1.Miami 2.New York 3.Washington 4.Orlando 5.New Jersey 6.Philadelphia 7.Boston

After the Bulls had administered the deathblow in the conference finals, Miami coach Pat Riley ruminated on the source of his team's downfall. In the course of his cogitations one name kept coming up: Alonzo Mourning, the Heat's highest-paid player.

"He's got to deal with team defense," Riley said of his center, Mourning, who, flustered by Chicago's collapsing defense, shot just 46.8% from the field (down from his regular-season average of 53.4%) and averaged two more turnovers per game (5.4) than he did in the regular season. "It's like a quarterback who has got to be able to recognize defenses before they actually begin to come at him," Riley said. "I think his instinct to be aggressive doesn't allow him to anticipate those things all the time."

Riley was echoing a concern voiced throughout the Miami organization about Mourning's ability to take the heat in the playoffs. In 1996-97 the Heat set a franchise record with 61 regular-season victories and won the second-most road games in NBA history (32). But Chicago defeated Miami in five games in the playoffs. As Riley sees it, the key, if the Heat is ever to topple the Bulls, is Mourning.

The center's immense defensive talent is indisputable, but he is limited on offense. He has trouble creating his own shot, and his failure to react quickly to the double team against the Bulls hurt Miami tremendously. That's why this summer Mourning worked on kicking the ball outside when the defense bore down on him in the pivot. "He needs to improve," says Riley, "but we cannot make him what he's not."

To take some of the offensive pressure off Mourning, the Heat signed free-agent forward Terry Mills in August. With Mills, who shot 42.2% from beyond the three-point arc for Detroit last season, Miami will be able to surround Mourning with a quartet of fine three-point shooters: Mills, forward Jamal Mashburn and guards Tim Hardaway and Voshon Lenard. Mills may be a bit pudgy, and he is a weak defender—two cardinal sins in the book of Riley—but his signing was necessary.

"I think I can take a lot of pressure off a guy like Alonzo Mourning," says Mills, who turned down a larger offer from Detroit to sign a two-year, $2.15 million deal with Miami. "The Heat had the best opportunity for me to win a championship."

Mills should fit in well with his teammates, who are a confident lot all around. Every player on the roster seems to honestly believe that the team has a nucleus of talent that will someday bring a championship to Miami—if only after Michael Jordan retires. "If we can keep our core together, our time will come," says Mourning. "The sky is the limit for our potential."

One player has already realized his potential. Hardaway played 5 1/2 seasons with Golden State, but the last season and a half were relatively unproductive. However, in 1996-97, his first full season in Miami, Hardaway established himself as one of the best point guards in the game. His backcourt mate, Lenard, needs to improve his ball handling to become a better all-around player, but the shooting guard is positively lethal from beyond the arc—he connected on 41.4% of his three-pointers last season. In fact, Miami led the league in treys, with 678, and Lenard and Hardaway combined for 386 of them, the most by any guard duo in the NBA. Those numbers should increase this season despite the extended three-point line, assuming Mourning can detect the double team more quickly and distribute the ball to the perimeter.

The forwards, Mashburn and P.J. Brown, are great complements to Mourning. Mashburn, who was acquired by the Heat from Dallas last February, seems to have finally recovered from a knee injury sustained two years ago, and the hope in Miami is that he can experience the same type of turnaround that Hardaway did in his first full season under Riley. Brown doesn't score much, but he has a big body and is one of the league's better defensive power forwards. Backing up Mourning and Brown is 6'10" supersub Isaac Austin, who was named the league's most improved player last season.

"It has been a lot of fun watching this team grow," says Riley. "What I don't want to be is so overjoyed with what we did that we do not do anything and we prove to be a one-hit wonder."

The Heat will again be the hit of the Atlantic Division in 1997-98, but whether Miami can top the charts in the East depends on a virtuoso performance by Alonzo Mourning.

—Lars Anderson