3 p.m. update: Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who has missed the past six games with a hamstring injury, said today that he will skip Sunday's All-Star Game in New York and that it wouldn't be smart for him to play Wednesday in Cleveland, the Heat's final game before the break.
"I felt like this was best," Wade said. "I wasn't going to play much either way. I think with the circumstances, the smartest thing to do is let someone else come in and really enjoy the All-Star experience. ... I think I owe it to the Heat fans to at least play in a Heat jersey first than go out there in the All-Star Game and play a couple minutes."
Commissioner Adam Silver will fill Wade's roster spot on the All-Star team. Atlanta's Kyle Korver and Milwaukee's Brandon Knight are among the possibilities.
Wednesday's game will be the Heat's 52nd game and the 17th Wade has missed. "It's going to be an interesting second half of the season for us, because we've got something to play for," Wade said. "We'll see how we respond."
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11 p.m. Heat report: The night began inauspiciously, with the dreadful Knicks surging ahead by 14 and Chris Bosh missing five of his first six shots.
But Bosh then erupted, scoring 32 on Monday, and a Heat team that too often has faded in the second half of games did the opposite, outscoring the visiting Knicks by 18 after intermission in a 109-95 win, snapping a three-game losing streak.
And this was unusual for the Heat this season: All three of its point guards played well.
Mario Chalmers (18 points, six assists, five rebounds, three steals) played with an attacking mentality throughout.
Norris Cole had 12 points, making four of six shots, with eight assists.
Shabazz Napier hit a three early in the second half, his only field goal of the game, and had three assists, three steals and no turnovers. Napier has 19 assists and two turnovers in his past four games, quite an improvement for a player who was among the league’s worst in assist-to-turnover ratio for most of the season.
“They were great in the second half,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of his point guards. “They set the tone for us defensively and made the right decisions at the other end, getting into the paint, making plays.”
Bosh put it this way: “The point guards were fantastic tonight. If they play well --- I don’t want to put pressure on them --- we’re tough to beat.”
The Heat made 12 of 22 three-pointers (including four by Bosh and three by Chalmers), shot 53 percent in its 57-point second half and 12 for 18 in the fourth quarter. In fact, this was the Heat’s biggest offensive output since scoring 114 in the second game of the season, at Philadelphia, and its largest comeback of the season in a victory. Miami entered averaging 92.4 points, 29th in the league.
With the score tied at 74 late in the third quarter, the Heat unleashed a 31-14 run to take control. The Knicks drew within 84-80 with 8:39 left but got no closer.
Bosh scored 16 in the first half, four in the third and 12 in the fourth, finishing 12 for 23 from the field. He said he enjoyed his six assists more than the 32 points. Both were needed on a night Dwyane Wade missed his sixth game in a row with a hamstring injury.
"It was a good night; we really started to play our style,” Bosh said. “As tough as it’s been this year, we always come to play…. That’s what I’ve loved about this group.”
Nursing a sprained ankle, Hassan Whiteside said before Monday’s game that he couldn’t jump as high as usual but still high enough “to dunk on people.” It took Whiteside slightly more than a half to put his imprint on this game.
Whiteside went to halftime scoreless and with three rebounds and three fouls in 11 minutes. He began the third with a dunk and had seven points, six rebounds and a block in 8:08 of the third before picking up his fourth foul (and a technical foul for complaining). He never returned, playing only 19 minutes, closing with seven points, nine rebounds and two blocks.
“It took me a while to get used to being back out there with the guys,” said Whiteside, who missed the previous game.
Chris Andersen delivered a jolt when Whiteside left, finishing with 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks, with all the blocks coming in the fourth quarter.
“Both are supporting each other; both are emotionally stable enough now to know it’s a collective… productivity that we need [at center],” Spoelstra said.
With Brooklyn losing to Milwaukee, the Heat moved a game ahead of the Nets for eighth in the East. At 22-29, Miami is tied with No. 7 Charlotte, which owns the tiebreaker at the moment.
While Bosh sizzled after a slow start, Carmelo Anthony cooled. He opened five for five, including four three-pointers, and scored 14 points in the game’s first nine minutes. He then missed 8 of his next 10 shots and later left for good with a sore knee with the Knicks down seven and 7:30 left. He finished with 26.
