Can the Miami Heat Overtake the Atlanta Hawks in the East? Tonight Might Tell

After the last two Miami Heat games, which made this fan’s heart go up and down like a yo-yo; the Heat wasting a career high 50-point effort by Dwyane Wade in a blowout loss to the Orlando Magic, and then two days later beating one of their long-time rivals, the Detroit Pistons on a night Wade set another career high in assists with 16.

What can we expect for the rest of the season? That’s a question a little more time will give us a better grasp on. Breaking in new acquisitions Jermaine O’Neal and Jamario Moon will take a little time.

Both, however, have been just as up and down as the Heat over their first four games. In the blowout loss to the Magic, and the disappointing loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, both of these players seemed to be auditioning for the part of the Invisible Man in some off-Broadway play.

In the wins against the Philadelphia 76ers">Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Pistons though, they both seemed to be showing some promise of possibly being just what the Miami Heat needs in their push for a better playoff seed.

Will O’Neal and Moon be enough though to surpass the Atlanta Hawks and grab the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs? Again, only time will tell, but Miami Heat fans shouldn’t take the first four games as such a great measuring stick.

I truly believe we’ve yet to see the best from either of these players, and I have a feeling we just might see it soon – like tonight.

The Miami Heat face the Hawks tonight on the road in Atlanta, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see O’Neal put up big numbers.

Atlanta will be starting 2nd-year center Al Horford, whose career high in scoring is merely 27 points against the Chicago Bulls last November, although he has posted a career high in rebounds just this month against the Los Angeles Lakers with 20.

The 13-year veteran center of the Miami Heat, Jermaine O’Neal, on the other hand, has posted a career high of 55 points in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, and has scored as many as 36 points just two months ago against the Sacramento Kings.

O’Neal also surpasses Horford in the career high rebounding category, having grabbed 21 boards once against the Washington Wizards, even if that was in 2002. However, he grabbed 18 boards against the Miami Heat when he was a member of the Toronto Rapters just this season, so he is still capable of great rebounding efforts.

Horford is certainly an up-and-coming young center, and has the ability to be a very good one, and there’s no doubt the possibility is there that O’Neal could be schooled by him this evening. I just think Jermaine is going to show what a crafty veteran he is tonight, and is going to get the better of Al.

Moon, on the other hand, will have to work hard to surpass the numbers the Atlanta Hawks small forward, Marvin Williams, is likely to put up. Marvin is averaging 13.9 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 1.3 APG and posted a season high 31 points Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets in a 110-109 loss.

Those are pretty impressive numbers coming from a small forward who is the Hawks fourth option behind Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby, and Josh Smith.

Considering Jamario is averaging just over half the points Williams is this season, and has yet to score more than 12 points in any of his four games with the Heat, he’ll have to really turn it up to make up for what Williams is almost assuredly going to throw at us.

Of course, Moon, being a very good defender, might just limit Williams in his efforts, so who knows. And he’s likely to be sharing the small forward duties for Miami with Yakhouba Diawara and even Daequan Cook most of the night.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           There is even talk that James Jones, who has missed the last three games with an injury to his right hand, might make an appearance at small forward tonight. According to the Miami Herald, Coach Eric Spoelstra has stated that James "shot the lights out" in practice and would play with an elastic brace over his injured hand.

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