The HEAT is on!

It’s on the streets. And it’s on in the climate-controlled office of the Atlanta Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, as the trading deadline looms large. It’s the one time every year the word “loom” is uttered without “Fruit of the” as a precedent.

Is the sun setting on Josh Smith’s tenure with his hometown team? If so, tonight could be the last time Hawks fans can bid adieu, or at least “TTFN,” to the man who grew, at least physically, before our eyes, bringing euphoria and ulcers to The Highlight Factory for nearly a decade.

The Smoove One may conclude his Hawks career ranked 2^nd all-time in franchise history for blocks, 5^th for steals, 7^th for rebounds, 8^th for points, 2^nd for turnovers (gulp), and 8^th for three-pointers (double gulp).

The Hawks are 304-344 in the regular season over the course of Josh’s NBA career. But the teenager singled out on NBA Draft Night for potential bust-dom will be fondly remembered for his role as the slam-dunking, shot-swatting catalyst in Atlanta’s resurgence from NBA doormat to perennial postseason participant.

That’s IF he’s traded between today and Thursday afternoon.

In the meantime, in-between time, the Hawks’ leading scorer and shotblocker has to at least pretend it is business as usual, and that means facing off with the defending champions and juggernauts of the Southeast Division. Atlanta has lost their last five matchups against the Miami HEAT, who have often been shorthanded in those games. Dwyane Wade’s Midtown Club Flu had him sitting out of their 95-89 win at Philips Arena in November. Rashard Lewis filled in for starter Udonis Haslem as Miami outpaced the Hawks 101-92 at South Beach in December.

This time, Miami’s stars and head coach are coming into the 404 fresh from a game Smith annually craves to participate in. But things didn’t quite go swimmingly well for the All-Stars on Sunday.

LeBron James was upstaged late in the game, stymied by Kobe Bryant’s defense as the West curtailed a final East charge.

It was one of those weekends for Chris Bosh that Daniel Powter writes songs about, as he was caught looking more often than a Braves cleanup hitter. Caught looking between Blake Griffin’s legs as the latter dunked with ease, then caught looking between his own legs for basketballs bounced between them by two separate opponents, then caught looking longingly at Chris Paul’s MVP trophy like a soap star just before a commercial break. It's not like he went home empty-handed: at least that nice old man, Dominique Wilkins, won him a shiny trophy on Saturday. And, and, a bitter loudmouth rapper who goes by Tunechi boasted of tuning up Chris' missus in the boudoir, right after he questioned Wade’s gender identity.

Wade himself (see that, Weezy? I said, “himself”) continued to dodge baby-mama drama splattered across the pages of TMZ. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown!

The HEAT will be looking to use tonight’s game to get themselves, and America, refocused and back on topic. And that topic is the virtual unstoppable play of LeBron James for a team that’s won 7 straight, a team boasting the top two-point and three-point shooting percentage in the East. Their last win was a convincing vanquishing of the Thunder in Oklahoma City before the All-Star break.

LBJ is connecting with career-highs of 56.5 FG% and 42.4 3FG%. He’s averaging 30.4 PPG this month, but oddly hasn’t broken 40 points in a game this season, a regular season string that goes back to April 3 of last year (nobody remind him of this, thank you).

While NBA fans lament the lack of foul calls on the self-proclaimed King James, it should be noted that as a team it’s the Hawks, not the HEAT, that draw the fewest whistles among Eastern Conference teams. Only San Antonio averages fewer personal fouls per game (17.3) than Atlanta (18.2). Miami’s 20.0 fouls per game is actually middle of the pack, due to the aggressive hands of Mario Chalmers, recently-signed Chris Andersen, and Haslem, returning to action tonight after missing a week with a leg injury.

In the last four losses for Miami, LeBron had at least three fouls, so it will help Atlanta to find ways to keep James (0.9 BPG) active on the defensive end of the floor, backing him in the paint and using driving guards to draw him as a help defender. As they’re wont to do, the Hawks will want to move the ball quickly off turnovers and defensive rebounds, keeping Chalmers on his heels and limiting the only highlights James and Wade have to chasedown block attempts.

Haslem’s return and the Birdman’s addition is right on time for a team that ranks last in the league for per-game rebounding. A strong rebounding game from starting center Zaza Pachulia can give Miami fits tonight. To be fair, there aren’t many offensive caroms to vie for with the way they’ve been shooting the rock. But Bosh’s defensive rebounding and total rebounding percentages are the lowest since his rookie season, taxing James to stay at home and keeping him from getting out on breaks as often as he’d like.

Speaking of breaks, to limit LeBron’s freight-train drives from becoming SCTop10 hashtags, somebody must be assigned the duty of shadowing him in transition. DeShawn Stevenson will start but had all he could handle when facing up against LeBron the last couple outings, so he’ll stick to Wade and the guards while Smith, Ivan Johnson, and even Anthony Tolliver try to shield James from fastbreaks to the the rim. Kobe followed the advice of the world’s most revered quinquagenarian to modest effect on All-Star Sunday, and Hawk forwards need to do the same by keeping LeBron’s drives to the left of the rim. Jumpshots below the elbow on the right side from James are likely to be a win for the Hawks as well.

Atlanta’s guards will need to close out on the HEAT’s array of perimeter shooters (Shane Battier, Ray Allen, Chalmers, Lewis, Mike Miller, James Jones), much like Miami has to do in turn. The HEAT are 15-0 when they sink at least ten three-pointers. Keeping Miami in double-digits works to the Hawks’ advantage, as the HEAT are 29-2 when they surpass 100 points.

Move aside, Kyle Korver! Josh Smith has a little streak he’d like you to know about, too. He can tie his career-record of nine consecutive games (March 2006 and March 2012) with at least one three-point make tonight. With a strong outing against Miami from Smoove -- anything approximating the 30 point-10 rebound-5 assist-2 block-0 turnover production in three quarters against lowly Orlando last Wednesday -- watch for Ferry’s cellie to really start blowing up.

Go Hawks!

~lw3