his long arms, makes sense but he's also most effective as a help defender who protects the rim. You can't be much of a help defender when you're on Dirk. The guy is a Hall of Famer and he's a 7-footer to can make fade away jumpers from 18-20 feet. There's no foolproof way to handle him.

MIAMI -- Erik Spoelstra loves to work with his point guards.

One of the mainstays at Heat practice last season was Erik Spoelstra working with Mario Chalmers on his 3-point shot. Spoelstra, who used to play college ball at University of Portland, would toss Chalmers the ball and then close out on him as the defender, replicating an in-game environment. Spoelstra wouldn't stop there. Sometimes you'd catch Spoelstra purposely nudging Chalmers as the point guard took the shot in effort to teach him how to absorb contact and remained balanced. Other times, you saw Spoelstra take a giant cushion, not unlike you see used by coaches on the football field, and push Chalmers as he fired off a shot.

This season, though, you don't see it very often. Not because Spoelstra doesn't want to, but because there just haven't been very many practices. But with Chalmers shooting a paltry 30 percent from downtown in March, Spoelstra got back out there after Wednesday's practice for some shooting drills with Chalmers.

But there was a new face this time: Norris Cole. The rookie has hit a bit of a wall this season and Spoelstra knows the youngster needs to put in some extra time. So after working with Chalmers, Spoelstra went over to Cole and worked with his jump shot on the other side of the court. The drill had Cole shooting jumpers, just like he did with Chalmers.

Then suddenly Spoelstra decided to personally guard Cole. Not only that, the 41-year-old coach held up pretty good. Here's a little clip from the action where Spoelstra looks like he got a piece of Cole's jump shot.

I don't know, did he foul him?

Remember the "pace and space" offense? That was what Erik Spoelstra called the Heat's new offensive philosophy. Run the floor, space the floor and attack relentlessly. For the first couple weeks of the season, the Heat did just that. In the season premiere on Christmas, they pummeled the Dallas Mavericks with 31 fastbreak points and turned the defending champs into petrified wood. Over the first ten games of the season, the Heat averaged 21.6 points per game on fastbreaks. The Heat were fulfilling their vision as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead a stampede through the league.

And then it all came to a halt. First impressions are hard to break, so it's easy to overlook how the Heat have slowly transformed from a hare to a turtle. And in the process, the Heat's offense has experienced their ups and downs. In February, the Heat's offense was thriving, but it wasn't because of their open court assault. Their fastbreak points per game fell to 15.6 in the month of February and they no longer were among the league leaders in the category.

But after a dominant February, the Heat's offense has come back to Earth and the fastbreaks are few and far between. The deceleration was underscored in Monday's loss to the Indiana Pacers when the Heat scored just four points in the open court. In the meantime, the high-powered offense has been in a freefall since they lost to the Lakers on March 4 and the "pace and space" offense is nothing but a memory.

Below is a chart of the Heat's offensive efficiency across the season, shown as a 10-game trailing average. It answers the question: "How well have the Heat scored over the past 10 games?" We look at offensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions) because it strips the inflationary effect of pace (a super fast team's points per game numbers overstate its effectiveness.)

The Heat's offense peaked at the Utah Jazz game and then it's all downhill from there.



Pay close attention to the color of the line. We've added another layer to the graph to illustrate the disappearance of fastbreak points. The stronger the red, the greater the percentage of Heat points generated from fastbreaks. Notice how it's blood red for the first 10 or 15 games of the season and then -- poof -- the Heat abandoned their fastbreak game.

Why did the Heat stop running? Dwyane Wade got hurt. After that, the Heat were forced to switch up their attack, hit the brakes and insert a 3-point shooter in the lineup. The fast break points dwindled in his absence, but it never really returned.

What do we have to blame for that? The Heat's "pace and space" offense was met with skepticism around the league for two reasons: a) history tells us that teams who vow to run fast in the preseason rarely actually do; b) the condensed season is exponentially taxing on the players. Sure, the Heat might have been the most athletic and conditioned team heading into the season, but even for them, sprinting through a marathon season was a tall task especially when the organization has rarely, if ever played up-tempo.

Another thing is going on here that isn't captured in the graph above, but is equally important. The shooting has been terrible. Over the past few weeks, the Heat couldn't hit water if they threw a rock in Biscayne Bay. Since the All-Star break, 3-point shootout contestant Mario Chalmers is converting 34 percent of his shots from the floor and 30 percent from downtown. Norris Cole? He's shooting an abysmal 27 percent from the floor. Even LeBron has watched his field goal percentage drop from 55 percent to 50 percent pre- and post-All-Star break, respectively. Wade and Bosh have watched their shooting rates sink as well.

