No NBA team with championship expectations can subsist on superstars alone. Even the Miami Heat—with their big-name Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh—might well have fallen short of snagging the Larry O'Brien Trophy in each of the past two years without the proper supporting cast.
Think of the spark Chris Andersen lent the Heat in pushing their 2012-13 regular season from merely good to historically great. Think of Mike Miller's three-point barrage in Game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Think of Udonis Haslem's 8-of-9 shooting nights against the Indiana Pacers in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals. Think of Ray Allen's miraculous three to save the Heat from ceding the throne to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of this year's Finals and Shane Battier's outburst to seal the deal in Game 7.
The superstars still did the heavy lifting, but it's the little guys who put the Heat over the top. And it's in those contributions from the little guys that Pat Riley's brilliance as a builder of champions truly comes to light.
Not that there doesn't remain reason enough to marve ...
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Article written by Josh Martin
Genius of Pat Riley and Miami Heat Not Just About Big 3
September 20th, 2013 by Josh Martin Leave a reply »
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