Heat Supporting Cast: ‘We All Welcome the Expectations’

The bit players in this grand experiment on South Beach say they’re ready for the circus to begin. From the Herald: “This Heat season will be so much about the Big 3 — James, Wade and Chris Bosh. But the scrutiny and burden of expectations also will extend to members of the supporting cast, several of whom spoke Thursday about the adventure they are ready to begin. ‘I’m going on 11 years now, and it’s the first time I’ve laced it up in September, October and felt like I had a chance to win it all. That’s exciting,’ swingman Mike Miller said. ‘A lot of people are granting us as the champions already, and we’ve got a long, long way to go. We haven’t practiced a full practice together. We have a lot of stuff we have to get better at. If you look at the past champions, we’re just as talented as those teams,’ Miller added. ‘But there’s a lot more than talent that goes into it. A lot of sacrifice has been made, but our biggest sacrifice is yet to come.’ New Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas put it this way: ‘We’ll get everybody’s best shot every game. We’ll use it as motivation . . . take it as a challenge. Everybody is eager to see how we’re going to gel.’ Juwan Howard added: ‘We all welcome the expectations.'”