Ray Allen given a warm welcome by the crowd as he takes the Miami home court for the first time – NBA News
Ray Allen stepped onto the American Airlines Arena floor, his new home, anxious about how fans would react to him being on the team on Wednesday night, but was pleasantly surprised by the cheers the Miami Heat fans threw at him
as they welcomed him to the family. Allen got right to work in the Heat’s first scrimmage of training camp, scoring a three pointer in his first attempt and drawing huge roars from the crowd.
The American Airlines Arena was filled with fans, 11,221 to be exact, and they all cheered all night as they saw their home team practice for the upcoming NBA season. The crowd’s cheers turned to boos momentarily when two women
were spotted wearing the Boston Celtics jerseys, one with Allen’s name on the back.
"You're supporting the player, so I'm kind of mixed. I don't know how to feel about it. I think she thought she was with everybody because she was wearing my jersey, but everybody was like, `No, you've got to come in here correct.'
It was pretty funny,” said Allen after the scrimmage.
Miami felt good to be back on floor, as they tried their new offensive plan for the coming season on the court. The Heat took 42 three point attempts in the scrimmage as Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra sat courtside and took notes.
Dwyane Wade, Mario Chalmers and Joel Anthony did not play as the team decided to give them some rest for them to recover from their injuries.
The Heat will play their first preseason game against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, after which they will fly to China to play two exhibition games against the Los Angeles Clippers. They looked happy with the new addition in Allen
and Rashard Lewis, and LeBron James and Chris Bosh were at their usual best.
"For a scrimmage to have that type of turnout on a Wednesday night, it just shows the type of support we have here, man. We give it all to our fans when we go out there. It was definitely surprising to see as many as we had tonight
and the support of us, our first showing,” said James after the practice.
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