DENVER -- Is the importance of LeBron James any surprise? Teams having lost James are now 8-31 this season.
That would be Cleveland's 8-30 and Miami's 0-1, with James having missed his first game of his initial Heat season in Thursday's ugly 130-102 loss at Denver. At least the Heat, unlike the head-hanging Cavaliers, will be getting James back soon.
Miami sure needs James, out with a sprained left ankle suffered in a 111-105 loss Wednesday at the Los Angeles Clippers. The Heat weren't competitive in the slightest against the Nuggets.
"It's the first time all year (without James),'' said guard Dwyane Wade. "We do a lot of things with him. Our offense is predicated around, of course, us three (titanic trio James, Wade and forward Chris Bosh). But especially a lot with LeBron. It kind of threw us off a little bit. We didn't have a lot of time to adjust to him not playing. But we're just going to move on from it. Hopefully, he gets healthy and he'll be out there next game. If not, then we'll have a little bit more experience. We'll know how to play without him and be better.''
That next game is a big one, Saturday at Chicago between the Central Division-leading Bulls (25-13) and Southeast-topping Heat (30-11). If Miami drops a third straight after having won 21 of 22, Heat bashing could be back in vogue.
Source: http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/01/14/heat-level-headed-with-lebron-james-out/
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