Guard Eddie Jones, who hasn't played in a game since May shoulder surgery, pronounced himself ready to start tonight's
opener and said his minutes would not be limited.

``Eddie has looked real good this week,'' coach Pat Riley said.

Said Jones: ``Coach knows I'm in pretty darn good shape. The first few days I started practicing, my rhythm wasn't there. Every day, I've cut down on the mistakes.''

Anthony Carter likely will start at point guard ahead of Rod Strickland. ``It has to do with knowledge and familiarity with things,'' Riley said. ``We'll just see how it goes. I will play both of them together at times, but not at the beginning.''

Riley declined to say whether Kendall Gill or LaPhonso Ellis would start at small forward, but said Ellis would be needed more in the power rotation while Chris Gatling sits out the first five games to work on his conditioning. One rotation player said he expected Gill will start.

Heat coach Pat Riley said he has decided on his starter at small forward, but he will not reveal who it is until just before game time tonight.

Riley said Sunday that it would be either LaPhonso Ellis or Kendall Gill. Given that Chris Gatling is on the injured list, Ellis is likely to play a reserve role at power forward.

At point guard, Riley said Anthony Carter will start ahead of Rod Strickland, but Riley did leave the door open for a possible switch.

"I think it has to do with all the things, knowledge, familiarity with things, and then we'll see how things go," Riley said. "I'll play both at times, but not at the beginning."

Riley said Strickland has picked up the offense quickly, but Riley hasn't burdened the veteran with the playbook.

Not even Pat Riley could wiggle off this hook.

He said he wanted to give youth a try, but he now has a group of mostly 30-somethings as he enters his seventh season coaching the Miami Heat.

So surely Riley would admit he changed his mind and went back to a more familiar formula.

Think again. Riley is wily enough to even put a spin on a concept as concrete as age.

"It depends on how you define what young is," Riley said. "I've got some old guys who are young."

After the laughter dies down, Riley, now laughing himself, continues his not-so-convincing argument.

TNT (blacked out within 35-mile radius of arena), 4,34. Radio -- WIOD (610-AM), WACC (830-AM, Spanish).

About the Heat: The Heat has won five of its last six season openers, including a 105-79 romp over Orlando last year in its first season opener at AmericanAirlines Arena. Coach Pat Riley enters with a 13-5 career record on opening nights. The Heat enters 7-6 in season openers and 8-5 in home openers. Center Ernest Brown (thumb) and forwards Chris Gatling (conditioning) and Malik Allen (ankle) are on the injured list.

About the Raptors: Toronto went 2-2 against the Heat last season, losing the first two and winning the final two. The Raptors have won four of the past seven in the series, after losing the previous eight. Vince Carter averaged 28.5 points against the Heat last season on 48.3 percent shooting. The game features the NBA's two winningest coaches in Toronto's Lenny Wilkens and Riley -- the only coaches to amass 1,000 or more victories. Guard Dell Curry (hamstring) and centers Mamadou N'diaye (back) and Michael Stewart (knee) are on the injured list. Former Florida International University point guard Carlos Arroyo is on the Raptors' active roster. Former Heat forward Don MacLean was waived Monday.

Off the court: Mini American flags and candy for children.

Security measures:

Spectators should arrive early and anticipate longer waits. Entrants may be swept with a detection wand. Doors open to the general public at 6:30 p.m.

No re-entry to arena allowed.

No backpacks, coolers or large bags will be allowed into the arena. Small purses and baby bags will be allowed after a thorough search.

The parking garage will be open, with all vehicles subject to search. Only vehicles with season parking passes will be allowed into garage. No valet parking on premises but available at Weaver Lot, corner of 2nd Avenue and NE 8th Street.

Vehicles will not be allowed to stop or park near the box office or anywhere alongside arena grounds. Such vehicles will be towed immediately.

This is a special preview for the Miami Heat.