So not only have the Heat stopped running, but they've stopped splashing the ball through the net. Are the two interrelated? It's hard to say. If this is a team that is fatigued from sprinting out of the gate, they're showing it in the numbers. The Heat's offense has been in decline over the past month and they'll need to bounce back in a big way against the Dallas Mavericks, a tough defensive-minded team, on Thursday.

Since storming into the All-Star break last month with the league's best record, the Heat have gone just 8-6 and have split their past eight games. With 18 remaining, there's still plenty of time for Miami to catch Chicago for the top seed in the East, re-establish the rhythm the Heat played with last month, and enter the postseason in beast mode.

But LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and crew must first blast some bad habits, and their teammates need to buck some disturbing trends to get back on their feet. Without further ado, let's break down '10 Burning Issues' facing the Heat.

1. Quack Attack Gone Whack
Perhaps it's time for Erik Spoelstra to again reach out to Oregon football coach Chip Kelly. That “pace and space” offense the Heat entered the season committed to playing is now more like “stand and stare.” They haven't cracked the 100-point mark in a victory since March 6. Meanwhile, opponents have caught up in recent weeks. Miami has surrendered 100 points five times the past 16 games compared with just twice in the previous 20. The Heat committed 55 turnovers the past three games and haven't shot 50 percent from the field since a March 6 win against the New Jersey Nets. It's a team in desperate need of a jumpstart.

2. LeBron's Familiar Woes, Elbows and Lows
Granted, LeBron is making a lot of the so-called “right” basketball plays. He just needs to stop trying to make so many of them to Joel Anthony on the receiving end. For several games now, LeBron has gone out of his way to pass the ball in the fourth quarter. I'm not faulting his overall decision-making or facilitating. And his recent elbow soreness stemming from those hard falls against Phoenix last week is affecting his approach, at least in part. But in Miami's last five losses, LeBron has shot just 33 percent from the field in the fourth quarter. That's the same percentage he also shot in the final period of the Heat's last five victories. That comes in the midst of a season in which he's shooting a career-best 53.4 percent overall. In six of those 10 games, he's attempted three or fewer shots in the fourth. If he's hurting, he needs to sit a few games and get healthy for the moments when these games really count.

3. Time To Panic at Point Guard?
It truly is ironic how just when the Heat make a move to address issues up front, the point guard play springs a leak. Someone needs to check Mario Chalmers' ID. This isn't the Chalmers who tried to play his way into the discussion for the league's Most Improved Player award. The same Chalmers who torched the NBA before he got that invite to the 3-point contest at All-Star weekend is now shooting just 34.3 percent from the field in March. His defense has also reverted to being as inconsistent as his shooting stroke. Rookie backup Norris Cole needs Boston to hurry up and come back around on the schedule. He spoiled everyone with that 20-point game in the home opener against the Celtics, and we haven't seen that kind of breakout play since December. Cole has had his moments this season. But as the team's pace has slowed down, so has his impact on that second unit.

4. Overdue For a Bosh Breakthrough
Off the court, it's a beautiful time for Bosh and his new bride as they await the arrival of their newborn. But on the court, it seems as if Bosh has been on paternity leave. In just the past two games, the defensive lapses and blown coverages have been abysmal. He can search all he wants for ways to be a bigger part of the offense. But until Bosh finds a bit more toughness in the post on defense, this is a problem that will only get worse as the games become more meaningful into the playoffs. Even with the starpower of LeBron and Wade, the Heat aren't a championship team unless Bosh plays to his potential. There's no other way to put it. Bosh's rebounding has been sporadic all season, but it was downgraded to atrocious in losses to the Thunder and Pacers. He had seven boards in 72 minutes against the kind of length he's certain to face in the playoffs. And that's without getting into his nine turnovers in those same two games.

5. Wade Waging Silent Protest?
Something – or someone – is ticking off Dwyane Wade these days. His body language is speaking volumes. He tried to channel that frustration back at Kendrick Perkins, but Perkins didn't return Wade's stare in Oklahoma City after that foot-to-the-face incident. And this recent 3-point barrage Wade is on represents so-called “hero ball” at its most extreme. Wade only attempted 32 threes in his first 37 games this season. He's jacked up 12 the past two – and that's including a fourth quarter in OKC when he didn't attempt any shots and declined to talk about the offense afterward. There very well could be a slight disconnect right now between Wade and LeBron or Wade and Spoelstra – or Wade and both. Those things happen over the course of a season. But how long will this linger?

