Think Pat Riley is upset with how poorly his Heat are playing? He may have nothing on the execs at TNT and ESPN.
With their loss in Milwaukee lost night, the Heat dropped their ninth straight game. It hasn't been a pretty losing streak either (not that most are). This Miami team has managed to lose to Philly, Memphis, Minnesota and Milwaukee twice, and all in the last 15 days.
Yes, they have Flash and Shaq, so yes they could conceivably turn it on at anytime when those two are healthy (which they currently aren't). But as of right now, the Heat are playing putrid basketball.
If there is an upside, however, to those ugly nine wins, it is that they have all occurred in relative obscurity. Losing to the aforementioned opponents is embarrassing, but at least the upshot is that those games weren't seen by national audiences.
The Heat, however, were supposed to be very good this season. And when supposed-to-be-good teams meet other supposed-to-be-good teams, they tend to get televised. And in the times to come, the Heat will be televised like you couldn't believe.
The 8-28 Heat will be nationally televised five more times before the end of January. That would be nationally televised for the owners of the average cable package, who have TNT and the ESPN family of networks but not NBA TV. Those privileged enough to have the latter channel will get to see the Heat a sixth time more this month and twice next month. That would be twice in addition to the five games the Heat have spread across ESPN, ABC and TNT in February.
Ten national telecasts between now and the first day of March. Three more on NBA TV. And all for a team that can't seem to do anything right. Yikes.