like I said in my other post, the other teams in the west got better. and since the lakers were in the finals 3 years in a row, who do you think the other teams in the west were preparing for the most during their offseasons? they all had plenty of time to figure out what the weaknesses are and how to exploit them.we don't bring it up before losing, because as a fan you always hope to see your team go all the way. there's a reason it's damn near impossible to 4-peat though.
the heat are going to have a real hard time making any improvements to the roster. seeing as how they have no capspace and the new cba will most likely only make things worse.