6. No Sympathy From Schedule
The schedule won't offer the Heat much relief down the stretch. Seven of their next nine games are against teams with winning records, all gunning for playoff spots. It starts with Thursday's home game against Dallas in a rematch of last year's NBA Finals, and includes a visit to Boston and games against teams with the league's two best records: Oklahoma City and Chicago. If there's a silver lining amid that slate, it's that Miami plays seven of its next 10 at home, where the Heat are riding a league-best and franchise-record-threatening 14-game winning streak.

7. Will Spoelstra Adjust?

Should Spoelstra push his team harder through this current malaise, or pull back and preach patience and bigger-picture perspective? One thing's for certain: Spoelstra is as competitive and active on the bench as his players are out on the court. He gets caught up in the moment, and when his frustrations with defensive lapses overtake him, he storms onto the court and motions for timeouts much like a kid launching into a temper tantrum. Credit Spoelstra for keeping the Heat largely together and focused through distractions – even some that have been self-inflicted – that could have derailed many other squads through these two seasons. But now, his responsibility is to make some hard decisions with his rotation, prove he can adjust with in-game decisions and steer this team back towards the identity it established just before the All-Star break.

8. Still Waiting on Miller/Haslem
The hope was that this season would be the one when the Heat could flex their roster muscle with full contributions from Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem, who both missed majority of last season with injuries. Instead, Miller again has missed a chunk of games due to a hernia surgery that kept him out at the start of the year and a recent ankle sprain that has sidelined him since March 10. Haslem has been a shell of himself this season on offense. His lift and touch have largely failed him, although his rebounding and defense have been on par. Perhaps the combination of the surgeries and battling bigger players night in and night out are starting to take a toll. Both Miller and Haslem have three seasons remaining on their contracts, and unless these trends turn around, Pat Riley will be forced to reconsider their roles on this team moving forward.

9. Maximize Turiaf's Impact
Regardless of how the team might characterize it, the fact that journeyman Ronny Turiaf could come off the waiver wire - having played just four games this season due to injury – and roll right into a primary rotation spot is an indictment on Dexter Pittman and Eddy Curry. Pittman at least got an opportunity in games to show where he stands. Curry, for whatever reason, has remained a mystery. In either case, those projects have either garnered a 'F' grade for failing or a 'W' mark for being completely withdrawn from the Heat's course of action in the post. Turiaf's aggressive defense, hustle and ability to catch and finish on limited opportunities near the basket have been a boost. As a result, Spoelstra shouldn't hesitate to tweak his late-game rotations if Bosh or Haslem struggle for stretches moving forward.

10. Far Too Charitable
No team in the league strikes as much fear in opponents for the ability to turn defense into offense as quickly as the Heat. When LeBron and Wade are focused, with, Haslem, Shane Battier and Joel Anthony providing backup, the Heat can swarm foes into submission. In football, you counter that speed and over-pursuit with misdirection action. In basketball, you use the skip pass and work back-door angles to get the ball inside. The better teams in the league (Bulls, Lakers, Thunder, etc.) have exposed this weakness in the Heat. And it's come to light in a major way the past eight games, when Miami has been outrebounded by a total of 46 boards and has allowed teams to shoot 42.2 percent from 3-point range. It's been a disturbing case of too many open looks for opponents from deep, as well as far too many second-chance opportunities. Even the most lethal knockout brawlers are susceptible to a disciplined counter-puncher.

INDIANAPOLIS – If Erik Spoelstra slept at all Sunday night after his Miami Heat team got whipped by the Oklahoma City Thunder, it wasn’t restful.

When the Heat players trudged to their breakfast meeting Monday morning at their hotel most probably wanted some eggs, toast and a return trip to the sack. But Spoelstra had the video screen up and had an edit prepared. It wasn’t a short one.

The Heat players and coaches watched each of the 21 times they turned the ball over against the Thunder. And then probably a host of other lowlights from that uninspiring loss.

In a post All-Star break lull and in the midst of a terrible (by their standards) stretch of play on the road, the Heat recognized that they needed to get out of the malaise that’s been afflicting them recently. There needed to be more concentration and more energy, it was agreed. It was all there in the video to see.

Then the Heat went out and turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter against the Indiana Pacers. It generally got worse from there and when it was over the Pacers had put another beatdown on the Heat, 105-90.

So much for that.

The Pacers, who took great pride in the win after losing the last three meetings against the Heat this season, were just the latest team to look more engaged than the favorites. Miami is now 4-4 over its last eight games and 3-6 on road since coming back from the break.

