“You did good, for an Old Geezer!” Who, in their right mind. would ever disagree with the exquisite “Being Mary Jane” star Gabrielle Union, particularly when she’s talking about her “O.G.” hubby Dwyane Wade? Least of all, Mr. Wade himself?

The soon-to-be 33-year-old has been gracing the hosts for tonight’s game with the Atlanta Hawks, the Miami heat (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, SUN Sports), with his presence for ten of their 17 games thus far. The 9-8 heat have gone 6-4 when D-Wade plays and, even without LeBron James around to run the show, the Commissioner of Miami-Wade County continues to prove he’s no Flash in the pan.

Wade showed up big under the bright stage lights of Madison Square Garden after missing seven games with a hamstring injury, pouring in 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting on Sunday and earning some postgame tough-love from his better half. The Missus is also on his case over his recent free throw malaise (career-low 64.2 FT%; 14-for-28 in his last five games) and, probably, forgetting once again to take out the garbage and put the toilet seat down.

Scoring at least 20 points in his last six appearances, Wade ranks second in shot accuracy among all NBA guards with 53.5 FG%, now trailing only Atlanta’s hero from last night, Kyle Korver (53.6 FG%). He’s taking three-point shots rarely yet judiciously (career-high 41.7 3FG%), while his 5.6 APG is his highest passing mark since 2010.

Without LBJ, who has taken the place as Miami’s third wheel alongside Wade and Chris Bosh (21.5 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.4 3FGs/game, 37.5 3FG%, his highest numbers with the heat)? At first glance, it would appear to be third-leading scorer Luol Deng (14.1 PPG, 47.7 FG%, 4.8 RPG), who has great stats out front but… oh, never mind that.

Actually, so far that third-wheel has been Shawne Williams, who’s enjoying quite the breakout season at age 28. Connecting on 47.9% of his threes (6^th among active NBA players), he ranks second in the East behind (there’s that man again!) Korver in true shooting percentage (66.2 TS%). Plus, his 4.6% turnover rate (2^nd-best in the league) has buoyed Williams to an offensive rating that ranks fourth in the league, just ahead of Atlanta’s You Know Who (side memo: could someone, please, nudge Evan Turner to wake him up from his nightmare? Boston’s got another game today.) Having struggled of late (13-for-35 FGs in his last seven games), Williams seeks to duplicate the season-high 21 points, including 5-for-6 3FGs, he piled up in Atlanta.

Coming most recently off a wire-to-wire, 21-point defeat at the hands of the division-leading Wizards in D.C, Miami heads out after this game for a five-game road stretch that includes meetings with the newly-unearthed Nuggets, the newly-resurgent Bucks and the newly-OMFG Grizzlies. Even with Monday’s loss to Washington, the heat have accorded themselves well when they’ve been away from the Everglades (5-3, including victories in Dallas and Brooklyn). But it suits the Hawks to have the heat tripping into their upcoming trip by beating them first in South Beach, where Miami is a mere 4-5.

This is the part of the preview where we mention a really poor rebounding team… and don’t worry, we’ll get around to the Hawks eventually, too. Miami’s 47.5% rebounding percentage is next-to-last in the league, a ranking that has the heat wedged between the Hawks (48.0%) and the lowly Sixers (46.6%).

Failure to rebound on the offensive side of the ball isn’t so awful when you have good shooting teams (Atlanta and Miami are first and second, respectively, among Eastern teams for effective field goal percentage), and if you can effectively grind the game down to a virtual halt like Miami does (91.9 possessions per-48, 29^th lowest in NBA). But it becomes a big problem when the iron becomes unkind, as was the case when the heat shot just 2-for-22 on threes against the Wizards. The only starter who snagged one of Miami’s seven offensive rebounds in their loss on Monday? Point guard Norris Cole, who is playing with a splint on his recently-dislocated finger. Or, I should say, was playing. Cole left practice this morning after coming down with that pesky illness and is questionable to appear tonight.

Tack on a league-low 3.3 BPG, and it’s easy to see that it’s been an uphill climb for the Miami frontline, all the more so without Chris Andersen (out with an ankle sprain) flapping around the rim. heat coach Erik Spoelstra is trying not to overtax Miami mainstay Udonis Haslem, and he is bringing along veteran swingman Danny Granger slowly.

Spo will need Bosh to play a bigger role on the defensive glass and get more consistent help from Deng as he delegates more of the offensive rebounding responsibilities to Williams and Josh McRoberts. Coming off a modest season-high eight points and four assists, McBob is striving to approximate his Bobcat numbers so he can eventually supplant Williams in the starting lineup. To alleviate their frontcourt issues long-term, the heat sent Shannon Brown packing and brought in seven-footer Hassan Whiteside, who showed ridiculous upside in his last brief D-League stint (22.0 PPG, 85.7 FG%, 15.7 RPG, 5.3 BPG in three games). The Thundering Herdsman was granted a guaranteed contract and will be developed along with center Justin Hamilton.

Cole’s likely absence will give Mario Chalmers (team-high 23 points and 11 assists off the bench at Atlanta on Nov. 14) yet another opportunity to audition for his old starting point guard job. In his two starts in place of Cole two weeks ago, he contributed 20-and-10 against the Hornets and 24-and-8 against the Magic. But when they started together the next game, they shot a combined 5-for-25 with six total assists as Miami got blown out by Golden State. Essentially, it pays to have Wade playing and one of these two coming off the bench. Rookie Shabazz Napier will sop up the minutes Cole doesn’t put in tonight, and as he becomes a steadier passer, he’ll accelerate the likelihood one of Cole or Chalmers gets traded.

Absent a strong rebounding presence, offensive execution is key to victory for the heat. They’re 6-0 when finishing the game with an effective field goal percentage above 55%, 2-7 when it falls to 50% or below. Atlanta’s defenders have to fight through screens and stay committed to their man, as Miami will keep passing the ball until the end of the shot clock to find the shot it wants, or otherwise just clear out for Wade to do his elfin’ magic. A stronger defensive performance will be needed out of Thabo Sefolosha (season-high 12 points and three blocks vs. Miami on Nov. 14), who (along with Mike Scott) got a short hook yesterday after failing to help quell the Celtics’ first-half scoring bonanza.

Last night, the Hawks showed they can get hit in the beak and keep pecking away at subpar teams (down 42-30 in the first quarter vs. Boston), inflicting blunt three-pointer trauma (Korver 6-for-7 3FGs, teammates 5-for-17) in the hopes their foes will eventually cave. But it’s not the soundest long-range plan. Atlanta has ended the first quarter with the lead in just one of their six losses this season (the double-OT debacle in Charlotte), and in those games the Hawks have been outscored by an average of 29.8-22.5.

If they keep trying to feel out opponents in the opening quarter, they’ll be showing themselves out by the end of games against teams far better than the Celtics. Tighten up that first-quarter defense tonight, and there might be just a smattering of "MINUTOS!" uttered as the game nears its end.

Wade missed out on last month’s affair in Atlanta, a 114-103 victory for the home team, and he’d greatly prefer not to allow his team to slip back to .500 with a second loss to their division rivals, granting the Hawks a fourth-straight victory for the second time this season. It’s a safe bet he doesn’t want to hear about all that when he gets home.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3