by Micah Hart

Each day until the end of the NBA Finals, we’ll be taking a look at the conventional wisdom of the moment — which team is currently the favorite to win it all, and which team should be ashamed to still be putting on its jerseys.

Here’s how it looks on the morning of Wednesday, May 25.

Start planning the parade:

Miami Heat

The Heat are getting excellent play from LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. That much we probably could have expected. What we didn’t count on, but Miami has been able to rely upon throughout these playoffs, are clutch performances by some of the Heat’s much-maligned bench players.

Last night it was the ghost of Mike Miller who got his turn in the spotlight, hitting several clutch shots down the stretch to keep Miami in the game long enough for the SuperFriends to eventually take over.

All along it was thought that if you could coax a bad game or two out of Miami’s big three you would have them, because they’d have no one else to rely on. But with guys like Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, Miller, and James Jones each making plays at various points in these playoffs, that strategy is coming up empty.

Give it up already:

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Bulls would appear just as dead in the water as the Thunder, but at least their Game 5 will be played at home.

OKC will be in Dallas tonight for their final contest of the 2010-11 season. It’d make for a great story if they could nab a victory and send the series back to Oklahoma, but this ain’t no fairy tale. Young teams (or old, for that matter) don’t come back from the kind of mental devastation that was Game 4.

After tonight, the Thunder will go gentle into that good night.

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