“Every team goes through it at some point in the season,” said LeBron James, who had 24 points but had six turnovers and continued his shooting slump by making just nine of 21 shots. “It’s not like we’re the youngest team in the league. We didn’t have as much energy.”

As he has tried to fire up his team over the last few weeks, Spoelstra, who just hung his head several times during the game when seeing his players just get outhustled by Indiana, has repeatedly urged his players to “get back to our identity.”

The Heat’s identity, however, is playing very aggressive defense that gambles and creates turnovers and then runs them into fast breaks. In fact, the Heat often ran when they didn’t create turnovers or even get a defensive rebound -- they just ran off made baskets.

It’s the sort of stuff that takes boundless energy and, supposedly, they had the personnel to do it. They certainly don’t play like the Chicago Bulls, a team that just wears its opposition down with the bland stuff like rebounding and killing the 24-second clock.

The Heat are a team that wants to play fast and loose. They want to break teams’ spirits. Not just through a whole game but for games on end. For entire playoff series, for that matter. That’s how they have chosen to play this season with this collection of talent. This is not a team that “grinds the game,” to use a popular coaching phrase. A lot of the time, it has worked.

Yet as they sit three and a half games back of the Bulls and four games ahead of the Orlando Magic in the East standings while playing a road-heavy portion of the schedule, the Heat don’t seem to have a lot of motivation to keep that up right now.

It's apparent even when playing playoff-caliber opponents like the Thunder and Pacers. They’ve won 13 in a row at home, where energy historically comes easier at all levels of the game, but on the road they just aren’t showing a great deal of passion.

It shows in the careless turnovers: there were 17 more on Monday. It shows in the battles for loose balls; the Pacers crushed the Heat on the boards by a 49-33 count. It really shows in the fast break points. The Heat have gone from playing at high speed and leading the NBA in every offensive category to just doing it for 5-10 minutes a game to just arresting it altogether. Monday they had four fast-break points. A measly two hoops.

“We’re in a rut right now and we’ve just got to figure something out,” said Chris Bosh, who managed two rebounds in 36 minutes on the floor a night after he had just five in Oklahoma City. “We’re in a tough part of the schedule. Some games you’re going to be fatigued and we’ve hit a slump right now.”

It is a slump. Whether a not a team with three All-Stars and a reasonable list of role players can use this as a proper excuse is a matter of opinion. But watching the Heat move over the last few weeks, you don’t need to be a basketball expert to call that out.

“We hit a little pothole in the road here,” said Dwyane Wade, who had 24 points but missed nine of his 16 shots. “We’ll make adjustments before we get back out on the court.”

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat visit the Pacers (28-19).

1. Fact or Fiction: Dwyane Wade's shotless 4Q on Sunday is a concern.

Haberstroh: Fiction. That Wade didn't shoot from the floor or the charity stripe is probably not much more than a statistical oddity. But that little eye-brow raise will at least cause Erik Spoelstra and the Heat to prescribe a better late-game strategy than what we saw in Sunday's loss to Oklahoma City.


Wallace: Fiction. I know Dwyane didn't want to really address it after the loss to OKC, but he is not a player who is ever 'game-planned' out of the offense. I've seen him take over too many times in the fourth quarter with - or without - a directive from the Heat's bench or teammates. Give some credit to the Thunder. Let's get real. Wade has more control/influence over the offense than anyone in the Heat organization when the ball is in play.

Windhorst: Fiction. It was, as the stats guys like to say, an outlier. It's quite odd for Wade not to get involved. Perhaps even some of the fault is on Wade for not taking charge like he is known to do. Generally, the Heat have shared the ball. The Thunder completely took the Heat out of their game and this was another example.

---

2. Fact or Fiction: Miami's PG woes are more significant than Miller's injury.

Haberstroh: Fact. Didn't it look like the Heat were just standing around and waiting for something to happen down the stretch? Shane Battier's task on offense might be to wait in the corner and drill a 3-pointer, but they could use someone who could penetrate and be more dynamic after a pass. Mike Miller from a few years ago might have been able to fulfill that role, but at this point in Miller's career, that's a job better-suited for Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers. The Heat need Cole and Chalmers to provide some quick Pepcid "CC" relief.

Wallace: Fiction. I didn't attend Hollinger University or Haberstroh State, but I think the super stats experts would tell you that this is an extreme case of Mario Chalmers' shooting regressing to the mean, considering how scorching hot he was before the All-Star break. Norris Cole is a rookie playing like, well, a rookie. Miller's injury woes are no longer a concern. They're an epidemic.

