Electric play puts charge into Miami Heat fans
miamiherald.com
By GREG COTE
gcote@MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Saturday, 10.30.10
 Miami Heat forward LeBron James reacts after forcing a foul against Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard during the third quarter of their game on Friday, Oct. 29, 2010 at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami.
AL DIAZ / STAFF PHOTO
One lightning sequence created one indelible moment Friday night in the downtown arena. There will be many, but this was the first -- the first time the Heat showed its home crowd a glimpse of what ``dream team'' might mean in a way that felt symbolic.
There was a turnover by Orlando, and suddenly the ball was in LeBron James' hands, and then as suddenly it was not because he arched a gorgeous alley-oop pass toward the opposite rim, a pass Dwyane Wade deposited with a monstrous dunk.
Regular-season home opener. National TV. The official Miami debut of The Big 3. There remained 3:41 to play in the first quarter, and the capacity crowd erupted as Wade hung briefly on the rim, screaming into the din, soaking it in.
Thirty seconds later, the game had moved on but a high buzz remained in the crowd, fans still exclaiming over what they had seen because they knew this, right then:
This is just the beginning.
This team is going to be great.
Not efficient great. Electric great.
Miami launched its 23rd NBA home season with the most impressive performance by far of this burgeoning new era, a 96-70 spanking of the rival Orlando Magic -- one of the teams most in the path of the Heat's championship dreams.
Fans were given T-shirts that read: ``I. Was. There.''
The night promised that kind of you-are-part-of-history feel. And lived up to it.
This was thoroughly impressive, Wade scoring 26 points, James with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds and Chris Bosh adding 11 points.
TOUGH DEFENSE
Oh, and one other thing: Miami's defense was suffocating. Fantastic. Orlando, an elite team, scored 25 points in the second half.
That jam off an alley-oop was the highlight-reel donation, but the night was won with grit, not glamour. A team led by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade playing killer defense, too? Seems almost unfair, doesn't it? It's like finding out the star of the high school football team also is the valedictorian.
``The guys can't go back on this,'' coach Erik Spoelstra said. ``They've showed me what they're capable of defensively, and I will hold them to that standard.''
James and Wade assure this always will be a team known for what it does with the basketball, but imagine if it's even better without it? Imagine the potential of this thing when the offense, now being kept simple, begins to flourish and catch up?
Skeptics and haters will linger, of course. Doubts about the Heat will be stubborn. Part of that is so many folks wanting to see such an audacious, star-powered experiment fail, see its comeuppance.
I appeared on ESPN's Outside the Lines earlier Friday trying to bring a smidgen of sanity to a ``can-this-work'' story line questioning -- after two games! -- whether this would succeed, whether Pat Riley might have to swoop in and coach.
On ESPN.com, writer Bill Simmons already was declaring -- after two games! -- that alpha dogs Wade and James could not coexist peacefully or successfully. Bill had also seen enough to detect a ``joylessness'' to the Heat.
Seriously? Hmm.
You know what? I thought I saw some joy on that alley-oop dunk.
Sensed some serious satisfaction as the final clock hit zeroes.
Both coaches had been wired at halftime as they addressed their teams. Spoelstra: measured, calm. Orlando's Stan Van Gundy: frantic, near-screaming.
The Heat opened the third quarter with a 14-0 run for a 20-point lead, outscoring Orlando 28-10 in the quarter.
(Felt some fun going on then, too, by the way. Joy, even!)
The win was doubly impressive because you know how much the Magic wanted it.
Van Gundy -- with a grudge ever since Riley eased him off the Heat bench and took over during the 2005-06 championship season -- referred to Bosh as Wade's ``lap dog'' during the free agency process. Orlando general manager Otis Smith portrayed LeBron as cowering from the challenge of winning a title ``on his own'' (as if anybody can).
Riley fired back, called the criticisms from Mousetown ``stupid.''
Clearly an intense rivalry has taken root. Just this week, Howard chafed at a question about the Heat, saying, ``How do we match up with them? How do they match up with us?''
(``Quite well,'' might answer Dwight's rhetorical.)
None of this is to say there won't be issues for Miami. Hurdles.
NEEDS AT CENTER
The Heat does not have a premier point guard. Of greater concern, Miami misses a strong presence at center.
The irony in the Heat being called The Big 3 is that ``big'' is the one word that exposes Miami's most glaring flaw. In the opener at Boston, we saw how tough the Celtics are with Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal and Glen Davis. (And they will get Kendrick Perkins back by winter.)
On Friday, we were reminded early that Howard is the best big man in the NBA -- one against whom Miami has nobody who matches up.
And down the road, the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers have Pau Gasol and an eventually healthy Andrew Bynum.
In other words, Miami's three main competitors for championships in the foreseeable future are teams positioned to expose its low-post weakness.
(That is, unless retired Alonzo Mourning is being fed youth serum intravenously and plotting a comeback as we speak.)
But here's the thing. James, Wade and Bosh, and key pieces in the supporting cast, and great, great defense, too, more than make up for deficiencies elsewhere.
On Friday night, the Magic threw a ton of Howard at the Heat, trying to exploit Miami's low-post weakness, and yet Miami steered the result. Owned it.
That one James alley-oop for a Wade slam dunk was but the exclamation on a defense-dominated night when ``dream team'' began to seem like a fast-blossoming, stone-cold fact.
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