Heat, Canes, Dolphins notes on a Wednesday night:
### The Heat has been shockingly dismal at home in recent weeks, but tonight was a new low, with Miami succumbing meekly, 105-87, to a Utah team that entered 6-19 and having lost 12 of its past 13.
Incredibly, the Heat was dismantled, on its home court, by one of the NBA's bottom-feeders despite 42 points from Dwyane Wade –-- his first 40-point game since February 2011 and his highest scoring game since erupting for 45 in December 2010.
Not only has the Heat lost seven of its past eight at home, but six of the Heat’s eight home losses have been by double digits: 18 to Chicago and Utah (Miami’s past two home games), by 17 to the Rockets, Clippers and Warriors and by 10 to the Hawks.
And according to AP, this marks the first time since 1990 that the Heat has lost four home games in a row by double digits.
"Obviously, that was a disappointing performance," Erik Spoelstra said. "It's something we have to figure out. It's not for a lack of want. Guys want to do it. You saw a different personality last night [in the road win at Brooklyn] than tonight. That was a poorly executed offensive game on our part."
Why can't the Heat achieve consistency?
"I don't have that answer," Spoelstra said. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Said Wade: "We're depleted, but... coming back with this type of effort as a group, It's unacceptable for us. We didn't play aggressive enough. We've got to play more aggresive on the defensive end of the floor. As a team, we've got to be better. I felt explosive. Obviously with Chris [Bosh] out, I have to be a lot more aggressive."
### Wade shot 12 for 19 from the field. The rest of the team shot 15 for 51, including 3 for 13 from Mario Chalmers, 0-4 by both Norris Cole and Shabazz Napier and 2 for 7 from Shawne Williams.
Wade shot 16 for 21 from the line, and chipped in four rebounds and three assists.
### The Heat again played without Bosh, who remains out indefinitely with a calf injury. Chris Anderson started for the first time this season in an unusual frontcourt pairing with Justin Hamilton.
Spoelstra went that the Birdman/Hamilton combo to get "a little bit more size."
Utah became the latest team to make more than half its shots from the field against the Heat, finishing at 53 percent. The Jazz shot 14 for 25 threes and too many were uncontested.
At 12-14 and seventh in the conference, the Heat is very fortunate that the East is pretty putrid below them in the standings. But it’s also clear Miami is nowhere near the caliber of the top five teams in the conference (Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington and Toronto in whatever order you like).
This was the first game in a seven-game homestand, which includes Cleveland visiting on Christmas.
### UM landed the nation’s No. 1 ranked junior college tight end today, and Jerome Washington is an interesting story because he didn’t have any offers until the coach of his club team in Trenton, N.J. sent his video to a bunch of colleges earlier this fall.
The Hurricanes offered him a scholarship a day later, and others --- including Alabama, Nebraska and Washington --- started showing interest soon after. ESPN rates Washington the 19th best junior college player at any position.
Washington, 6-4 and 263 pounds, had no offers coming out of high school in Stony Brook, N.Y. He attends Mercer CC in New Jersey and plays for Gattaca Football, a club team. He will enroll at UM in January and has four seasons of eligibility.
“It's a very unique situation for a junior college kid. So from that sense he's a freshman,” Al Golden said. “He's coming in a big, physical kid. He can go get the ball. This is where he wanted to be, he made no bones about it. A lot of people came in and tried to get him. I think Larry (Scott) did a great job with him and James (Coley). He wanted to be a Miami Hurricane. We're excited about him. We'll have him at midyear. That part of it's good."
How does UM evaluate a player that isn’t competing against top competition?
"We did a real thorough evaluation," Golden said. "Twenty people offered him in a very short period of time. He got stronger, he's a worker, he's smart. He has all the requisite skills. I think he made the right choice. In his heart he knew he could play at the highest level. There's all different paths to get here, this is the path he and his mom chose. It worked out for him because he retained all his eligibility. I wouldn't recommend that path if someone asked me, but it really worked out for him and he's a great kid and can't wait to get him into camp."
Golden said he expects one more JUCO signee, believed to be offensive lineman Jahair Jones. He said six to eight recruits are positioned to enroll in January.
"A lot of it's in flux right now," Golden said. "We'll see how that goes."
### James Coley said today that "it's crazy" that Stacy Coley had only 153 receiving yards all season, 19 catches.
"That's part of that sophomore year sometimes," Coley said. "You get banged up a little bit because of an offseason that didn't go the way you wanted it to go, and then you get an injury and then you can't get out of that slump that you're in and you don't play well and it plays a factor in your confidence. He’s back in form. He’s looking real good.”
Said Stacy Coley: "My sophomore year will never, ever exist in my football days again. I want to get put down in the books [as one of the best at UM]."
### Coley said UM’s 6-6 record isn’t hurting in recruiting. He said "back in the day" recruits wanted to go to a winning program but “now they want to know how do I fit in and how can I make a difference.”
### Golden said he didn’t want The U Part 2, but Coley did.
"I love watching those teams play," Coley said. "I love hearing Ed Reed talk, watching Andre Johnson score touchdowns. I love that swagger Al Blades has. It's part of our tradition here."
### In a conference call with Minneapolis reporters, Joe Philbin partly blamed coaching for the team’s second half struggles.
Asked why his team has played so poorly in the past two second halves, Philbin could only state the obvious: “We haven’t made any plays. We haven’t stopped people well enough. We haven’t put enough points on the board. We haven’t played well. We haven’t coached well.”
### So has this team failed to maximize its talent?
“I’m not going to say we didn’t maximize our talent, but I don’t feel like we played well enough,” Mike Wallace said. “Because maximizing our talent, I would say would be on our coaches, but I think it’s on the players. I don’t think we played up to our potential, but as far as maximizing talent, if you would say that, then it would be on the coaches. I don’t think it’s the coaches’ fault, I think it’s our fault. We’re selling ourselves short, the players not the coaches.”
### Jared Odrick with the Dolphins keeping-it-real quote of the day: “Finishing 9-7 and not going to the playoffs doesn’t mean a thing.”
And yet, Stephen Ross might not agree, considering there’s a possibility Joe Philbin survives if he wins his last two games and Ross fails to lure Jim Harbaugh, who reportedly has a six-year, $48 million offer from the University of Michigan.
### Fox is sending Sunday’s Dolphins-Vikings game to just five percent of the country: Miami-Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, with Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Tony Siragusa on the call.
### An example of the wide disparity in how NFL prospects are viewed in December: Mel Kiper said UM left tackle Ereck Flowers is a second- or third-round pick. Kiper’s ESPN colleague, Todd McShay, has Flowers being drafted 12th overall in his first mock draft. Flowers declined to make himself available for comment this week.
### Twitter: @flasportsbuzz
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