MIAMI _ Even before Stephen Curry went down with his broken hand Wednesday night there was something undeniably familiar about this season's Golden State Warriors to Miami Heat mainstay Udonis Haslem.
It's because he already was quite aware of how the highest NBA highs have a way of eventually turning into the lowest NBA lows.
So there were the Warriors, already having lost Kevin Durant to the Brooklyn Nets in free agency and then having to spend months or longer without Klay Thompson from his torn ACL.
Once invincible, the Warriors were merely mortal.
Sort of like the Heat in 2014-15, after LeBron James was lost back to the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency, and as Chris Bosh was lost for months (and eventually longer) due to blood clots. And even now as Curry will miss extensive time, the common link there is Dwyane Wade missing a quarter of that 2014-15 Heat season, mostly due to hamstring issues.
From four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and two titles, the Heat were left to claw for scraps, as the Warriors now must.
Life in the NBA's gassed lane is not for the faint of heart, especially from those passed on your previous way up.
"I do see the parallels," Haslem said. "I do see some of the same things that they're going through, and I definitely can relate to it in a lot of ways."
The Heat never made it all the way back from their Eastern near invincibility, at least not yet. They were alive for a playoff berth until the penultimate night of 2014-15. They would move within one game of the Eastern Conference finals a season later. Since then? A single playoff-game victory.
Now it's the Warriors waiting on Thompson and Curry to again make splashes, with no means to replace Durant. Still serving as a bridge to the Heat's next incarnation, Haslem appreciates the fortitude now required from the Warriors' front office and coaching staff.
"Obviously it's a huge, huge change," he said. "And it's difficult at first. But I think you've got to have veteran leadership, guys that have seen it all. I've been in situations where we've won 15 games; I've also been in situations where I'm at the top.
"So you've got to keep it all in perspective as you're going through those tough times and make sure everybody continues to have the right frame of mind, nobody comes in as energy vampires if you're having those difficult moments and difficult parts of the season."
Or at least those who are left. Unlike the Heat with Bosh and even eventually Wade for one and a half seasons, Curry and Thompson will be back.
In the interim, Haslem pointed to Draymond Green, the third element of the Warriors' original, pre-Durant Big Three, as a needed rudder.
"He's the last one left," Haslem said. "Klay's out. Obviously, Steph is out. Those guys will be around, but they won't be actually on the court. So Draymond is going to have to be a leader not only on the court, but also in the locker room and keeping those guys mentally and physically prepared. He's the only guy who knows right now what it takes."
That 2014-15 season provided particularly challenging for those who remained from the Heat's Finals teams. Opponents couldn't wait to exact revenge, and often did.
"You've got to have the right veterans to kind of fill in the gaps and patch up the holes and keep guys together," Haslem said. "It's not necessarily always going to be on the court. Sometimes, you've got to control the locker room."
Already there has been talk of a possible tank in Golden State, just as some suggested after LeBron walked away from Pat Riley. And, truth be told, the Heat did move in that direction after the first of Haslem's three titles with the Heat, in 2006, careening to 15-67 in 2007-08.
But after the loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2014 NBA Finals, Haslem said there almost was an organizational defiance about not capitulating. Now the question is whether such organizational fortitude remains for the Warriors after these months of emotional blows and years of championship fatigue.
"We never paid much attention to the outside noise," Haslem said. "One thing we've always tried to do was focus on the things in the locker room and keep everything in the house. I think the Warriors are similar in their mindset, in the way they think. And if I know guys like Draymond, they're going to fight to the end."
