vs.
11-52		42-24
AmericanAirlines Arena
7:30 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Jason Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Daequan Cook	SG	Maurice Evans
Ricky Davis	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Shawn Marion	PF	Rashard Lewis
Mark Blount	C	Dwight Howard
Season series:
24 Nov 2007: Magic 120, Heat 99
28 Dec 2007: Magic 121, Heat 114
30 Jan 2008: Magic 107, Heat 91

The Magic take to the road for the first time in over a week to take on their rivals to the south, the Miami Heat. They'll return to Orlando to play the Indiana Pacers on the second night of a back-to-back, and won't have to play another road game for a week. I'm really digging this late-season schedule, and I'm sure the players are too.

The Heat are miserably bad. As Basketbawful noted yesterday, in Miami's loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, Ricky Davis and Mark Blount took a combine 35 shots. Yeah, it's gotten real bad in South Beach. So bad, in fact, that coach Pat Riley has left the team to scout some college players. Not that Riley is any stranger to quitting taking time off or anything.

Oh, by the way: the Heat have lost Alonzo Mourning (knee), Shaquille O'Neal (trade), and Dwyane Wade (knee) for the season. Udonis Haslem, their glue-guy, has also missed some games with a bum ankle. At least they managed to snag Shawn Marion in the O'Neal trade.

Tipoff's at 7:30 because the Heat are about five years behind us in terms of scheduling. The game's on FSN, so most of us won't be able to see it, but that may be a good thing. Do we really want to subject ourselves to the Mark Blount? What about Heat's insufferable P.A. announcer? Seth from Posting and Toasting, SB Nation's Knicks blog, explains:

• Someone needs to make a video of every time Mark Blount touched the ball in the second half. It was surreal. I'd guess he had 15 touches in the final 24 minutes, and that he hastily bricked an off-balance jump shot on about 10 of those touches. It was so egregious that Mike Breen's call at one point was "Mark Blount with...a pass!". My fantasy team thanks you, asshole.
• As Barnesgasm pointed out, the Miami PA announcer must have accidentally ingested some speed in his pre-game snack. The guy was practically screaming such unimpressive names as "DAEQUAN COOOOOOK!!!" and "CHRIS QUIIIIINN!!1", which was made even more depressing by the noticeable echo in the completely empty arena.

So, yeah, enjoy. Go Magic.

	vs.
8-21		19-11
AmericanAirlines Arena
7:30 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Dwyane Wade	PG	Jameer Nelson
Ricky Davis	SG	Keith Bogans
Dorell Wright	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Udonis Haslem	PF	Rashard Lewis
Earl Barron	C	Dwight Howard

The Heat are having a truly awful season. Just two years after winning the NBA title, the Heat are dead last in the Eastern Conference and will have to go 33-20 the rest of the way just to reach .500 at season's end, which might earn them a playoff berth. On top of that, they've lost backup center Alonzo Mourning to a career-ending knee injury and backup guard William "Smush" Parker to a career-ending case of mental flatulence. Shaq might take his annual injury vacation due to sore hips. Starting guard Jason Williams has a sore knee. Chris Quinn, Williams' backup, has a sprained left ankle and may not be available tonight. Yes, the Heat indeed may be without a true point guard tonight. But look on the bright side, Heat fans: as Ira Winderman notes (thirteenth bullet), your team has five centers under contract this season. Hooray!

The Magic should indeed be heavily favored in this game, but they can't afford to overlook any opponent, especially one that fields a starting five which includes Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal. And as boneheaded as Ricky Davis is, he's also a threat to pop off for 40 points at least once a season. Yahoo!'s Kelly Dwyer looks at the Heat's most recent loss, a 96-85 setback in Philadelphia, and concludes that Pat Riley the coach deserves just as much of the criticism as Pat Riley the GM. Basically, they're better than their record lets on, and perhaps they'd be more successful with a different coach. It should be noted that the Heat are 4-6 in their last 10 games. Is that impressive? Lord, no, but it's also one game better than our 3-7 mark in that same span.

We handled the Heat fairly well the last time we matched up with them; in fact, it might have been our best game of the season. Basically, the Heat don't have anyone who can shut down both Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. Also, Shaq is too slow and too old to hang with Dwight Howard defensively, although he played well on the offensive end (20 points, 8-15 FG) against Dwight in November.

The game is on FSN Florida, which means most of us won't get to see it. Thank you, NBA Audio League Pass.

UPDATE: Shaquille O'Neal is active for tonight's game, but will not start, reports ESPN.com.