If the Heat want to be a champion they need some mental toughness.  And fast!

SCOTT JACOBS

Mike Miller looked up to the scoreboard high above his head and smiled.  It was a sarcastic smile of course, one drenched in disdain and frustration, and whatever pent up annoyances building behind a thoroughly aggravated and flat out baffled Heat team. He was just the poster-child for this latest failure, a gut-wrenching 87-86 loss to a really good Bulls team.  The win secured a season sweep of the Heat for Chicago (the team LeBron spurned for South Beach) and further deflated a Miami team backpedaling itself into a corner of shame and ridicule.

Four losses in a row.  All to winning teams.  All in front of the media’s watchful and acute eye.

You see, Miller played a terrible game, capping off an 0-5 night (including 0-4 from 3 point land, his so called specialty) and causing the foul that officially buried Miami against another elite team, but he’s just one piece to a broken Heat puzzle.  After another brutal loss in another playoff-like game, Miami finds itself 3rd in the East, sliding in the standings, and breaking down little by little after each setback.

And they’ve been coming in droves.

What a week to forget.  Losses to the Knicks, Magic, Spurs, and Bulls were more than just L’s, they were statements.  An indictment on the work that Miami has to do, and whether they even have the mental fortitude to make it anywhere once the playoffs start.

With two of the league’s best closers, once again looking lost on another broken final play, the Heat fell again, leaving just more questions, and even fewer answers.  And for the team that claimed to embrace the villain role, the Heat don’t look all that comfortable anymore with being the Hated.

“This is painful for every single one of us to go through this, there are couple of guys crying in the locker room right now, it is not a matter of want,” Erik Spoelstra said, the so called coach of this collection.

Yeah, crying.  There’s no crying in baseball, but in basketball, well, maybe I’d be crying too if I was a team under so much spotlight it appears to be burning a hole through their foreheads.

You see, for a team that everyone says is lacking mental toughness, crying doesn’t solve anything.  In fact, it makes it look worse. The joke keeps getting worse.  The punchlines deeper.  Twitter explodes a little more after each shameful Heat loss.

“I told my team, I’m not going to continue to fail late in games,” James said. “I put a lot of blame on myself tonight. I told the guys that I just keep failing them late in games and I won’t continue to do that.”

This isn’t just James’ fault, but what in the world is he thinking?  Beyond the idiotic twitter posts he leaves, maybe he should spend his time figuring out a way to get his teammates involved at the end of these games.  These awkward drives for bad shots with the game on the line thing just ain’t working.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  Or a rock scientist for that matter.

LeBron’s botched shot bounced off, sending it into the hands of the other stud, D-Wade, who clanked his own desperation shot, and another game the Heat could have won, was lost, sending the El Heat scurrying into their locker-room.

For three guys who were so beloved on their respective teams, maybe there just isn’t room for 3 giant sized names on one roster.  Maybe it’s not so easy to go from rockstar to Joker.  LeBron, Wade, and Bosh were kings when they had their own team, and they were the focal point.  Now they’re together and they don’t seem to know what the heck they’re doing.  And that whole, everyone hates you thing, has got to be wearing on them.

For a team 23 games above .500, it’s odd to hear this kind of criticism in the regular season, but it’s also warranted.  And the Heat aren’t just any other team.  They’re new age, the test tube subject of whether SuperFriends can mesh into a Super Team.  So far, no dice.  Miami lives on the perimeter and has no punch inside.  A guy like Amare would have been a far better fit, because teams would have had to worry about him.  Bosh isn’t a bruiser, and neither is LeBron or Wade.

On paper the Heat are spectacular.  A collection of 3 stars in their prime.  They should own the world.  But their glaring weaknesses continue to get exposed against teams that are good.  No one sits there in awe anymore.  The Heat are nothing but a good team.  With an entire sports world watching.

Joe Posnanski, one of my favorite columnists, wrote that LeBron has made the Heat fun to hate. Is this really what James wanted when he gave up his castle in Cleveland for a sand castle in Miami?  Is this what Bosh wanted when he left Canada to become the most scrutinized 3rd wheel in recent sports history?  Is this what Wade wanted when he re-upped with the team that he once led to a championship?

You know what that team had?  Roles.  Wade was the game-changer, Williams was the point guard, Shaq was the big man in the middle, and Alonzo Mourning was his awesome backup.  Surrounded by shooters and savy veterans thirsty for a ring, Miami had a gameplan each and every night.  Players knew their roles.  Even an aging Shaq gave way to the dynamic Wade, who carried Miami on his shoulders to an epic NBA Finals win over the Mavs.

Wade had the ball in the closing moments.  And if he didn’t, it was because he kicked it out.  Or he set a screen.  Or drove to the basket before making some kind of play.

What is this Heat team at the end of games?  They look lost, confused, unsure how to deal with the moment that has haunted them from the second this season tipped: the final moments.  Wade and LeBron are both great closers, but they’ve been horrible closers together. I don’t need to repeat the numbers, they’re all there.

Miami’s unconvential team looks stupid right now.  They need a point guard that can set guys up.  LeBron is no Magic Johnson.  The Heat need a guy that can find the open man.  He’s out there.  They need guys who can actually shoot!

And they need to get their confidence back.  There’s still plenty of basketball to be played, and a lot of tough teams to come.  Great teams don’t quit when the going gets tough.  They fight and they claw.  If this is the best Miami’s got than they’re not the team I thought they were.  If crying is their solution then they were fools to tie themselves to this experiment.

But if they really want this, they can make it work.  They can come together, figure out real plays that move the ball around, and they can shoot away their end of game demons.  Wade, Bosh, and LeBron aren’t just stars, they’re good players.

But great players make each other better, and right now that’s still a work in progress for Miami.

A big work in progress.

Photo: Getty

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