<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>An hour before Friday night's tipoff, the only pleasant surprise of this Heat season still had work to do. "I got a pack up there now," Daequan Cook said. "I already opened it, but I haven't finished it. They'll be gone by the 45 minute mark." This has been a pregame ritual since 10th grade, all of three years ago. The principal and athletic director at Dunbar High learned of their basketball prodigy's love of the candy rainbow.</p> "After that, they started giving me Skittles every game," Cook said. "Because it gives me that little boost of energy." How appropriate, since the rookie's new role is to provide the Heat with exactly that. How inappropriate, because of the candy's name. Skittles? The preferred snack for the kid who's never skittish? After its comeback fell short Friday, the Heat now lugs a nine-game divisional deficit on its six-game West trip, and some doubts around its true chances of contention in an improved East, featuring Boston and Orlando. The team exits November with just four victories in 15 contests, its most significant offseason signing indefinitely suspended, its rotation in flux, and its superstar still struggling to find his former dominance. Looking for a positive? Not even Google would be game for such a search. The NBA's third-leading rookie scorer might come up on a page alone. Friday night, Daequan Cook's education, and development, continued. Five future Hall of Famers were on the floor when the game began Friday — six, if you count what Penny Hardaway could have been. Yet, as soon as the 20-year-old rookie entered with 1:52 remaining in the first quarter, he showed no fear. He never does. That's why he is a keeper. That's why Pat Riley must keep playing him, even through some mistakes, which Riley surprisingly seems intent on doing. No qualms about shooting? "No," Cook said. "Not at all. As long as it's a good shot, and not something I'm forcing." Twenty-seven seconds into his appearance, Cook pulled up from 21 feet. Good for two. Thirty-five seconds later, Cook bobbled, gathered, then released from long range. Riley shook his head. Good for three. Cook scored eight points in 18 minutes before fouling out. He spent many of those minutes facing, and chasing, one of his basketball idols. "I love his game," Cook said of Boston's Ray Allen.</div></p> Source: Sun-Sentinal</p>
