CLEVELAND—
Add the Miami Heat to the list of those embracing Jeremy Lin.
For the first time since LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh signed on to play together in July 2010, the Heat have been pushed out of the NBA spotlight.
“It’s not even just us,” Wade said after Thursday’s practice at Quicken Loans Arena, in advance of Friday’s game there against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Everyone is slipping under the radar.”
Wade said he was amused that even with the San Antonio Spurs in the midst of a nine-game winning streak, Tony Parker’s 34-point, 14-assist game Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors was lost in the Lin-sanity.
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”Nothing,” Wade said of the void of Heat national notice amid their run of 15 victories in the last 18 games. “Everyone has their time in the sun and right now it’s Jeremy Lin and the Knicks’ time in the sun, and more power to ‘em.”
Wade joked how Lin could wind up eclipsing James for Player of the Month.
“You got some competition now,” he said. “It’s the Lin Show!”
And, yes, James is watching, too.
“He’s playing some good ball and they’re winning, that’s the best thing about it,” he said, with the Knicks to visit AmericanAirlines Arena next Thursday, the teams’ final game before the All-Star break.
Chalmers good to go
After sitting out the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s victory over the Indiana Pacers with a sore left hand, point guard Mario Chalmers said he plans to be in the starting lineup for Friday’s conclusion to this six-game trip. Chalmers missed the opener of the trip against the Orlando Magic with a sprained left hand.
“The hand feels pretty good,” he said. “I went through the whole practice.”
Following the full-contact session, coach Erik Spoelstra said he expects the hand to be a lingering concern.
“He got hit again,” Spoelstra said of Wednesday’s contact with Pacers point guard Darren Collison, “so it was sore. It’ll probably be like that for a couple of weeks.”
Center Dexter Pittman, who bruised his left shoulder in Sunday’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks and has missed the past two games, was held out of Thursday’s practice.
“He’s been able to do some conditioning,” Spoelstra said. “We felt like he could probably go today, but we wanted to keep him out because we went contact.”
Rookie guard Terrel Harris was ill and missed Thursday’s session.
Letting it fly
Chalmers said he was hopeful but still somewhat surprised when extended an invitation Wednesday by the NBA to join teammate James Jones in the six-player field for the Feb. 25 3-point contest during All-Star Saturday.
Chalmers said he has experience shooting and succeeding off ball racks, having won a similar competition coming out of high school at the McDonald’s All-America game.
“I also did it in college just to work on my shot,” he said of shooting off ball racks. “I’m going to get some workouts in to get some reps and see how it feels.”
Irving back
Friday will be Kyrie Irving’s second game back after the Cavaliers rookie point guard was lost for three games with a concussion sustained when falling into Wade’s knee a week ago at AmericanAirlines Arena.
”I tried to move out of the way,” Wade said Thursday. “The first thing I was thinking was normally when you’re down in the paint like that, and guys fall, they go into your knee, and it’s bad for you. So I was trying to move out of the way.
”You never want anybody to get hurt and I didn’t think he hit it hard, but it doesn’t take much.”
iwinderman@tribune.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat
