Wades, Boshes eat with enemy
NEW YORK — So how does one prepare for an NBA game the day after Thanksgiving? By eating with the enemy.
That had Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and their wives spending the holiday alongside Carmelo Anthony and his wife in advance of the Miami Heat’s Friday night game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“Especially as you get older, if you’re around your family and everything, that’s a wonderful thing,” Bosh said at Friday’s shootaround. “But if you’re around friends, wives always talk and they get together around the league, and just any kind of family atmosphere is always great to be in.”
Wade said it was as close as possible to being at home during a road trip.
“Obviously Thanksgiving on the road is always tough,” he said. “But if you’re able to spend it with your wives and then at a good friend’s house, where you feel at home, it makes it a little easier. So it was a good night.
“We just hung out. It was just Thanksgiving dinner, have some good food and some great conversation.”
Asked if Anthony’s wife, LaLa, prepared the meal, Bosh smiled and said: “I don’t know. I showed up and the food was ready.
Photo evidence of the get-together was supplied by Instagram accounts of both Adrienne Bosh and Gabrielle Union, Wade’s wife.
The players have spent time together both with the Olympic team and during offseasons, including this past summer when Wade and Anthony and their spouses spent time in the Bahamas with LeBron James and Chris Paul and their wives.
Deng sits again
Although he said he has made strides with his balky left hamstring, Heat forward Luol Deng opted Friday to sit out again.
“We decided this morning,” Deng said. “We’ve just got to keep taking it day by day, like I said before. It still doesn’t feel right.”
Deng also missed Wednesday’s loss to the Pistons at the start of this twogame trip after straining his left hamstring during Saturday’s victory over the 76ers. Deng left that game in the third quarter but returned to play in Monday’s victory over the Knicks to end the Heat’s seven-game homestand.
After playing tentatively in that victory over New York, he opted to allow the injury to better heal.
“We’re going to give it a little bit of time and give it a few more days,” he said, with the Heat’s next game on Monday night against the Celtics at AmericanAirlines Arena, at the start of a four-game homestand.
Deng on Friday would not commit to Monday’s game, with the Heat expected to have Saturday off and practice Sunday.
“Just going to go day by day,” he said, having started the season’s first 13 games before this two-game absence. “I really can’t tell you if I’m going to play next game or not.”
Winslow reflects
Heat forward Justise Winslow reflected Friday on the death Thursday of former University of Houston coach Guy Lewis, who had coached his father, Rickie Winslow, during that school’s Phi Slama Jama era.
“Being around the University of Houston, going to basketball camps there, he was kind of around,” Winslow said. Lewis was 93. “I was fortunate enough to win his Guy V. Lewis high school award in Houston my senior year,” Winslow said. “I ended up winning, so I got to spend some time talking to him for about 10 minutes.”
Winslow said Lewis’ legacy is significant.
“Just the way he kind of impacted the basketball game, on and off the court, just the integration, being very welcoming of black players and helping develop players as men,” he said. “He did so much for the game of basketball off the court with integration, really helped open up basketball.”