--Limited to seven minutes in Friday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks due to a strained right hamstring, starting small forward Quentin Richardson was held out of Sunday's game against the Grizzlies. Richardson was injured while attempting to defend a three-pointer by Omri Casspi at the close of the third quarter last Sunday in Sacramento. "The problem with hamstring injuries and groin injuries, you can feel like you're 100 percent," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of playing Richardson on Friday night. "And that's the problem, you can't really tell until you get into full-contact, unpredictable movements of basketball."
Spoelstra said the team will be diligent in establishing a return date.
"It's just weak, it's extremely weak and it got fatigued right away," Spoelstra said. "So it's not real bad right now, but those are tricky. So we want to give him another couple of days and we'll continue to reevaluate it closely."
Yakhouba Diawara started in place of Richardson at small forward, in only his second appearance of the season. Dorell Wright then started the second half at small forward.
--Center Jermaine O'Neal was back in the starting lineup Sunday after missing the previous two games due to the death of his uncle in South Carolina.
O'Neal said he wasn't physically ready before Sunday, after two weeks of stress-related grief, but he was lifted by the support he received from his teammates and Heat organization, which surprised him by sending assistant coach Keith Askins to the funeral.
"It was pretty mind-blowing to arrive at the funeral and they opened the doors for me and my family to walk through to come out and the first person I see is Keith," O'Neal said. "It made me emotional because in this business some teams treat you as just business and don't care about you personally.
"That meant a lot to me, the text messages from the staff and my teammates. It made me feel part of this family."
--Forward Anthony Tolliver, a final cut by the Heat in training camp, has surfaced with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Development League, where he was named the D-League first Performer of the Week this season, along with teammate Sundiata Gaines.
Also, playing in the D-League are former Heat center Earl Barron (Iowa), Heat camp cut Alade Aminu (Erie) and former Heat camp prospect Jason Richards (Utah).
QUOTE TO NOTE: "The way we played (on Sunday night) was unacceptable. It's a terrible display of effort." -- Guard Dwyane Wade, after Sunday's 118-90 loss to Memphis.
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