NBA playoffs: Miami Heat is elite, but is it championship caliber? MIAMI - LeBron James lay on his stomach in the middle of the floor of the Miami Heat locker room as a trainer stretched his legs and feet before a game last Sunday. He convulsed with laughter for more than a minute, his back bobbing, hand slapping the carpet, as he watched repeated replays of Metta World Peace decking James Harden with an elbow during that afternoon's game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder. Dwyane Wade walked over with a microwave-safe container of pasta and a bottle of water and the pair traded estimates about the length of the inevitable suspension, which turned out to be seven games. "That's crazy," James said. I never seen nothing like that in my life. Actually, James has seen plenty while wearing a Heat uniform over the last two seasons, much of it crazy, some of it painful, other parts exhilarating - but little of it amusing. In just over a year, the Heat has evolved from the NBA's most hated and feared franchise to merely one of the league's elite teams, a squad whose playoff expectations are enormous - NBA title or bust - but prospects quite uncertain. Though Miami won the Eastern Conference's second seed with a 46-20 record, earning the right to face the New York Knicks in a home playoff opener Saturday, concerns abound. The Heat's fade in last year's Finals has not been forgotten. Miami's struggles on the road, its erratic play during the second half of the lockout-shortened season and recent defeats to quality teams raise questions. And then there are the obvious holes at the edges of its much-celebrated lineup, which features no stellar point guard or center. "We have a lot of critics," Coach Erik Spoelstra said. We talk about that all the time. None of it matters. We know what we're playing for; we know the journey we have to go on, and we only have each other to lean on. . . . We have to continue to try to improve and try to stay committed to our truth. The truth is, the Heat remains as theoretically imposing as it did in the summer of 2011, when James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh signed free agent contracts to give the Heat an unparalleled Big Three. James arguably has been the game's most dominant player this season, and Miami has manhandled teams at home, at one point compiling 17 straight victories. Its stars like to play defense. The playoffs are here, and Wade has proven himself one of the biggest big-game performers ever. James, meantime, has been a more complete and versatile player while putting forth numbers that justify the "MVP!" chants he received at home nearly every time he stepped to the free throw line in the season's final days. Yet the backdrop to every early-round success the Heat accrues will be the ghost of its humbling defeat to the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals in six games last year. As Houston Rockets Coach Kevin McHale pointed out this past week, no matter his regular season achievements, James won't go down as among the historic great players without winning a title - and this Heat team won't merit such recognition, either, without taking home the Finals trophy.