The Heat, on the wrong end of a 22-4 first-quarter run, avoided the embarrassment of losing to a team that entered 3-22 on the road and had lost 26 of 27 overall at one point this season.
### Wade worked out three hours before the game but Spoelstra said Wade is “not planning” to travel to Cleveland for Wednesday’s final game before the All-Star break, though Spoelstra didn’t completely rule it out.
### Besides Wade, the Heat also played without James Ennis (knee issue) and Shawne Williams (hip).
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Because Ryan Tannehill has been operating under a rookie contract, the Dolphins have been able to make personnel mistakes the past few years (and they’ve certainly made more than their fair share) without being banished to salary cap hell.
That will change in the next year or two and it will make it far more difficult for the Dolphins to stomach the type of dead money they’ve had in recent years from premature divorces with Brandon Marshall, Karlos Dansby, Kevin Burnett and many others. In other words, the pain and consequences of making salary cap missteps will be heightened once Tannehill becomes a lot more costly. And that day is coming soon.
As The Herald has reported, the Dolphins are open to striking a long-term deal with Tannehill this offseason. The Sentinel’s Dave Hyde mentioned seven years, $105 million as possible contract terms, but not a certainty by any means. An offer hasn’t been made, but the issue is being discussed inside the Dolphins front office.
A few points to consider:
### Tannehill’s cap hit was $3.4 million last season and at the moment is set to be $4 million in 2015. It will jump dramatically either when a new contract kicks in or in 2016, when his salary is assured of jumping exponentially. The Dolphins intend to pick up his 2016 option (which would pay him north of $15 million that season) by the early May deadline if they cannot reach a longterm deal before then.
For perspective, Cincinnati's Andy Dalton, who last August signed a six-year contract that could be worth as much as $115 million, will have the following cap numbers over the next six seasons: $9.6 million, $13.1, $15.7, $16.3, $16.2 and $17.7. (This, providing he remains on the Bengals under terms of the current contract.)
San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick, who last June signed a six-year deal that could be worth as much as $126 million, will have cap hits of $15.3 million, $16.8, $19.3, $19.8, $19.2 and $21.4.
### Whatever Tannehill signs for, it won’t necessarily be as much as reported. For perspective, Dalton’s contract is basically a two-year, $25 million deal with a bunch of one-year options, as Pro Football Talk explained it. It would be worth $35.7 million over three years, $49 million over four years and $62.9 million over five years.
Kaepernick’s deal could be two years and $28 million in the unlikely event the 49ers part with him. It would be $82 million over five years.
### Keep in mind that Tannehill had a higher quarterback rating this past season (92.8) than Kaepernick (86.4) or Dalton (83.3). Tannehill was 14th, Kaepernick 20th and Dalton 25th.
Couple other quick notes:
### Marlins GM Dan Jennings told Sirius XM Radio’s Jim Bowden that the target date for Jose Fernandez’s return from Tommy John surgery is between June 15 and July 15.
### So UM today lost both its receiver coach Brennan Carroll (to his father’s Seattle Seahawks staff) and former oral commitment Terrell Chatman (who chose Arizona State).
So where does that leave UM? With former Hurricane Kevin Beard as its receiver coach and nine scholarship receivers, headlined by Stacy Coley (23 catches for 184 yards in a disappointing sophomore season), Rashawn Scott (sat out last season with an injury), Herb Waters (20 for 277 last season), Malcolm Lewis (25 for 248) and Braxton Berrios (21-232). That’s the likely top five.
Four looking to crack that group: Darrell Langham, Tyre Brady, D’Mauri Jones (one catch, 13 yards last season) and freshman Lawrence Cager. Brady is 6-3, Langham and Jones 6-4 and Cager 6-5. So one of those four could emerge as a red zone threat.
Of Beard's promotion to receiver coach, former UM great Reggie Wayne said: "I believe they have found the right guy to finally get us back to Receiver U."
Twitter: @flasportsbuzz... Please check back in a couple of hours for Heat notes.
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