Udonis Haslem Wants the Miami Heat to Play ‘Hatred Basketball’ Again

To hear Udonis Haslem tell it after last night’s humiliating loss at home to the New York Knicks, the Miami Heat have lost some of the edge they played with prior to winning the NBA championship last season. Haslem wants them to hoop with hate in their hearts again. From the Palm Beach Post: “You watch teams on film, and they play a certain way, and then they come in against us, and it’s completely different,’ Haslem said. ‘Teams are going to play at a high level when you’re the defending champions. We’ve got to understand that. We can’t come out and play cool, we can’t just accept the fact that they are making shots. You’ve got to understand that the hardest thing you’re ever going to do is defend this title, and people are going to play their hearts out against us, and we’ve got to play our hearts out. And we haven’t done that for four quarters yet. We have yet to see four quarters of angry, hatred basketball like we used to play when people hated us. And that’s partly my job as a captain. And I carry a chip on my shoulder, and I’ve got to get it back, and it’s going to have to translate to everybody.’ Haslem praised the Knicks for the way they moved the ball and made contested shots. ‘But there’s certain things we could have done as a team overall, in the effort department, that could have made things a little bit tougher on them,’ Haslem said … ‘I think we just don’t understand that this is hard,’ Haslem said. ‘It’s hard to defend a title. This is my second time trying to do it, and it’s hard. Everybody gets up for you, everybody plays their hearts out against you, it’s everybody’s big game and teams are going to make shots. At one point, we felt like it was us against the world, and we felt like everybody hated us, and I guess we kind of lost that feeling. But I’ll figure out a scenario to make it seem like everybody still hates us. When we feel like it’s us against the world, and we feel like everybody hates us, that’s when we feel like we got something to prove, that’s when we play our best.'”