Suns head to South Beach tonight at 7

Miami has had some rest, worked on some new schemes, and nursed some minor bruises. Now, it is time to play. The Suns are coming into tonight hot, and are going to be looking to put them Heat on Miami. Lets take a look at what needs to happen for the Heat to pull off the W in South Beach.

Good minutes from the starting rotation. Haslem and Wade were both able to tend to their minor injuries, and will be playing tonight. On top of that, big Z is assumed to be in the starting line up yet again. This is probably due to the fact that he was able to put up 12 points in his last outing. Quality minutes from him, as well as has Anthony, Jones, Haslem, and Stack will be essentially to win against the Phoenix Suns high-octane offence. 

I have already talked about defense last night, so I will not spend much time on. Basically, lock up their shooters, play good transition D, and no open looks.

Jason Richardson comes into this game with a league high 31 3 point buckets. Steve Nash needs to be cut off so that he can not find Jason for open looks. Contain Nash, and Richardson will have a hard time as well.

LeBron and Wade have to set their own pace for this game. Don't just adhere to what the Suns are giving you. If they want to push the tempo faster, they need to push it faster. LeBron and Dwayne are too good to just allow what the Suns want to do. I know the Heat are a new squad, but if all else fails, they need to take over.

I want to see LeBron and Dwayne set the precedent this game. I expect to see them play much better together, and I also expect Bosh to be more involved. With Amare out of Phoenix, Bosh should not have that hard of a time getting looks. I want him to put up at least 15 points tonight, and hit the boards for about 10 rebounds.

REBOUNDS. The Heat have to dominate the boards tonight. Long rebounds lead to fast breaking opportunities for the Suns, and offensive rebounds leave most defenses out of place and give the Suns good looks at the basket. Everyone on the Heat tonight has to help out and grab some boards.

This will be an intense game tonight. However, I believe that if the Heat will come together and get some solid team work going. The time they have spent together resting in the past few days should come in handy, and I expect to see most players (if not all) on the same page. If the Heat can get firing on all cylinders, even if it is only for a brief amount of time, the Suns are in trouble. 

LeBron is going to step up and give Miami a big W tonight. I predict 25 points from him with close to 10 assists and 5 or 6 rebounds. The Heat are going to demonstrate a lot of improvement tonight, and we are all going to witness a strong and resilient squad.

The Heat are going to make a statement tonight, courtesy of the Phoenix Suns.

Get em.