2005 Lakers & 2015 Heat

[Andrew]

The Miami Heat are the first team to miss the Playoffs the year after being the conference champions, since the Los Angeles Lakers in 2005; funnily enough, Shaquille O'Neal's first season in Miami after leaving the Lakers. In fact, there are a few fun similarities, parallels, and coincidences to note here:

• The obvious: it's happened an even ten years apart. The Lakers made the Finals in 2004, and missed the Playoffs in 2005, while the Heat made the Finals in 2014, and missed the Playoffs in 2015.
  
  
• Both teams lost their respective Finals series, 4-1. Furthermore, both teams lost Game 1, tied the series in Game 2, then lost the next three.
  
  
• Both teams were beaten by an average of 18 ppg in their four Finals losses (18.3 for the Lakers, 18 for the Heat).
  
  
• Both teams were making their fourth Finals appearance of the decade, and each had won at least two straight championships (in the case of the Lakers, three).
  
  
• The starting shooting guards for each team (Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade) both shot the ball considerably poorer in those Finals series than they did in the regular season, or the rest of the Playoffs.
  
  
• Both teams lost despite having the best individual player in the series.
  
  
• During the offseason, both teams lost their best player when they went to a team in the state where they started their NBA career (Shaq, Florida; LeBron, Ohio).
  
  
• The following season, both the Heat and the Lakers had winning records through November, but faltered as the season wore on.
  
  
• The Heat finished the 2015 season 37-45, while the Lakers finished the 2005 season only a few wins behind, 34-48. The Heat were 10th in the East, the Lakers were 11th in the West. (Incidentally, the Clippers were 10th in the West in 2005, with a 37-45 record).
  
  
• Both Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant's scoring increased the season following the Finals loss. Their average, per 36? 24.4 (Kobe) and 24.3 (Wade).
  
  
• Shaq's new team, the 2005 Heat, won 59 games; three more than the 2004 Lakers. LeBron's new team, the 2015 Cavaliers, won 53 games, one fewer than the 2014 Miami Heat. The arrival of both players saw an increase of over 15 wins for their teams on the previous season (17 for the Heat, 20 for the Cavaliers).

And of course, the Heat made the Eastern Conference Finals the year Shaq arrived, and won their first NBA Championship his second year there. It remains to be seen what will happen with LeBron this year and next.

What does this all mean? Nothing, in the grand scheme of things. Like the Lincoln and Kennedy coincidences, I've carefully cherry-picked facts and figures, stretched and made do with "close enough" in some areas, and conveniently not mentioned some of the key differences between the two teams (or for that matter the 1999 Chicago Bulls, the last team before the 2005 Lakers to miss the Playoffs after appearing in the Finals the year before). But given the nicely round ten years between the two, and some of the similarities, it was a fun list to compile nevertheless.

[Mandich]

Certainly some interesting facts you've posted there.

Heat had bad luck with injuries. I think they'd made the playoffs with Bosh.

Lakers situation just shows how valuable a player Shaq was (not that we didn't know that).

[Murat]

Lakers actually went fine, but Frank Hamblen messed up everything.

[Andrew]

Indeed, the 2005 Lakers had a much better start than this year's Heat, and might have at least been in the Playoffs as a lower seed had Rudy T been able to stick around. As I said, I cherry-picked facts and figures, and worded the points in a way that suited the comparison, which is why I brought up the Lincoln/Kennedy legend. Same approach.

Incidentally, both the 2004 Lakers and 2014 Heat were the number two seed when they lost their respective Finals series, to throw another meaningless coincidence out there. Of course, the Lakers had home court advantage and the Heat did not, but that's something we can conveniently downplay when we're saying "Look at these amazing coincidences!"

Having said that...the 2014 Heat did remind me of the 2004 Lakers somewhat, especially when the Spurs' margin of victory was turning out to be quite comfortable, and the series ended 4-1 in similar fashion (winner take Games 1, loser takes Game 2, winner takes next three). There were other similarities, such as being beaten by an opponent that played a better brand of team basketball, outshining the individual brilliance of the losing team. And of course, the parallel of losing their best player in the offseason, though the circumstances were very different. Again, something to be downplayed when you're compiling a List of Amazing Coincidences™.

[benji]

I know you love Drew Carey but Cleveland isn't a state!

Also, quick, publish this on the Bleacher Report.

[Andrew]

Whoops, fixed. Actually, speaking of Drew Carey...that could serve as an unintentional shoutout to Colin Mochrie on a game of "Scenes from a Hat" on the original run of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, when the subject was "unusual state mottos" and he said "Miami: The Land That Time Forgot". Then, when he was corrected, he offered up "Florida: Not To Be Confused With Miami".