Heat second-year forward Michael Beasley played on a loaded prep school team at Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass., in 2007. He was the main cog on a team that also featured two of the better college forwards in the East this past season in Providence College's Jamine Peterson and Duquesne's Damian Saunders. "We were good, real tough up front," Beasley said.

Asked if he saw any of Peterson's high-flying jams for the Friars this season, Beasley said he did not. "Greedy's my man. He dunked on me a few times, for sure," he said.

It's a very late-arriving crowd at American Airlines Arena. At tip-off there were literally thousands of empty seats, many in prime locations. By halftime most of the seating bowl was filling up...The Heat prominently display their lone NBA championship (2006) banner but also hang two other odd sheets in honor of Michael Jordan and Dan Marino. Jordan's came courtesy of Heat president Pat Riley who simply felt the Bulls' star deserved one. Marino is this city's certifiable football god, even though he never won a Super Bowl...The TV play-by-play men of the Celtics and Heat both share Rhode Island roots. Mike Gorman has called Celtics games since the early 1980's when he was also a Providence TV personality. Miami's Eric Reid was Providence College's radio voice from 1982-88 before joining the Heat in its very first NBA season.