By Jason Lieser

The Heat were beaming at the idea of having Amar’e Stoudemire on their bench this season, but have not yet utilized him to his full potential. Because of his maintenance program, Stoudemire had not played in three weeks before Hassan Whiteside’s foul trouble necessitated some fill-in work early in Thursday’s 116-109 win over Sacramento.

But Stoudemire was more than just filler. He pumped life into the Heat offense with 10 points in eight minutes. They outscored the Kings by eight with him on the court.

“I had no idea, I had no clue my number was gonna get called,” he said. “But I always keep myself ready for those moments. There’s a lot of work that goes into it outside of the actual game to keep myself ready and I’ve been able to accomplish that.”

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