Heat Hope Wins Can Be Found At Home
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Heat will try to right the ship starting Tuesday night as the team begins a stretch of playing the next eight out of nine games in the friendly confines of the AmericanAirlines Arena.
That's the good news for the Heat. The bad news is they will be playing without shooting guard Dwyane Wade for an undetermined period of time while the guard recovers from foot and ankle injuries.
As a result, the Heat will have to shuffle their starting lineup starting with Tuesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs.
Unlike during the 2010-2011 season, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has plenty of moving parts to play with on his roster.
LeBron James will be called on to score more, which shouldn't be a problem seeing as he has scored 29.5 points per game through 11 games in the current season.
It will also increase the need for Chris Bosh to try and push his game even higher than the 19 points and 8 rebounds a game he has now.
It will also mean that Spoelstra can experiment with lineups that could include putting LeBron at the power forward position and bringing in both point guards Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole at the same time in a game.
Spoelstra is still trying to get Shane Battier acclimated to Heat basketball, so increased minutes for the veteran won't hurt his development.
Plus, Spoelstra can call on Terrel Harris to have another wing player in the lineup.
The biggest question facing Spoelstra now is when to bring back Mike Miller. The shooting guard/small forward has been on the shelf all season after having surgery on a groin injury.
But, Miller said he's ready to come back and just needs to be worked back into the lineup.
Spoelstra has no need to rush Miller back into the lineup though and can continue to let him get fully healed before he starts to play him.
Still, with Wade out, it's not out of the realm of possibility for Spoelstra to give Miller at least a few minutes sooner rather than later.
The big enigma on the Heat, Eddy Curry, still hasn't made it into the rotation yet.
Curry, who stands 7' and weighs in the neighborhood of 275-285 pounds, has been working himself into game shape.
The Heat has been patient with Curry hoping that he can return to his old form and give the Heat a big body to throw at some of the opposing team's centers, while also putting in a bucket here and there.
