Heat begins grueling schedule stretch

Teams can either come together on the road or come apart.
In the Heat's case, center Jermaine O'Neal said he and his teammates formed a special brotherhood during the seven-day, four-game West Coast trip earlier this month partly by playing video games. That bond should serve the team well during an upcoming grueling stretch in which the Heat plays 10 of its next 14 games (and 21 of 29) away from AmericanAirlines Arena.
"It's the first time I've been into a regular extended room with a king-size bed with like eight big guys in one room playing video games since my Portland days,'' O'Neal said. "We wanted that away time when it's just us, not family and not other things available to you when you're home where you find more distractions.
"On the road it's basically us, hotel, practice, games. … We like being the underdog on the road. The vibe is even more upbeat on the road than at home and at times we've showed that on our home court, because it's us against the world.''
The "world" tour starts in New Orleans on Wednesday and shifts to San Antonio on Thursday for the first of three road back-to-backs this month. The 16-12 Heat is 6-4 on the road, while the Hornets and Spurs are a combined 23-8 at home.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after practice Tuesday that he no longer looks too far down the road.
"It's got to be every day, every meeting, every practice, every possession, every game,'' Spoelstra said. "We were certainly more focused on the [2-2] West Coast trip. We've also matured the last two weeks. We've been very focused. You have challenges on the road. We're going to be playing top-level teams in their buildings where they're playing very well.
"Your habits of being able to defend, developing some type of team resolve and resiliency. And you have to have some depth and contributions from our bench. The last 10 days we've had those things.''
Heat guard Dwyane Wade said the younger players are killing him in the militaristic Call of Duty videogame, but agreed that being in the same foxhole on the road has some advantages.
"It's not like we want all our games on the road but I think we're more consistent on the road because we play better as a team on both ends of the floor,'' Wade said. "Sometimes at home you can get into the crowd and get into being one-on-one too much.