Miami Heat Items, 10/8

Various injuries have Chris Quinn, James Jones and of course Shaun Livingston out of action in Paris. My general policy is to not worry about minor injuries until they start affecting regular-season minutes.

This guy needs to lighten up just a little bit: "I'm going to organize some team functions, together, to try to bond the team," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "But it can't be forced. It's got to be something that happens on its own."

Spoelstra's also being a hard-ass about practice: Spoelstra followed through with plans for the team to practice on those dead legs just hours after landing. Players did catch a bit of a break. The noon start of practice was pushed back about 90 minutes.

Dwyane Wade says these games against the Nets are going to suck because the court is awful: "It's terrible," Wade said. "It's got a lot of dead spots. It's very slippery. The NBA needs to change it. It's so many dead spots, there's going to be so many turnovers (Thursday). But yeah, it's terrible."

ALUMNI NOTES: The Heat were apparently never interested in bringing back Keyon Dooling...Smush Parker is making a run at a roster spot in Denver...Dallas may buy out Eddie Jones...the Lakers are having a hard time finding a place for Lamar Odom...Wayne Simien will play in Spain.