Heat Outduel Wizards

With Shawn Marion back from his two-game absence due to a groin injury, the Miami Heat cruised to a 97-77 win over the Washington Wizards, who are already one-third of the way towards last season's win total.

Marion started and got about 29 minutes of playing time. He played well and looked very fluid, on his way to 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 12 rebounds. He did a lot of things that do not show up on the stat sheet, though. His energy on both ends of the court was missed in Wednesday's loss to Portland.

The best player on the court for Miami was (as usual) Dwyane Wade. At the end of 24 minutes of action, Miami had a comfortable 12-point lead. But Wade's 12-point third-quarter performance effectively put the game away, as the third quarter concluded with Miami up by 23. Wade made his first four shots and ended up with 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Wade was also able to sit out the fourth quarter, some valuable rest for the player who has had to do a lot of the heavy lifting thus far.

Michael Beasley went away from the Antawn Jamison comparisons and more towards the Rasheed Wallace comparisons tonight. Beasley had a one-handed put-back dunk that got a roar from the crowd in the second quarter and drove past Caron Butler for a third-quarter jam. Beasley's six rebounds were underwhelming, so he'll have to do some more work to get closer to Wallace. However, Beasley displayed a certain level of willingness to get his hands dirty tonight on offense. He finished with 19 points on 9-of-17 shooting.

After letting Portland take them apart on the boards, the Heat were much better rebounding tonight. Miami won the battle of the boards handily, 52-33. In addition to Marion's 12 and Beasley's six, Udonis Haslem grabbed 13 boards and Daequan Cook continued to show his assertiveness on defense with six rebounds.

Haslem had 13 points to go along with his 13 rebounds. Haslem shot an efficient six-of-nine from the field and blocked two shots. There was no apparent height differential between Haslem and Etan Thomas, a plus for Miami. Haslem's new backup, Joel Anthony, struggled with his offense (one-for-four from the field to score just two points) and fouls (four), but will remain ahead of Mark Blount because of his rebounding. Tonight, Anthony grabbed four rebounds, all offensive.

Miami's other detriment in the loss to Portland was its point guard play and turnovers. Chalmers shot just three-of-nine from the field, but had a nice running dunk in the first quarter. The rookie out of Kansas also dished out seven assists and turned the ball over three times, not a stat to be proud of, but an improvement over his five mishaps Wednesday.

Chris Quinn continued to outshine Chalmers tonight. Quinn shot an uneven 4-of-10 from the field, but was manning the point during Miami's decisive third-quarter run. Moreover, Quinn had zero turnovers in 27 minutes of action.

Cook did not shoot well from the field with just three connections on 10 attempts, but has significantly improved his defense. Cook spent time on DeShawn Stevenson, who has a field day every time the Wizards have come down to Miami in recent years. Stevenson ended up with just eight points on two-of-six shooting. It has been a very pleasant surprise to see how much Cook has matured after just one season in the NBA this year.

As good as this win felt, this is a win the Heat was supposed to get. Miami played good team defense, shot well from the field, won the battle of the boards overwhelmingly and kept its turnovers to a relative minimum. Erik Spoelstra's team will have three of its next five games in South Beach before embarking on a five-game road-trip. The season is just starting, but Spoelstra is going to need his team to bolster its record before going on the road-trip.