LeBRON JAMES got the MONKEY OFF HIS BACK as the Miami Heats 27 game winning streak ended - Keith Allison- Baltimore USA photo

SPORTS NOTES - MIAMI HEAT's STREAK ENDED with a glaring WEAKNESS

James Loving/National Radio Text Service

The monkey of off the Miami Heats back as their 27 game winning streak came to an end thus they can now focus of winning their 2nd consecutive NBA title. The question is given their weakness in the rebounding department will that be a roadblock in their goal? The Lakers had 7'1" Wilt Chamberlain the Heat's leader is 6'8"LeBron James. Does five inches make a difference & does the heat have a chink in their amour? - FIFA TOP 10

Sunday, March 31, 2013

HEAT vs. 71-72 LA LAKERS STREAK

As they say all good things must come to an end. When the Miami Heat's winning streak ended at 27 games it was a blessing to some that felt losing would be a good thing since they were peaking too early and would be flat for the playoffs. The rationale being that winning streaks are fine but winning the NBA title is the real goal.

The Heat's efforts to break the Los Angeles Lakers 33 game winning streak that has been in place since the 1971-72 season came up short as the Chicago Bulls won 101-97 in Chicago with two of the Bulls stars Joachim Noah and Derek Rose out of the lineup. The good news is the Heat can now put their energies focused on being a repeat NBA champion.

The Heat's winning streak is somewhat misleading as only 11 wins came against teams with records above .500%. Only eight wins came against Western Conference teams which are where the leagues power teams exist. One of the differences between the two streaks is the Lakers streak started at the beginning of the season in November through January when the team was fresh. The Heat's streak started on February 3rd well after the season started and bodies were physically worn down.

At the time that the Heat streak ended the New York Knicks record of 45-26 was the second best record in the East. Forty Five wins would have placed them in 6th place in the Western standings at that time trailing the San Antonio Spurs (55-17), Oklahoma City Thunder (53-20), Denver Nuggets (50-24), Los Angles Clippers (49-20) and Memphis Grizzlies (48-24).

In breaking down the game that brought the streak to an end the Heat managed to total only 31 rebounds to the Bulls 43. Up to that time the Heat averaged only 38 rebounds per game which ranked them 30th in a league of 30 qualifying them as being the worst rebounding team in the league. In an odd twist the day of the game it was announced that Tom Boerwinkle, a former Bulls center who had a franchise-record 37 rebounds in a 1970 game against the Phoenix Suns, has died at the age of 67.

The melding of the teams BIG 3 Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James came together this season with James emerging as the team's leader. He leads the squad in point per game 26.8, rebounds 8.2 and assists 7.3. In comparing the Lakers 33 game winning streak team to this Heat squad show some glaring differences.

The Heat has only four key players being the Big 3 and Ray Allen (10.7) that average in double figures. Dwyane Wade averaged 21.3 and Chris Bosh 12.3 when the streak ended. The 71-72 Lakers had five keys players scoring in double figures including the teams scoring leader Gail Goodrich (25.9), Jerry West (25.8), John McMillan (18.8), Wilt Chamberlain (14.8) and Happy Hariston (13.1). The league had only 16 teams for the 1971-72 season that translates in having to play their toughest opponents more times than the expanded schedule permits in a 30 team league schedule today.

Chamberlain was a scoring star who has the NBA record for scoring 100 points in a game against the New your Knicks on March 2, 1962 focused on rebounding during the latter part of his career. He led the Lakers in rebounds in 71-72 with 1572 for a 19.17 per game average. He holds the career league record averaging 22.9 per game. That includes a record 2,149 rebounds during the 1960-61 season as a member of the Philadelphia Warriors.

The other quirk to this story is the Heat's GM Pat Riley was a member of the 71-72 Lakers squad as a reserve. Riles played limited minutes 926 for the season and averaged 6.6 ppg.

This NBA season has evolved into a season of parity. The defending NBA champs the Miami Heat has something to prove that their title was not a fluke and they are a unified team. Following their loss to the Bulls the Heat got back in the groove with a 108-89 win over the New Orleans Hornets in New Orleans. The question now is given that rebounding is their weakness will that be a chink in their amour? Can the Heat do it again and repeat as NBA champions... stay tuned...

FIFA TOP 10 - Spain continuing to hold a comfortable lead at the top over Germany

AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers leave their mark - The first movement in the ranking is in positions six and seven, as Colombia have now pulled away from Portugal, with whom they were level last month, to move into 6th place on their own.

The latest edition of the FIFA World Ranking reveals very few changes in the upper reaches, with Spain continuing to hold a comfortable lead at the top over Germany and Argentina. The first movement in the ranking is in positions six and seven, as Colombia have now pulled away from Portugal, with whom they were level last month, to move into 6th place on their own.

The main changes are to be found lower down the ranking, as the opening qualifiers for the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 in the Maldives have seen a number of teams earn an impressive number of points and make good progress up the table. Afghanistan have climbed 48 places to 141st on the back of victories over Sri Lanka (173rd, up 20) and Mongolia (178th, up 3) as well as a draw against Laos (168th, up 5). The Afghans are now in their best-ever position and have qualified for the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 together with Palestine (150th, up 3) and Myanmar (155th, up 9). Another team to have gained ground is India (143rd, up 24), even though they have not yet qualified for the Challenge Cup and are now relying on help from other teams in the remaining group matches.

A total of 18 “A” international matches have been taken into account for the March edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Virtually all of the games in recent weeks have been played in the AFC, with 15 of the 18 games being AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers. This takes the total number of “A” international matches played in 2013 so far to 155.

· Leader Spain (unchanged)

· Moves into top ten none

· Moves out of top ten none

· Matches played in total 18

· Most matches played Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Laos, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Mongolia (3 matches each)

· Biggest move by points Afghanistan (up 151 points)

· Biggest move by ranks Afghanistan (up 48 ranks)

· Biggest drop by points Sudan (down 102 points)

· Biggest drop by ranks Sudan (down 23 ranks)

FIFA TOP 10 for March, 2013

Rank -- Team -- Points

1. Spain - 1610

2. Germany - 1473

3. Argentina - 1309

4. England - 1174

5. Italy - 1173

6. Colombia - 1159

7. Portugal - 1133

8. Netherlands - 1106