Windhorst: Fact. Chalmers hasn't been able to hit a shot since the 3-point contest. His shooting numbers this month are alarming. Meanwhile, once the league's scouts got a look at Norris Cole and figured out how to play him -- back off and defend the drive -- he's really struggled. It has killed his confidence. It's OK, it happens to rookies. But coinciding with Chalmers' slump, it's a bigger issue.

---

3. Fact or Fiction: LeBron's recent struggles are nothing more than a slump.

Haberstroh: Fiction. I can understand playing through an elbow injury in the postseason, but LeBron should save the macho stuff for the playoffs when there's an offseason to recover. Between that and the concussion-like symptoms, it's looking more and more like resting LeBron after Phoenix was the smarter choice. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Wallace: Fiction. Obviously, there's an issue with LeBron's right elbow. He aggravated it again when he collided with Derek Fisher late in Sunday's game. But his relative slump actually started a game or two before he took that hard foul last week against Phoenix. So I'd say it's equal parts slump, slippage in his rhythm and mid-to-late season fatigue.

Windhorst: Fact, probably. I don't want to fit into a narrative here but it does feel like the elbow situation in Cleveland. His shot looks off. He sometimes grabs and grimaces at the elbow during the game. But he denies that it's an issue and isn't getting extra treatment for it. We all saw him land on it. It's his worst scoring stretch in about five years. LeBron says it's a slump, I guess it's a slump.

Dwyane Wade didn't want to comment about the offense after losing to Oklahoma City on Sunday.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Wade told reporters.

Why? It's hard to know precisely why Wade avoided elaborating further, but there's no question that this might have something to do with it:

For the first time in Wade's career, he didn't take a shot from the floor or a free throw in the fourth quarter (minimum five minutes of playing time).

No shots, no freebies from the charity stripe, not even a turnover. Wade didn't "use" a possession all quarter with a field goal attempt, free throw attempt or a turnover, something he hasn't done in the 496 fourth quarters that qualified. Wade normally uses 30.2 percent of the Heat's possessions -- or about one every three plays -- while on the floor in the fourth quarter this season, but his usage rate was a stunning 0.0 percent on Sunday.

How could that happen?

There were a variety of factors. For starters, Wade wasn't the primary ball-handler in the fourth quarter. LeBron James dribbled the ball up the floor as the Heat's point guard down the stretch, taking on the playmaker role when the Heat were down by double-digits. If Wade had taken over point guard duties, there's little doubt that he would have at least taken a shot or two as he surveyed the defense. Wade did dribble the ball up the floor on one occasion, but tossed it to James as soon as he crossed halfcourt and James hit a mid-range jumper.

Secondly, it's not as if the Heat deliberately stonewalled their superstar. Wade passed off plenty of opportunities to score, instead letting his teammates take the shot. On multiple occasions down the stretch, you could see Wade actively pointing toward Shane Battier on the wing, a signal for James or Chris Bosh to give Battier the ball for a 3-point attempt. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

That doesn't mean Wade didn't want the ball. Actually, on one particularly fastbreak opportunity, as our own Brian Windhorst noted, Wade ran past James Harden on the right wing and James failed to feed him the ball. Sure, James would have had to thread the needle to complete the pass, but that hasn't stopped James before. Wade was visibly frustrated that the play wasn't made.

Credit the Thunder defense for aggressively swarming James and Wade on the ball. On the occasions that Wade did try to initiate the offense, the Thunder used their length and activity to force a pass to a weaker scorer (this is what I call the Thunder's "Operation: Anyone But Wade Or LeBron" strategy). Also, the Thunder didn't turn the ball over very often, which is the best way to keep Wade at bay.

Furthermore, the X's-and-O's often called for Wade standing on the wing, watching James initiate pick-and-rolls on the other side of the floor. This was an issue in opening months of the Big Three era and it was striking to see the loitering and passivity come again on the national stage. Erik Spoelstra has made it a point to limit his play calls and emphasize improvisational and free-flowing basketball this season. This is the downside to that laissez-faire coaching philosophy.

To be sure, the Heat will review the game film and try to correct their late-game issues from Sunday. Getting one of the most unstoppable attackers fully invested and active in the offense shouldn't be a problem, but it was against the Thunder. One game isn't enough of a sample size to call it a trend so it's probably nothing more than a statistical anomaly.

But the good thing about a condensed season is that we don't have to wait that long to test that theory; the Heat play the Pacers in just a few hours.

OKLAHOMA CITY – When Ronny Turiaf became a free agent last week he received offers from more than 10 teams looking to sign him for the rest of the season.

