Miami is in the midst of a stunning five-game losing streak, with four of them coming at home. The Heat already have nine losses at home and some believed the team wouldn’t lose that many games anywhere all season (i.e. break the Bulls’ record of 72 wins). It appears the team might be imploding, as after Sunday’s loss to Chicago, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said players were crying in the locker room before backtracking. Then after Tuesday’s loss to Portland, Chris Bosh said he wasn’t getting enough touches after finishing with just seven points. The Heat clearly are in disarray, although team president Pat Riley said Spoelstra’s job is safe.

The Lakers are going the other way. L.A. is 8-0 since the All-Star break, with its defense allowing just 87.0 points per game. Andrew Bynum has been a beast in the middle and has 50 rebounds and 12 blocks in the past three games alone. He was mainly a non-factor in the Christmas meeting with Miami, a 96-80 Heat win. LeBron James had one of his best games of the year, with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. He is now 9-5 in his career head-to-head against Kobe Bryant, who had just 17 in the first meeting. But back then the Heat were on their biggest roll of the season.

Miami is just 1-9 against teams with a winning percentage of .700 or better this season, with that one win coming against the Lakers. The Heat have struggled in crunch time this season, going 1 of 16 with a chance to tie or go ahead in the final 10 seconds of games.

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