Heat good against bad teams

It's only a 10-game sample, but it's the first 10 games of the season.

Thus far, the Miami Heat have proven they can beat bad teams, but still struggle with good clubs.

With their win over the now 2-8 Toronto Raptors, the Heat's six wins this season have come against teams (76ers, Magic, Nets twice, Timberwolves and Raptors) that are a combined 16-32.

The only team Miami has defeated that currently has a winning record is the Magic, who are 6-3.

Their four losses are against three teams (Boston twice, New Orleans and Utah) that are a combined 22-5.

One new look on Saturday was inserting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas into the starting lineup in place of Joel Anthony. With the starting lineup of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Carlos Arroyo and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the floor, the Heat were +9 against the Raptors and shot 61.9 percent in 11 minutes, 34 seconds.

In the 31 minutes this season these five players have been on the court, the Heat are shooting 57.1 percent from the floor and averaging 108.4 points per 48 minutes. When any other lineup is on the court, Miami is shooting 46.5 percent and averaging 101.2 points per 48 minutes.

Wade is averaging 26.5 points per game in the Heat's wins this season, shooting 56.6 percent from the field. In their four losses, Wade is still averaging 22.0 PPG, but has shot just 37.3 percent from the field (25-67).

James had a game-high 11 assists. His main beneficiaries were the Heat's outside shooting big men, Ilgauskas and Udonis Haslem. James assisted on all four of Haslem's field goals and four of Ilgauskas' six.

From the Elias Sports Bureau: The Heat have outscored opponents by 5.2 points per game thus far when the Big 3 are on the floor.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/21668/heat-good-against-bad-teams

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