He chose the Miami Heat, he said, because he saw he would have a role on a championship contender and because it was close to family in his home of Martinique. But the Heat apparently tossed in a sweeter to help get the deal deal.

According to a league source, the Heat gave Turiaf a player option for $1.2 million next season as part of the deal. The team already has nearly $80 million committed in salaries for next year. It is likely that Turiaf will opt to become a free agent but it was a way for the Heat to increase their bid.

This sort of bidding is not uncommon for free agents during buyout season. ESPN’s Marc Stein reported Sunday that the Oklahoma City Thunder gave Derek Fisher $2.3 million for the rest of the season after he became a free agent. Several teams, including the Heat, were interested in Fisher but the Thunder were able to outbid them all because they still had their mid-level exception to use.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Miami Heat are in making their only scheduled trip to play the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night. But it isn’t the only time the team has been in town this year.

Three weeks ago the Heat stopped at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers Airport so that their charter jet could re-fuel on a long trip from Miami to Portland for their first game after the All-Star break. That stop was just part of a routine travel day for the team but it apparently made quite an impact on some U.S. military members who ran into the team that day.

The Daily Oklahoman reported Sunday that LeBron James noticed that some of the servicemen, who were part of a large contingent that was at the airport to refuel a fleet of helicopters, had approached Heat security officials. James, the newspaper reported, recruited teammates to come and meet the soldiers and take a series of pictures with them.

“It’s ironic they would be at the airport the same we were there,” James said Sunday morning, at first unaware the story about the encounter had made it into the local paper. “I got the team together and we all took a picture with all of them. I had a great conversation with them.”

Before last season the Heat held training camp on an Air Force base in North Florida and then held a scrimmage for soldiers based there. They also honor active servicemen before each home game. This meeting was not scheduled and neither James or the Heat sought publicity for it.

“Go ahead and hate LeBron if you must,” Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson wrote. “I’m just not sure he seems like such a bad guy anymore.”

“These are guys who put themselves in danger everyday,” James said. “They do so many great things for all of us that the least we could do was take a picture with them.”

In another installment of the Heat Index's 3-on-3 series, our writers give their takes on the storylines before the Heat visit the Thunder (36-12).

1. Fact or Fiction: LeBron is still the favorite for MVP over Durant.

Haberstroh: Fact. LeBron has pretty much every on-court factor in his favor: he's easily the most productive player in the NBA, his team has a better record than Durant's and he kept the Heat in contention without Dwyane Wade for a stretch. Unfortunately for LeBron, the off-court stuff may matter more and Durant wins that battle in a landslide. Still, it seems the negative feelings toward LeBron have thawed to the point where awarding him an MVP won't be as distasteful as it was last season.


Wallace: Fact. He still has his team in the hunt for the league's best record. He's still on pace to finish with one of the best efficiency ratings in NBA history for a single season. He's still getting the job done on both ends of the court and should finish in the top three in voting for defensive player of the year. When it comes to the league's marquee regular-season accolade, how much more of a convincing argument does LeBron need to make? And this is coming from a guy who, at the start of the year, said the MVP was Kevin Durant's to lose.

Windhorst: Fact. Let's not deny that there's a political layer here. Fairly or not, James is now in the position where is season will not be judged on how he performs in the regular season and that could and probably will influence voters. This a result of the last several playoffs and a natural progression of his career. It's possible that voters will consider last year's Finals when making an MVP call this year. All that said, the MVP is technically a 2011-12 regular season award and under those guidelines it would seem James is the very deserving.

---

2. Fact or Fiction: OKC has a better chance at beating Miami than Chicago.

Haberstroh: Fiction. Until I see the Thunder's defense improve, I still have Chicago higher on the pecking order. My belief is that the Heat win it all this season, but Tom Thibodeau's squad will take them to brink of elimination. Can't say the same for the Thunder.

Wallace: Fact. OKC has more all-around skill, more scoring, more length on the perimeter to bother LeBron and Wade and also multiple players you can trust to knock down big shots in the fourth quarter. The Bulls certainly are a formidable foe, especially this season considering how they've developed with Derrick Rose out of the lineup. But the Thunder clearly are more capable of providing the Heat bigger matchup problems and potential headaches in a seven-game postseason series.

Windhorst: Fiction. I'm not sure we have enough data to answer that question. You can talk about matchups but these teams haven't played enough -- or at all -- in the regular season to really give an opinion.

