The Miami Heat haven’t really been themselves since Game 1

The Miami Heat have a cliche of a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Guess what though, they haven’t even been themselves.

The Miami Heat are just one win away from an NBA Finals berth and a chance at the NBA title. Imagine that?

Just a year or so removed from what we called basketball purgatory, the Miami Heat have a chance to add more hardware to their trophy case, hang up another banner in American Airlines Arena, and add another new shiny piece of jewelry to Pat Riley‘s hands.

Ah. Life is good.

Even still though, the Miami Heat have some work to do. They still have to come out on Friday and finish off this pesky Boston team, once and for all.

After that, they will have to face a former Miami Heat champion in LeBron James or a team of fate in the scrappy, never quittting, never say die Denver Nuggets.

Here’s the thing though, even amongst a victory in Game 4 and all sorts of Tyler Herro herroics, the Miami Heat really haven’t been themselves since Game 1 of this Eastern Conference Finals series.

This is what we mean.

The Miami Heat are one win away from the NBA Finals. Here’s the thing though, they haven’t been at their best since Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

When you look back at the season averages or records, the Miami Heat sat near or at the very top of the three-point shooting statistics. They were the very best, or top two, all year long when it came to team three-point shooting percentage.

In Game 1 of this Eastern Conference Finals series, they shot 16-36 from downtown for 44.4 percent shooting from deep. That’s Miami Heat deep shooting, or at least what we have come to expect from them this season.

Over the last three games, they have shot 32.6 percent, 27.3 percent, and 27 percent even, respectively. They haven’t been shooting the ball well at all or like themselves over the last three games.

Here’s what this all means though. First off, they are bound to get back right at some point.

This is the anomaly, likely the result of some great game planning that Brad Stevens has done and is able to execute because he has the pieces. He has three great defenders in Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and Daniel Theis to name a few, to go along with a slew of very good to above-average defenders, like Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, and the Brad Wannamaker’s of the world.

Here’s the thing though, even if every coach was brilliant enough to come up with a gameplan or even bright enought to steal Stevens’ game plan from him, would they have the necessary players or talent on that side of the ball to execute it? I can’t say that for either of the two teams remaining out West with certainty.

Further, what that means is this. The Miami Heat may very well find their stroke again on Friday in Game 5 against Boston, which would only help them to end this series faster as even if they win on Friday, I can’t see them beating the Heat three out of the next three games.

Even if they don’t though, they should be able to find it by the next series. That would mean that they are good enough to take down the next best team in the Eastern Conference, the team most thought would be moving on from this Eastern Conference Finals round, without their superpower working as well as it should.

That means that when it does come back and believe us, it will come back (WE GOT SHOOTERS!), this team will be that much better again. That means problems for whoever comes out of the West.

This Miami team has shown grit, toughness, scrappiness, creativity, maturity, growth, and a slew of other characteristics throughout their playoff run, but their best quality is there shooting from deep. They haven’t had it going good for much of this Conference Finals series and they are still in the driver’s seat.

So, while they are still trucking along, just know that they haven’t been in tip-top shape throughout. That’s why even though we should be excited about the position we are in, we should be even more excited for the remainder of this series and potentially the NBA Finals, because the Miami Heat haven’t really been themselves since Game 1.