Heat embarrass themselves in Charlotte, lose by 39

Before the game, Michael Beasley had this to say:

"If we stay together and stay focused, it should be an easy win. I think if we play our best and stay in it together, it should be no reason we lose."

The Charlotte Bobcats thank you for their locker room bulletin board pre-game reading material. Several of their players acknowledged his comments when talking about the win after the game, and one went so far as to say "it was in the back of my head the whole game".  Well done, Super Cool.  And Beasley's comments after the ass kicking? 

"We didn't play up to our potential.  We lost. They got the win. There ain't really too much to say."

If only he'd done that in the first place...

The way this team can play so freaking ugly, I am starting to lose my patience for this season, which you all know is something that I have been giving Pat Riley the benefit of every doubt.  But now I'm thinking if they want to make us wait for the team to be good, fine.  Until then, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more fans start staying home on game nights until they can be confident that they'll see some good basketball and not what we saw tonight, and basically every other game.   

Nobody in their right mind is going to want to watch a team that can give the complete half-asked effort that they put out in Charlotte tonight.  After they got behind early there was absolutely no fight in this team.  I'm willing to bet that if the Heat players had the choice they would've just left at halftime.  We're so sorry to be wasting your valuable time guys...just let us know when you feel like playing and that's when we'll watch. 

The teams traded baskets and offensive fouls in the first minute, a suiting beginning to a tight game between quality opponents.  Outside of a couple Jermaine O'Neal jumpers in the first two minutes the Heat's offense was pretty stagnant.  Meanwhile, the Bobcats were on a 15-2 run and the only response Miami could come up with was a couple missed foul shots by D-Wade and an airball trey by Mario Chalmers.  

As the first quarter wore on the game began to look eerily like the Heat's last game, with the road team getting blown out of the building early.  Charlotte's run stretched to 20-2 before Wade finally scored for the Heat on a breakaway dunk.  The defensive answer was a Mario Chalmers foul sending Stephen Jackson to the line.  That seemed pretty appropriate...

The positive at this point was that the Bobcats weren't going to shoot 14-for-17 for the rest of the game...right?  That was just for the 1^st quarter...right?  38 points on 82% shooting in the first 12 minutes had me wondering to myself if the Heat were ‘owned' by the Bobcats this year.  It was the best shooting quarter in Charlotte Bobcat franchise history. 

At this point I'm going to do us all a favor and cut this short.  I was watching on DVR-delay and when the Bobcats made it 44-21 I checked the score and...well, I'm glad I did.  It allowed me to watch the 2^nd half and watch this team just lay it up and not give much effort at all.  It was really sad to see them give up so easily.  I can root for a team that isn't very good with all my heart (see Panthers, Florida and Marlins, Florida) but when I saw from the Heat tonight makes me angry.  I don't want to be a fan of professional millionaire quitters.  I realize my words are harsh, but come on.  You are professionals.  Act like men.

GAME NOTES

• So Charlotte is the 2^nd worst road team in the NBA but still won in Miami, and then they smoked us tonight at home.  Does that mean it's safe to start saying that they ‘own' us?  Sure looks that way. 
• Dorell Wright scored his 1,000^th NBA point with a jumper in the final minute of the 1^st quarter.    He is the 45^th player in Heat history to reach the milestone.  He had a very good game, probably the best of any Heat player.  16 points on 6-of-11, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, a triple and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
• Upon his entrance into the game, Udonis Haslem tied Glen Rice for 3^rd on the Heat's all-time games played list at 478.  In 2^nd place is Keith Askins with 486 and at the top of the list is #33 with 593 games played in a Heat uniform. 

After the game, this is what Erik Spoelstra had to say:

"Here is what I told the guys: We have a very, very, very ugly side to us and it reared its face tonight and it is not a professional performance at all. And we've seen this before.  There's a good side to us and there's this very ugly side that we need to do something about. This is not acceptable."

"We've got to look at everything, from A to Z, to see what changes we need to make, so the result doesn't end up like this.  We know about this ugly side.  I'm not happy about it.  I do not like the professionalism we've had in these games."

Dude, seriously?  Can I get you a tissue?  I'm sure the players got really affected by those harsh, harsh words.  How about you light a fire under their asses.  Yell.  Scream.  Do something...  I don't wanna hear excuses and I certainly don't need you to explain to me that what I saw wasn't professional. 

I know what I saw, and while I'm oh so glad that you saw it too, it's YOUR job to fix it, not mine.  Unfortunately, I'm starting to loose faith that this guy can fix anything.  Maybe he'll be better when he has a team that doesn't have so many things in need of repair, but for now he's just using a small bucket to pour water out of a sinking ship.