FanHouse Udonis Haslem

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! has a whopper: Miami is apparently desperately trying to trade for Carlos Boozer and trying to sign Lamar Odom away from the Lakers. Incumbent power forward Udonis Haslem is included in the Boozer trade rumor, which leads one to believe Boozer and Odom would both start under such a scenario, with Michael Beasley serving as either the top small forward or the first big man off the bench.

Whatever way it shakes, such a set of moves would immediately vault Miami into contention for the contested Eastern crown.

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

The 2002 NBA Draft is filled with what ifs. What if Jason Williams had decided not to jump on that motorcycle? What if DaJuan Wagner had been physically able to withstand the rigors of the NBA? What if NBA scouts weren't so enamored with European prospects?

This is a draft of major successes -- Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Carlos Boozer -- and abject failures -- Marcus Haislip, Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Frank Williams. And the 2002 class will be best known for not being the 2003 class, perhaps the best in league history. Yao was perhaps the most mysterious No. 1 pick of all time. Few knew more than he was 7-foot-6 and from China.

And what followed Yao was a bunch of question marks, kids who left school too early and unknown international players. The result was an uneven draft that will go down more for its misses than hits.

The Miami Heat made it official on Wednesday. They're the worst team remaining in the NBA playoffs. That's just one conclusion you can draw after Atlanta won Game 5 over Miami 106-91 to go up 3-2 in the series.

How can the Heat be anything other than the worst team remaining when they came into the playoffs as an underdog and, now, Dwyane Wade is not 100 percent? Hey, it's just another way of saying that coach Erik Spoelstra is doing a great coaching job.

Miami was down 23 points at halftime, and the only reason to watch the remaining 24 was to find out who was going to commit the next hard foul and who was going to be on the receiving end of it.

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NBA Playoff 4-5 matchups are often the best of the first round. Usually the two teams are within a few wins of each other. They're not a level of David and Goliath, and both teams are usually mortal enough to make it interesting. Such is the case with tonight's matchup of the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat. As such, we're rocking the live blog action again tonight. Join us after the end of Orlando-Philadelphia for Hawks-Heat. Joe Johnson. Dwyane Wade. Make this happen.

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FanHouse previews the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

If Cleveland-Detroit is the Rolling Stones, and Utah-LA is the Beatles, then Atlanta-Miami is the Velvet Underground. You're not going to catch it on the radio, but if you dig music, it's essential that you take a listen.

This is the matchup that will get the least publicity but features what may be the closest matchup. The Hawks shocked everyone by actually, (gasp) improving on last year's success. What's more, they finished with homecourt advantage in the first round. And next to the Heat, they're the playoff experienced club. It's a crazy world we live in. Meanwhile, the Heat are a reclamation project. Dwyane Wade 2.0 is a one-man army and the world is his enemy. Something's gotta give.

Rook Check takes a look at the progress of NBA Rookies throughout the season.

Heat rookie Michael Beasley was the second overall pick in this year's draft, and with that lofty pick comes some lofty expectations. Beasley was in the starting lineup for the first 15 games of his NBA career, averaging around 14 points and five rebounds per game at the power forward spot.

With the Heat facing the tandem of Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudemire, coach Erik Spoelstra felt a lineup change was in order, and started Joel Anthony at center while moving Udonis Haslem to the power forward spot. This left Beasley to come off the bench for the first time in his career, the expectation being that he would still find a way to contribute. Unfortunately, he did not.

Beasley played just 13 minutes, and was held scoreless, going 0-for-5 from the field. Afterwards, he admitted that coming off the bench was a difficult adjustment, saying he was "lost" and "confused" about what his role was. Beasley's move to the bench appeared to be motivated by the game's matchups, but something Spoelstra said after the game made it seem like there was something Beasley could be doing to earn more minutes.

There were plenty of storylines heading into Friday's nationally televised game in Phoenix between the Suns and the Miami Heat. You had Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal meeting for the first time since the Diesel was traded to the Suns last season, and you had Shawn Marion returning to the team where he spent eight and a half seasons making a name for himself. But in the end, it was the Suns' offensive ineptitude that was the story, and the surprise absence of Steve Nash that helped the Heat cruise to a rare (and easy) 107-92 road victory.

Nash was a late scratch, and sat this one out with a right thigh contusion. The decision not to play came very late in fact, as lineups were revised about 20 minutes before tip-off to let us know that Nash would be unavailable. That left the starting point guard duties to Sean Singletary, who had played decently in a backup role as of late, but was clearly unprepared to run with the starting unit, and it showed from the opening moments.