---

3. Fact or Fiction: If starting a franchise, you'd prefer Miami's duo than OKC's.

Haberstroh: Fact. There's just too much all-around talent between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Any GM would cut off a limb to have a shot at these two pairs, but LeBron and Wade are just that good on both ends of the floor. The Oklahoma City duo has the youth, but Miami's has the complete package.

Wallace: Fact. While there's plenty to be said for OKC's youth and long-term future with Durant and Westbrook, there's no way I'm taking them over a LeBron James who is still in his prime and a Dwyane Wade who already has a ring and is playing the most efficient ball of his career at age 30. If I'm starting a franchise, I'm still in it to win right now. And the Heat have two of the top five players in the league. OKC isn't too far off the pace with two of the top 12. Edge: Heat's duo.

Windhorst: Fact. Though this is a tough one because if you're starting a team now you might want the young duo. James and Wade, at this point in their careers, are more developed two-way players than Durant and Westbrook.

OKLAHOMA CITY – They called it hell week.

At the end of the summer with the NBA still in its lockout phase, LeBron James invited Kevin Durant to stay with him at his home in Akron, Ohio, for a series of workouts. The two stars had known each other for years but became closer when both went part of a series of charity games held across the country. They wanted to extend that to preparation for the season.

Durant ended up staying two weeks, which is noteworthy, because getting through the first seven days was a challenge. It one of the most intense series of workouts either had ever been through with two-a-day sessions with James’ trainers and workout coaches that the two All-Stars ending up branding “hell week.”

Durant later came back to Ohio for more workouts in November when they also staged a flag football game with teams they had formed.

“We pushed each other, not to show up any one, but we competed every single day in our training,” James said Saturday after practice at Chesapeake Energy Arena, where James’ Heat will face off with Durant’s Thunder for the first time this season Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

“Those workouts helped us, arguably we’re having the best seasons we’ve both had in our careers.”

There may be something to do that. James, despite a recent shooting slump over the last three games, is averaging a career-best 8.4 rebounds a game and shooting a career-best 54 percent shooting while being third in the league in scoring. Durant is also averaging career-highs in rebounds (8.1) and shooting (50 percent) and is second in the league in scoring.

The Heat and Thunder, not ironically, are in a virtual tie for the second-best record in the league, adding some extra drama to the team’s first meeting of the season. They meet again next month in Miami and those games could end up determining homecourt advantage in a potential Finals matchup.

Getting past the statistics, though, James said those workouts set the stage for both to come into the late-starting season in the best shape they’ve been in their careers. With others in the league having to play their way into shape as a result of the lockout, James said he and Durant were ahead of many of their peers and it has continued to pay off during this season.

“It was like we didn’t miss a beat,” James said. “I’m not saying we were in game shape because you have to play in games to get there. But we were above the curve to start the season and it had a lot to do with offseason training.”

The workouts were spread out across facilities all across James’ hometown. They did work with weights and other strength training at the University of Akron. Then they used the school’s indoor football field to do sprinting work. They also did several workouts in a pool near James’ home and had court workouts and ball-handling drills at James’ high school. Then, in the evenings, they would play in pickup games that he organized.

James released several videos featuring their workouts on his website.

“You never want to waste the opportunity to get better over the summer,” James said. “It was really just the two of us wanting to get better.”

James and Durant aren’t the closest of friends, their time together was more about that work than anything else. They will probably be spending more time together this summer as members of Team USA plus there’s a re-match of the flag football game scheduled after James’ team pulled out a narrow win last year.

Whether or not their workout sessions become an annual tradition is yet to be seen. If they do indeed end up facing each other in the Finals they may end up sick of seeing each other. But they did both seem to benefit from their lockout sessions.

“He’s a guy who has improved every year he’s been in the NBA and we’ve all seen it,” James said. “I’m always up for a good workout and trying to improve in the offseasons. It was a great way for us to come together.”

Editor's note: The growing consensus is that Sunday’s showdown between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET) is a likely preview of what’s to come in the Finals. If that’s the case, who would win it all? Royce Young of TrueHoop Network’s Daily Thunder states his case for Kevin Durant and Co. while Tom Haberstroh of the Heat Index lays out five reasons why the Heat will triumph in June.

1. The Heat boast the two most efficient players in the game

That’s right, two. There’s no question anymore whether LeBron James is the best player in the league. To see why, here’s a timely demonstration. LeBron scores just as much as Kevin Durant, drops more dimes than Russell Westbrook and grabs more rebounds than Serge Ibaka. Sure, it’s amazing that Durant has shot about 50 percent this season, but here’s what’s more amazing: Durant could make 75 of his next 75 shots and he still wouldn’t be able to catch LeBron in field goal percentage. Let that marinate for a minute.

