Miami-New Orleans: Heat Scorch Hornets For First Preseason Win, 97-81

Okay, the Miami Heat didn’t win any titles last night at the Sprint Center in Kansas City against the New Orleans Hornets.

Heck, they didn’t even win a regular season game. It was only an exhibition match between the two teams in front of an excited Missouri crowd torn between rooting for Julian Wright of the Hornets or Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley of the Heat.

Yet, it was a win for the boys from South Beach, and considering they’d entered last night’s game winless in the preseason, it was a much-needed one, as Miami dominated New Orleans 97-81.

The crowd was mixed in their enthusiasm for each team because both Wright and Chalmers had attended the University of Kansas in their college careers, while Beasley is an alumnus of Kansas State.

That didn’t keep the crowd from cheering, though. They simply cheered for both sides the entire game, enjoying the action immensely as they watched these two NBA franchises tune-up for the regular season ahead.

As Chalmers put it, “People didn’t know who to cheer for. It was kind of a different crowd, but it was a lot of fun.”

Going solely by the final score, it certainly was for Miami fans. For the first time since Miami beat Atlanta in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Hawks 95-79, the Heat put a W on the board rather than an L.

Just one night after being taken down in a tight 95-91 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, despite the incredible 24-point effort of Beasley, the Heat were able to take down Chris Paul and the Hornets in much easier fashion, mostly due to the double-double effort of that same Michael Beasley.

Dwyane Wade, returning from a strained rib muscle injury he’d sustained against the Orlando Magic that kept him out for two preseason games, looked impressive; scoring 14 points, grabbing three rebounds, and dishing out six assists in just under 23 minutes of play.

However, it was Beasley who was the star of the show as he muscled his way to 11 rebounds to go along with his 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting. The second-year forward for the Heat is trying to put the offseason, where he was forced to re-evaluate his life after a month-long stay in a drug rehabilitation program, and playing like he did last night he’ll quickly make fans forget about his troubles.

While he made a few mistakes on the defensive end, he seemed for the second game in a row to be a much different player than he was last year, when he appeared to have trouble with the NBA game after coming out for the draft after his freshman year in college.

Many of the Heat faithful had been concerned, myself included, that Beasley might not be taking his job seriously. Drug use is a strong indicator that someone lacks motivation and could lack a decent work ethic. Beasley put those concerns to rest, though, coming into camp in great shape and working harder than any Heat player on the team.

That hard work seems to have paid off, as he appears to finally be grasping the fundamentals of the NBA game. The Heat are trying to transition him into the small forward position in order to make use of his abilities on the starting squad, but on Thursday night he was spelling Udonis Haslem, who sat out of the game with a sore back.

Haslem is a firm fixture at power forward, and has earned his starting position. Last year, when Beasley was just a rookie, it seemed fine to bring him off the bench, utilizing his offensive production to provide a spark to the second team. However, that offensive production could more ably be used alongside Wade and the rest of the starters, and would give Michael more time on the floor.

Beasley’s production wasn’t the only positive from the game last night, either. Daequan Cook looked pretty good, pouring in 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 3-for-4 from downtown, to lead the Heat in scoring.

Chalmers, who had some problems in previous preseason games, looked nice as well in the win, knocking down five of the eight shots he put up for 10 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists.

The Hornets were led in scoring by Bobby Brown, who knocked down 8-of-13 shots for 18 points to lead all scorers, but it was their local Kansas product, the aforementioned Julian Wright, who provided a great game, going 3-for-5 shooting for 12 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and dishing out four assists.

He was joined by David West and Hilton Armstrong in providing the Hornets with four players in double figures, but it just wasn’t enough to beat the Heat as Chris Paul scored far less than his usual output, being limited to six points on 3-of-9 shooting to go along with his seven rebounds and four assists.

Carlos Arroyo, Miami’s newly acquired backup point guard accounted himself well in the Heat victory, scoring his first points in a Miami uniform. All told he had six points in 18 minutes, grabbed two rebounds, dished out three assists, and had one steal.

Joel Anthony also put in a workman like night, scoring eight points on 4-of-4 shooting to go along with his three rebounds and three blocks when he spelled Jermaine O’Neal, who had nine points, five rebounds, and three blocked shots of his own in his 20 minutes of play. O’Neal, like Wade, was playing again after sitting out the game against the Thunder due to an ankle injury he suffered in practice being kicked by Anthony.

While D-Wade is the star of the Miami show, last night the spotlight was on the two young Heat players who played ball for the local colleges and provided so many great memories during Big 12 conference tournaments at the Sprint Center for the Missouri and Kansas fans.

Thankfully, for the Heat, the two who play for Miami didn’t disappoint those fans.

Quote taken from AP article on the game.