Here’s the Miami Herald reporting on the Heat, whose starting lineup finally got a chance to actually play basketball together. A very helpful thing in the chemistry-development department.
This is what you would term a tease. It lasted just three minutes and 22 seconds, in the opening quarter of an open scrimmage with a running clock, a scrimmage significant mostly for the cause — breast cancer research and awareness. But this small slice of time, resulting in just four points, still represented the most promising stretch of the Heat’s preseason thus far.
That’s because it was the first time Miami’s projected starters were on the floor together in a competitive setting — Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Goran Dragic and now, center Hassan Whiteside, who, after rehabbing a calf injury for roughly three weeks, had been cleared after completing the morning practice.
This is the group Pat Riley envisioned since February, when he acquired Dragic, only to see Bosh’s season officially end that same day. Then, after a harrowing summer, in which Miami sweated Bosh’s recovery, Deng’s opt-in decision and Dragic and Wade’s contract negotiations, Whiteside’s injury delayed the process again.
Now Whiteside is back.
The Heat can finally move forward.
