In the midst of speculation about player unrest and a run of poor performances, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and star LeBron James met for 30 minutes on Monday afternoon.

Spoelstra said the meeting was primarily about Miami's offensive struggles and wasn't a clearing-the-air type conference.

Both seemed to emerge on the same page, there was no denial that the Heat are dealing with some internal issues.

"I call these 'healthy conflicts,' " Spoelstra said. "I truly believe these are good for a team. As long as you can survive these, it'll make you stronger. It'll make your bond stronger."

James denied he was personally frustrated with Spoelstra, who has asked James to change some of his offense this season. That has included playing mostly point guard.

"I think there's frustration from everyone," James said. "As far as me and Spo being frustrated with each other, I don't think there is. I have Coach Spo's back or whatever the case may be. This is who we have.

"If I have something to say to Coach Spo, I'm going to go to Coach Spo. If he has something to say to me, which he's done, he's going to come to me. It is nothing I'll take behind his back. I've never done that, I will not do that."

LeBron James and Erik Spoelstra addressed their now-famous bump heading into a timeout in Dallas on Saturday.  Both said the bump was unintentional and not an attempt to send a message.

"I didn't realize. I don't think Coach realized it either, until it was brought up to our attention," James said. "Really, nothing, honestly, incidental contact I guess. It wasn't intentional or anything."

Spoelstra gave a similar account.

"I didn't even notice it until people mentioned it after the game," Spoelstra said. "Often, coming out of the timeout, it's a pinball game. I'm colliding into a lot of people. So it's probably a perfect case of over-speculation from this team."

Nets point guard Devin Harris is now expected to be a part of the team's future.

Harris was nearly traded in a four-team deal that would have sent Carmelo Anthony to New Jersey.

The Nets are trying to get Anthony without including Harris.

"What we're telling Devin is if we can continue to develop the players that we have and somewhere in the future we get fortunate with a free agent or whatever situation that comes up, we'll be a much better team," coach Avery Johnson said.

"We're telling Devin the more we can develop, the more he can help our players get better."

The Kings have waived guard Antoine Wright, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.

Wright played in seven games for Sacramento this season, averaging less than five minutes an appearance.

Celtics center Shaquille O'Neal missed the team's practice session on Monday due to what coach Doc Rivers suggested was confusion about the reporting time.

Rivers said O'Neal would not be disciplined for the mix-up, but the coach didn't sound pleased about the center's absence on a day the team practiced with 11 players.

"He got the times mixed up," said Rivers. "He missed one, so he owes us one. We're good."

O'Neal joined the team in time for its afternoon flight to Cleveland.

"Yeah [it's frustrating], but you get over it," Rivers said. "Listen, if the guy had a history of something, then you'd deal with it differently. But when the guy doesn't have a history of something -- it happens. It's life, you move on.

"It's not a big deal."

The Heat are growing frustrated with coach Erik Spoelstra and some are questioning whether he is the right man for the job, according to people close to the situation.

Miami has lost four of their last five games, leading players to privately grumble about Spoelstra for a number of reasons.

The players believe he is not letting them be themselves, that they are questioning his offensive strategies, and that they think he is panicking because he fears losing his job, according to sources.

Contrary to popular belief that Spoelstra is afraid to criticize superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, he's been very hard on them.

"He's jumping on them," one source said. "If anything, he's been too tough on them. Everybody knows LeBron is playful and likes to joke around, but Spoelstra told him in front of the whole team that he has to get more serious. The players couldn't believe it. They feel like Spoelstra's not letting them be themselves."

The Trail Blazers held a players-only meeting following their loss to the Nets on Sunday night.

The loss was Portland's third-straight and it dropped their record to 8-8 on the season.

"We're at a tough point right now," said Brandon Roy. "It's a young season. We've lost three games in a row and we're .500, so it's a difficult time. But we have to stick together and really see what we're made of."

Roy said the players-only meeting was "good," and Marcus Camby called it "positive."

Wesley Matthews said conversation was open, frank and honest.

"We talked ... about what we need to do," Matthews said. "We don't feel we're an 8-8 team and that's the gist of it. The thing about the NBA is you have got a whole bunch of games in a short span of time, so you have to lose this and move on to the next one."

The Magic are still open to making trades, reports Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel.

Schmitz writes that the Magic still like both Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony -- they are partial to Paul -- and they'll trade anyone but Dwight Howard for either All-Star.

Orlando knows they need a big-time scorer to compete with Miami and Boston and might even be willing to take a brief step back to reload if they were to add Paul or Anthony.

The Heat held a players-only meeting after Saturday night's loss to the Mavericks.

The meeting lasted about 45 minutes after Miami fell to 9-8.

"It was a well-needed team meeting where everybody had an opportunity to get off what they had on their chest or what they had in their head about us figuring things out," LeBron James said.

"Right now, we are a 9-8 team and we have to own up to that. Right now, we're at 9-8 because we've been playing like that."

There were moments where players and coaches were seen arguing during timeouts during the loss to Dallas.

Nets forward Troy Murphy says he and coach Avery Johnson aren't on speaking terms.

Murphy hasn't played in a game since Nov. 13, but will be activated for Sunday's game against Portland. Johnson has said that the veteran forward is being held out due to fitness concerns.

"You have to ask (Johnson why he thinks I wasn't in shape)," Murphy said. "I've been in this league for 10 years. I know what I do. I pride myself in all that. You have to ask him."