Miami Heat hit reset button. Now they are getting serious.

[Lebron23]

$hit got serious. They are 27-10. Last year they were 25-12. They won 27 straight games.

Afforded a rare four-day break in the schedule, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra rewarded his team with the weekend off. The difference between what he saw in back-to-back road losses to the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets on Thursday and Friday nights was tangible.

"I needed it, two days," forward LeBron James said after Monday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. "I can't speak for the rest of my team, but we looked great today and we got back to the basics."

The Heat now head back out to complete what initially set up as a six-game trip, re-starting with Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center.

"This road trip is going to be very important for us," James said. "We didn't do so well in our two-game road trip in New York, so we'd like to start out the right way in Washington Wednesday."

Monday's emphasis was defense.

"We started off slow," Spoelstra said of that aspect of his team's game at the outset of the season, "then we went through a 10-day stretch where we were back on track, and we've had some slippage the last 10 games.

"We need to get back on it. Our guys understand it. We were humbled this past weekend. We needed a day like today to get back to the basics and remind ourselves that we have some work to do."

Spoelstra said the overall slippage has been tangible, with the Heat 3-3 in their last six games, but will be addressed with a defense-first approach.

"It's a myriad of things. If it was just one thing, we could focus on that. We had to focus on quite a few things," he said. "Sometimes in this league, very minor things can change the momentum between a win and a loss.

"The process for today was working to improve our defense and that was a focal point today. There wasn't any type of confusion of what we were working on."

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...-brooklyn-nets

I like that.

[insidehoops]

Giant avalanche of biased crap deleted.

Have Heat been coasting? Are they worse than last year? Can they simply push a button and turn it up? Etc. In Heat at Nets the other day (no D-Wade), Heat looked like they weren't trying that hard in the first half... then tried to turn it up in the second half and in 2OT but wound up losing... All valid discussions.

[Legends66NBA7]

Giant avalanche of crap deleted.

Have Heat been coasting? Are they worse than last year? Can they simply push a button and turn it up? Etc. All valid discussions.

Topic would be better suited in the Heat team forum, Jeff.

[sportjames23]

Jeff flexing on us.

[coin24]

Cool story lord mayor of LeBronville

[Cold soul]

Cool story lord mayor of LeBronville

[moe94]

That was funny?

[inclinerator]

lol reposting a deleted thread

[Black and White]

That was funny?

moe! you are back

[Lebron23]

lol reposting a deleted thread

Nooo. Jeff just deleted some of the out of topic posts.

[Angel Face]

[Solefade]

the only games Heat lose are the ones they're disinterested in. I think 90% of the games they lost were teams under .500...i'm sure this will all change and they'll be way more focused and engaged come playoffs...and lebron will stop "coasting" in the second half of the season

[inclinerator]

Nooo. Jeff just deleted some of the out of topic posts.

my bad

[moe94]

moe! you are back

Go to the BTE.

[AintNoSunshine]

Shiit.. taking a page out of Lakers' book, season starts tomorrow.