Preseason Winds Down—Miami Heat Tested Before Start of Season Against Knicks

The Miami Heat take on the Memphis Grizzlies tonight in their second-to-last game of the preseason, which hasn’t been all that kind to the Miami franchise. The Heat started out the exhibition season with four straight losses before getting off the snide with a scorching 97-81 victory over the New Orleans Hornets, which you can read about here .

Tonight’s matchup features the debut at AmericanAirlines Arena of Allen Iverson with his new team, and there’ll be plenty of people hoping to see how well he gels with his new teammates. More important for Miami fans will be how well their own players do, especially new acquisition Carlos Arroyo.

Other concerns for fans of the boys from South Beach will be whether forward Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers can once again have a solid game and allay worries about how they’ll perform this coming year. I’m confident they’ll both account themselves well this evening.

Although it wasn’t clear from reports I’d read prior to the game whether Miami’s star guard, Dwyane Wade, would play tonight, from the progress reports I’ve read of the game, he is playing, and playing well, providing Miami fans with the excitement only he can.

Tomorrow’s matchup will see the Heat play the team that ousted them in the first round of the playoffs last year, the Atlanta Hawks, and will be the final preseason game for Miami (Atlanta will play the Orlando Magic in their final preseason game on Friday night).

In that contest I’m sure there’ll be a little desire by Miami players to exact some revenge for last year’s five-game postseason defeat.

However, more important than getting revenge in a meaningless exhibition matchup will be making sure the Heat solidify their lineup for the upcoming season, which begins a week from tonight in Miami against their longtime Eastern Conference rival, the New York Knicks.

The Knicks, whose fans still have hopes of obtaining D-Wade in the upcoming 2010 Free Agent bonanza, won’t be featuring any new faces other than Darko Milicic, acquired from the team Miami plays tonight, the Grizzlies, in the offseason, and who will be backing up their starting center, Eddy Curry.

Instead, the Heat will be facing the same players they faced at the end of last year when they played the Knicks: Chris Duhon at the point, Larry Hughes at the two guard, Wilson Chandler and David Lee at the forward positions, and the aforementioned Curry in the post.

Whatever happens in these two games tonight and tomorrow, the Miami Heat should be well-positioned to take on those self-same Knicks next week.

And while New York has some talented players, including reserve guard Nate Robinson and forwards Al Harrington and Danilo Gallinari coming off the bench, Miami isn’t without the weapons in their own arsenal to fend off that opening night attack.

I truly believe head coach Erik Spoelstra, or “Spo” as he’s known to fans, will have this Heat team ready for their debut, no matter what happens in these final two exhibition games. Miami’s players have put in the work over the offseason, and Dwyane Wade and many others on the team are looking to make this a breakout year.

Miami went 43-39 last year with tumultuous in-season trades affecting their chemistry, not to mention the fact they started a rookie point guard and the second-best player on their team was also a rookie. This year the team will have much more cohesion in my view, and I expect marked improvement from both Chalmers and Beasley.

That, along with the veteran presence and outstanding play of those on the roster such as Jermaine O’Neal, Udonis Haslem, Quentin Richardson, and James Jones, could make for an improvement of possibly 10 games or more in my view. The first of those possible 53+ wins should come against the Knicks next week.

Miami will follow that game up with one against the Pacers two nights later, and those two games, right out of the gate, will go a long way in revealing whether the Miami franchise has the makings of something special this year, or whether the fans will be calling for changes.

For my money, I’d say it’s a good bet Miami dominates both teams to end October, and begin their season on a 2-0 run in the win-loss column.

As another writer here on B/R said in the title and body of his preview of the upcoming season for Miami: Bring the Heat!