And then there’s Dwyane Wade. Erik Spoelstra has kept Wade’s minutes down to a career-low 32.9 per game thanks to a torrid stretch where the Heat were blowing out everybody and Wade forgot what it was like to play in the fourth quarter. On a per-36 minutes basis, Wade and LeBron are set to become the first teammates to average 25 points-5 rebounds-5 assists in the history of the league. Put it all together and you begin to see why LeBron and Wade look down on everyone else in the PER rankings . Then throw in the fact that they play all-world defense, which is the blind spot of PER. Sorry, Durant and Westbrook, you’re just not on their level yet.

2. Shane Battier is the antidote to LeBron’s Finals ills

Still grasping for reasons why LeBron sputtered in the Finals against Dallas? It’s time we mentioned the elephant in the room: LeBron was exhausted. He’ll never admit it publicly because that’s not the macho thing to do (Can you imagine the vitriol if LeBron complained that he was tired?), but Spoelstra was playing him about 45 minutes a night and then asking him, “Hey, can you go and lock down Derrick Rose, the quickest point guard in the game, in crunch time for me? Thanks.”

Spoelstra had no other choice. The alternatives were playing James Jones, who had a broken toe, or Mike Miller, who didn’t have working thumbs. Enter Shane Battier. The Heat loaded up on wing players in the offseason because they needed to keep Wade and (especially) LeBron’s minutes down in the home stretch. Armed with a defensive specialist like Battier, Spoelstra can finally give LeBron a breather on that end – which is far more taxing than on offense -- and not skip a beat. The truth is that the Heat didn’t win it all last season because LeBron wasn’t, well, LeBron in the Finals. Adding Battier ensures that this time around, LeBron will have enough left in the tank.

3. Mike Bibby doesn’t play for them anymore

Mike Bibby should be forever in debt to LeBron for his Finals struggles. Why? Because people forget how badly Bibby played in the playoffs last season. In a perilous fit of cognitive dissonance, the Heat kept throwing Bibby out there despite the fact that he was in the midst of the least productive postseason in NBA history. And he certainly wasn’t making up for it defensively or outside the box score.

The Heat finally came to their senses this season and gave the keys to the starting gig to Mario Chalmers. Not only that, they drafted a sparkplug in Norris Cole so that they could never let off the gas. The Heat are actually getting production from their point guard slot this season rather than asking Carlos Arroyo and Bibby to pass the ball and get out of the way. The Heat often devolved into 3-versus-5 in the playoffs and it’s safe to say they’ve recognized that’s not the best strategy going forward.

4. Champions dominate on both ends

As a graduate of Pat Riley’s school of coaching, Spoelstra understands that a team can’t be a championship contender if it doesn't play defense, and that’s where he spends most of his time in practice. The Thunder may clamp down defensively in crunch time (fifth-best team in defensive efficiency in clutch situations, according to NBA.com), but Thunder coach Scotty Brooks has yet to figure out how to get the Thunder to do that all game (the Thunder rank 12^th overall on defense). That’s something that Spoelstra already has his team doing.

Even though the Heat don’t possess a traditional center, they still boast the third-best defense in the league. And in crunch time? They rank fourth-best in the league, which is slightly better than the Thunder. Yes, the Thunder might get stingy when it matters most, but what do they do in those other 43 minutes of the game? Elsewhere, the Heat stomp on their opponents’ necks from start to finish.

5. The “Who takes the last shot!?” debate isn’t interesting anymore

The Heat became such a compelling team last season because they consistently failed on the biggest stage. Not only did they lose the Finals, but during the regular season, they famously couldn’t hit the game-winning shot when it mattered most. In the regular season, Wade shot 1-for-4 in shots to tie or take the lead with less than 24 seconds left. LeBron? He was worse, 1-for-8. Collectively, the Heat shot an abysmal 3-for-20 (15 percent) in those critical situations.

There were endless questions going into last season about who was going to take the last shot and there’s no doubt that their failures added truckloads of fuel to the fire. LeBron and Wade have admitted recently that they didn’t fully trust each other and their teammates in those situations last season. This season is a different story. The Heat are now shooting 5-for-12 in those same dire situations and each of the Big Three have come through with a bucket on life support. The sample size is tiny enough that it’s not a reliable predictor of what will happen. But more than anything, the self-conscious doubt that plagued them last season just isn’t as heavy anymore. For the Heat, the lingering question now is not “Who takes the last shot?” but rather, “Who cares?”