The Suns have had their problems with turnovers this season, and that problem was exacerbated by the fact that Nash was on the sidelines. The team looked lost offensively without their two-time MVP running the show, and committed seven first quarter turnovers that the Heat were able to convert into 32-19 lead at the end of one. On paper, the Suns appeared to have a huge advantage in the paint, with Shaquille O'Neal and Amare Stoudemire facing the likes of Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem. But the Miami defensive strategy was both brilliant and well-executed, as they continually kept Shaq and Amare from getting the ball in prime position to score.

Alternate title: "Where Chris Quinn playing 48 minutes happens."

Technically speaking, the Raptors 96-54 win over the Heat last night will go down as an official NBA game, but there should be some kind of star next to it in the history books. Let's face it, the Heat aren't even trying to field a competitive team anymore. Pat Riley had just seven players dressed last night, including maybe two (Ricky Davis and Mark Blount) who even hard-core NBA fans could reasonably be expected to pick out of a lineup.

And guess what? It's only going to get worse: Udonis Haslem will undergo season-ending ankle surgery this Friday. Starting in his place last night was Earl Barron, who shot 1-10 from the field in 34 minutes. Replacing Dwyane Wade, who's already been pardoned from participating in this train wreck the rest of the year was Daequan Cook, who shot just 3-19. Not surprisingly, the team's 54 points on Wednesday marked a franchise low, as did their .256 field-goal percentage.

Shawn Marion ("sore back") and Jason Williams ("jammed thumb") also sat out with minor ailments -- what's the over/under on them being ruled out for the year? I'm going with five games.

The "good" news is that the NBA has awarded the Heat a waiver to sign a 16th player, which only means they'll be giving one more unrecognizable face a 10-day contract. That might make practice more competitive, but it'll do nothing for the actual game.

B-Ball, B-Fast is a weekdaily look at last night's NBA action from a fantasy perspective. Bookmark it and visit often.

Cup of Coffee
One would think that if Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng were missing from the lineup, the Bulls would not beat the Warriors (much less anyone). Of course, one would also think that Chris Duhon would not score 34 points. He, in fact, did. He also, in fact, added nine assists. Oh, and three steals. The last two parts are totally legit, assuming Hinrich remains out and Duhon gets the PT (he will). The points though, are a career high and an abnormality likely based on facing off against the Warriors. Hinrich has missed three games with bruised ribs now and probably won't be rushed back immediately, but you want to be selling on Duhon regardless. If you can't find a buyer (which wouldn't be totally shocking) then certainly play him until Kirk returns.

Hot Cakes
Dorrell Wright will not go quietly into the night. Presumably, he will lose run once Shawn Marion suits up and Udonis Haslem returns from his ankle issues. However, that's three straight games with double digit points (16 and 10 boards last night) and what do the Heat have to lose this season? Take a flier if he's out there.

We've already had one protest filed and denied in this young season, and it appears that we're on the verge of another. The Miami Heat are working on a formal protest to the league over their overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. It appears that the Hawks fouled out Shaquille O'Neal, even though the supposed sixth foul was actually charged to Udonis Haslem:

With 51.9 seconds to play and the Heat trailing 112-111, Heat center Shaquille O'Neal was determined by the scoring crew at Philips Arena to have been disqualified, by virtue of his sixth foul.

However, according to an initial scoring transcript released by the Hawks-employed scoring staff, as well as a preliminary box score issued by the Hawks, O'Neal was listed as having only five fouls.

In dispute is a foul called on the Heat with 3:24 to play in the fourth quarter.

In the initial transcript released by the Hawks' scoring staff, the foul was assessed to power forward Udonis Haslem, and reflected as such in the initial final box score issued by the team.

Video of the play in question reflects a foul on Haslem.

However, more than 30 minutes after the conclusion of the game, a revised scoring transcript was issued assessing the foul to O'Neal.

This is serious conspiracy theory stuff if you ask me. Issuing revised stat sheets 30 minutes after the game? That's almost as bad as the fine folks in Dallas removing signage from Dealey Plaza after the Kennedy assassination so no one could determine when or where those shots came from. But I digress. The bottom line here is that it seems like Shaq was disqualified from the game when he should have been allowed to play.

Now, David Stern already made a sarcastic remark about the Mavericks' protest this season, basically stating that "because there were 34 minutes remaining at the time of the error, Dallas had a substantial opportunity to overcome the 1-point error." So given that line of thinking, Stern would have to feel that Shaq's presence on the floor in the last 51-plus seconds would have actually made a difference for the Heat. But given Shaq's very average contributions this season, I see this protest going exactly as the Mavericks' one did earlier this season: it will be denied, and it will likely be punctuated with a smart-ass comment from the commissioner.