Let's start with the story of Pat Riley and the leopard. This was in Zimbabwe, in August, on one of those night safaris where his guide drove, the three other passengers drank wine and the Heat coach sat in the front of the Jeep in something called the "tracker's seat."

He was searching for wildlife, sweeping a flashlight back and forth, as the guide drove through the dark. Suddenly, two eyes appeared a foul shot away.

"It was a leopard," Riley said. "The guide said, `Don't move! Keep the light on him!' That way the leopard wouldn't move. The light would kind of freeze him. Also, the idea was to keep the light on him so we'd know where he was."

He smiled. "I kept that light right on him."

In seasons past, there might be a basketball moral to accompany such a story, maybe something introspective titled "The Hunted or The Hunter?" with the answer being which one the Heat will be this season.

What lies ahead is perhaps the greatest unknown in Pat Riley's seven seasons as Heat coach.

This certainly is not what was advertised when Riley declared at the start of training camp, "Why not go with the youth and the athleticism?"

And this certainly is not what was featured during training camp, with the Heat to utilize in tonight's season opener three players who did not participate in a single minute of the exhibition schedule.

No, tonight's game against the Toronto Raptors at AmericanAirlines Arena is unique beyond the fact that it will be played without longtime Heat stalwarts Tim Hardaway, Dan Majerle and Bruce Bowen, players all discarded in an offseason free-agent housecleaning.

It will be unique because this might as well be the start of the preseason, with guards Eddie Jones, Anthony Carter and Rod Strickland to see their first action in uniform since the start of training camp, and with forward Chris Gatling looking on from the injured list, waiting for his first action with the team.

Six months later, the memories still linger from that 67-point, three-game playoff annihilation, the most humiliating week in Heat history.

Alonzo Mourning, Eddie Jones, Brian Grant and Anthony Carter haven't forgotten the first-round debacle against the Charlotte Hornets. But what was a cause for embarrassment in April has become a source of motivation in October.

``Every day, that sticks with me,'' Jones said.

``It was very embarrassing, and it's still on the tip of our tongues,'' Carter said.

``I don't forget about the pain being knocked out the way we were,'' Grant said. ``All summer, you had to hear about how quickly you went out. It's a fresh slate. Now's the time to remember.''

All summer, Mourning kept the newspaper clips chronicling Charlotte's
blowout in his nightstand, then finally read them on the first day of training camp. He saved a picture of Derrick Coleman laying such a hard foul on Mourning that he appeared folded in two.

A.C. Green, with the NBA's longest streak of consecutive games played in his possession, is in danger of having his streak stop dead in it's tracks.  The NBA season started yesterday and Green has not got a contract yet for the 2001/02 season.  He was in a similar situation last year when Miami signed him on the morning of their opener.  They have there feelers out this year also, but there is no certainty either way.  New York are not returning calls, and negotiations with the Nets have broken down.  All in all things are not looking good for the forward.

"He would like to keep the streak intact, but he wouldn't sign anywhere just to keep it intact," agent Mark Fleisher said.

Israel Gutierrez of the Palm Beach Post reports: While the NBA begins its regular season today, the Miami Heat have one more day to prepare for their opener against Toronto on Wednesday.

The past 28 days, however, has been enough time for the Heat to gauge Alonzo Mourning's playing ability as he returns for his first full season playing with a kidney disease.

Thanks to a full training camp and six exhibition games, we now know what to expect from Mourning -- at least at the outset.

"I think he's getting better and better and better every day, stronger every day, more stamina every day," coach Pat Riley said. "He's working hard at it and if I can monitor his minutes during a game to where he's rested enough and at the same time give him enough minutes so that it's going to benefit us, then I think he's going to have a great year."

Riley will play Mourning in five- or six-minute stints rather than wear him out by playing him 12 minutes at a time. It's an adjustment with which Mourning says he's comfortable.

"I feel ready enough at this time of year as I'm going to be. As long as I'm confident in myself, that's the only thing that counts," he said. "I know what I'm capable of doing out there."