Riley is set to take the coaching reins back from Ron Rothstein when Miami visits Houston on Wednesday night. He returns to a team that looks much different from the one he left on Jan. 3 to have knee and hip surgery.
Shaquille O'Neal has since come back and the Heat have won seven of their last eight games, rebounding from a horrendous start and moving into eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The defending NBA champions are only four games behind Washington in the Southeast Division.
"We wanted at the beginning of the year to come out of the blocks strong but it wasn't scripted that way,'' Dwyane Wade said. "So we have to take what we have and go into the second half of the season, and hopefully Jason Williams gets back healthy and we have all our guns and we have our coach back and just try to defend our title. It's going to be very tough and whatever happens, we can say we all did it together.''
The Heat still have plenty of time to move up in the East, where Detroit has looked like the class of the conference since signing Chris Webber. Even teams such as Atlanta and New York, both coming off dismal seasons and well below .500 in this one, still have playoff hopes heading into the final two months.
NBA Heads Back to Work, Including Riley
02-20-2007, 11:00 AM
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