Will Miami Heat-Denver Nuggets 2.0 boil over?| Ira Winderman – South Florida Sun Sentinel

The Heat don’t just return home Monday night to FTX Arena for the first time since Nov. 18, they return to a cauldron of simmering outrage tinged with tension just waiting to boil over.

Or, these days, perhaps not.

The incident left Jokic suspended one game and Morris fined $50,000, yet to return from the whiplash sustained in the incident.

In previous eras, Round 2 would have been fait accompli. But this no linger is Lakers-Celtics with Rambis vs. McHale, or Jordan Bulls vs. Bad Boy Pistons, or even what still remains vivid closer to home, Riley Heat vs. Van Gundy Knicks.

Former NBA coach and executive Stu Jackson, who spent 13 years in the league office, with a significant portion of that tenure as dean of discipline, offered his thoughts this past week to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“In short,” Jackson, now a Big East executive, said, “the officiating crew will be on high alert. Not only because of the matchup between the two of them, but also just the tone of the game, early on, which I suspect the referees will establish a mindset that they’re not going to tolerate any BS.

“The last thing an official wants to do is have something break out in their game that doesn’t have to do with the game.”

With all involved having gone to school, Jackson said, on what transpired in those closing minutes of the Nuggets’ blowout victory in the first of the teams’ two meetings this season.

“They will be aware of the previous incident,” he said. “They will be aware of the matchup. And they’ll be keenly aware of how the game’s going to be officiated, in terms of setting the tone, as to not let anything brew, if there ever was going to be anything like that.”

And, yes, there will be more than just the eyes of the three-man officiating staff paying attention.

Jackson said such rematches tended to have the full attention of the league office.

“There were members of my staff that also would be watching the game, as well, along with others,” he said. “Sure, the last thing you want to do is have history repeat itself. I think both players will come into the game with a little bit heightened emotion. That’s understandable. They’re both very good players, they’re both very competitive. So, yeah, it would be something I would pay attention to.”

Morris’ status remains murky, not on the nine-day trip through Saturday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

At FTX Arena, the locker rooms are well distanced, with security clearance needed to get to the Heat’s space. The teams enter and exit through separate entrances.

But there also is the matter of Jokic’s two burly brothers, Strahinja and Nemanja, saying they would be in attendance. The two made their presence felt during a Nuggets playoff game last season against the Phoenix Suns, in a game Nikola was ejected.

“That really is a security issue,” Jackson said. “So as heightened awareness as referee opps will have, basketball opps will have, I suspect that security will also be on heightened alert, too. Whether it is just keep a close watch on Jokic’s bothers’ movements, they’ll be on heightened alert, it’ safe to say.”

Still, this is a different time in the NBA. Rarely is there a second such act.

“I really felt that particularly after Malice at the Palace, I think from the league-office standpoint, there was more punitive action taken against altercations on the floor by way of increased levels of fines and suspensions,” Jackson said of the 2004 Detroit-Indiana incident at the Pistons’ arena that spilled into the stands. “Over the next few years, that number of incidents had drastically decreased. That being said, every once in a while, if something does crop up by way of a big incident, you need to send out a friendly reminder as a league opp. But it’s definitely decreased.

“I think the players, themselves, particularly players that are the more veteran players, they know what the consequence will be for their actions. And because of that, there’s a reluctance to take that kind of action, lose money and lose games and playing time. So I do think that it changed back from the Rambis-McHale days and even the Knicks-Heat days, for sure.”

ANOTHER CHANCE: It now appears only a matter of time before Alvin Gentry makes the Interim-Coach Hall of Fame. This time the former Heat assistant (and, yes, interim coach) gets the opportunity to try to find the solution for the mess with the Sacramento Kings that eluded Luke Walton. In fact, the only previous time Gentry was not re-upped after an interim stint was when he took over the Heat from Kevin Loughery and went 15-21 at the end of 1994-95, Micky Arison instead opting for Pat Riley as a permanent replacement. After closing out 1997-98 in place of Doug Collins with the Detroit Pistons, Gentry worked another two seasons there. Then, after replacing Terry Porter as Suns coach and going 18-13 the balance of 2008-09, Gentry worked 3 1/2 additional seasons there.

HIS THOUGHTS: “All situations are different,” Gentry, 67, said. “But obviously it’s something that I’ve gone through with other franchises, and it’s the same thing. Obviously, it’s a change of coaching, and, basically, there’s not a whole lot that’s going to change. It’s just getting the players to perform at a higher level.” Gentry said the goal never was to become a master of interiming, with this his sixth stint as head coach, also having guided the Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans. “I didn’t really think, ‘Boy, where’s my next head coaching job going to come from?” he said. “I’ve done it six times now and all of them have been different situations. and some of them were very positive and some of them have not been so positive.”

BACK AGAIN: Now working as Frank Vogel’s lead assistant with the Lakers after Jason Kidd moved on to coach the Dallas Mavericks, former Heat assistant coach David Fizdale this past week found himself back at work at Madison Square Garden for the first time since being dismissed as Knicks coach two years ago. Vogel raved about Fizdale during his pregame media session prior to the Lakers’ loss. “Obviously we competed against each other a lot when he was in Miami, the lead assistant down there, and all those tough playoff battles that we had,” Vogel said of his tenure as Indiana Pacers coach. “So I’ve got a lot of respect for his knowledge and the job he did as a head coach, obviously, without much of an opportunity here. He really knows his stuff and he brought all that to the table for us.”

HIS TURN: With the Brooklyn Nets finding themselves in more grind-out games than anticipated, former Heat forward James Johnson is developing a niche for coach Steve Nash. “Obviously he can do some playmaking out there, he can attack the basket with his quickness and size, and he rebounded the ball for us,” Nash said, according to the New York Post. As with many thing Johnson, it started by optimizing his conditioning. “I knew what they wanted from me when they signed me here, and it was just up to me to get in the best shape possible and to make it happen,” Johnson said. “I liked the ramp up that I got, and I was able to really sharpen some tools.” Johnson went into the weekend having played at least 21 minutes in four consecutive games..

WORK IN PROGRESS: As the piece that ultimately got the Toronto Raptors to agree to a sign-and-trade transaction with the Heat for Kyle Lowry, center Precious Achiuwa remains a work in progress. “He’s in the stage where he needs to figure out what his go-to moves are,” coach Nick Nurse said according to the Toronto Star. “He’s got a variety of different things he can do. He probably has too many things for right now. I try to tell him to go to the strengths, whatever he’s most confident in, and don’t give up on trying to get to that until it’s absolutely gone.” That message clearly hit home in Wednesday night’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, when Achiuwa scored 17 third-quarter points.