Miami Heat finally come through

Coming into the NBA Finals, if there was an area where theOklahoma City Thunder seemed to have a distinct and clear advantage over Miami itwould be in the supporting cast category.Most believed that once you got past the Finals big-timestarsMiamis LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and the Thunders Kevin Durant andRussell Westbrookthat the Heat were in trouble.I know I did. But not so fast.While there is no doubt James was the best player of theseries, and that Wade proved to be the perfect complement, Miami doesnt winthe thing unless it gets above-and-beyond performances from the rest of thecrew.And it sure didnt hurt that on the other side, theThunders role players werent very good at all.Thats not to take anything away from James, who won hisfirst NBA title in his third try. James is going to get plenty of credit forhis play this season, this postseason and this series. And rightfully so. Hesthe best player on Planet Earth and now hes a champion. Only a fool would tryto dissect his game toward the negative at this point.But on all championship teams, the superstars must get somehelp. Bill Russell needed it, Michael Jordan needed it, and so did Larry Bird,Magic Johnson and any other Hall-of-Famer or all-time great out there withjewelry.James and Wade were so effective that the Heat only neededsporadic contributions from other players during the course of the series. ButMiami got better than that.Shane Battier hit 3-pointers all series long, Mario Chalmersmade big plays throughout the series and Mike Miller had a monster Game 5, theclincher.All the while, Chris Bosh was steady, though notspectacular, and Norris Cole and Udonis Haslem were positives when calledupon.On the other hand, it would be tough for any OKC player notnamed Durant or Westbrook to feel good about his Finals performance. JamesHarden, the teams sixth man and an integral part of the Thunders offense justcouldnt find any consistency in his game.He didnt create like he did in past series, didnt makeenough 3-pointers and had little to no impact when matched up againstJames.Kendrick Perkins, the alleged defensive anchor of team, wasineffectual. He didnt defend the rim well, didnt use his fouls wisely and hisoffense was cringe-worthy.Serge Ibaka had been what analysts like to refer as anX-factor throughout much of the playoffs, but he didnt do much of note,either. That jumper hed been knocking down for most of the postseason wentmissing. And his shot-blockingwith the exception of Game 2 -- left,too.The versatile Thabo Sefalosha was instrumental in defendingpoint guard Tony Parker in the Western Conference finals, but he couldnt doanything to slow down James.Meanwhile, Battier made 15-of-26 3-pointers in the series,Chalmers threw in 25 pointsall of which seemed meaningfulin a criticalGame 4 win for Miami, and Miller pretty much went nuts in Thursdays clincher,draining 7 of 8 from beyond the arc and finishing with 23 points in just 23minutes.James deserved his MVP award, but you can only rack up thekind of assist numbers he didhow about 25 total in the final two games when your teammates are making shots.On the way to the Finals, the Thunder got terrific play fromtheir role playersnever more so than in the Western Conference finals whenthey rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win four straight vs. San Antonio.Most assumed the Thunder already had come of age, but aspressure-filled as their run through the West was, the NBA Finals are different they just are.Chalmers, Miller, Bosh and Haslem were all around lastseason, when the Dallas Mavericks turned back the Heat. On Thursday, it becamecrystal clear that experience counted for something.Hey, the Heat obviously doesnt win the title without LeBronJames. But then again, LeBron James doesnt win his first title without hisrole-playing teammates getting the better of their OKC counterparts.