Friday Updates

Quick update from Friday’s practice:

Neither the Hawks nor Heat were willing to give away who they were starting at small forward on Sunday night.  While Coach Spo is simply keeping it a secret, Hawks coach Mike Woodson thinks that Marvin Williams, who has missed some time with a bad back, may be good to go for Game 1. 

If Spoelstra give us the ultimate jaw-dropper and starts Michael Beasley at the 3…that would just be sick.  I am of the opinion that any way you can get Beasley more minutes, the better.  The news out of Heat practice today was that they rotated several different players at small forward, the usual Yakhouba Diawara and James Jones, but Daequan Cook was also thrown into the mix. 

Also, Jamario Moon was back at practice and was working with the first-team, but so was Udonis Haslem and Beasley, so let the guessing game begin.  If Spo doesn’t go with Beasley, I think rotating Jones and Kooba depending on the matchup and situation of the game (Kooba for D, Jones for offense) would be best, and Moon can be tossed in when the Heat want to speed up the offense. 

Jermaine O’Neal said that he is fully recovered and ready to roll on Sunday, as is Udonis Haslem.  While he still has 6 stitches in his right thumb, they aren’t hindering him. 

So just to recap, we know who 4 of the Heat’s starting 5 will be (O’Neal, Haslem, Wade and Chalmers).  That’s about it…

OK, finally going back inside now.  If nothing gets posted until Sunday morning, accept my deepest apologies and send your complaints to Comcast.