MIAMI -- With his team on a four-game losing streak and his co-stars felled by injuries, LeBron James sought out Mike Miller before game time Saturday night.
He had something to say. Something important.
"He told me to be aggressive," Miller said. "That's really the first time he's said something to me. He told me, 'Have it loaded tonight, ready to go.'"
That one conversation summed everything significant that was about to happen.
In the Heat's 120-103 romp over the Toronto Raptors, Erik Spoelstra retook control of his team. LeBron took control of the paint and, more importantly, of his role as a leader. Mike Miller absolutely took control of his season.
Each of those things turned what could have been an insignificant game a vital night in which the best parts of the Miami Heat shone.
It doesn't matter that the Toronto Raptors are a bad basketball team. The Heat took a four-game losing streak and the fact it had two sidelined stars (Chris Bosh with a bum ankle, Dwyane Wade with a migraine) and turned them into meaningful moments that could have a lasting effect.
This week, Spoelstra had implored his Big Three to make everyone else better. LeBron James did that. Spoelstra asked everyone else to also make the Big Three better. Mike Miller did that.
Spoelstra asked for more trust, less selfishness in the form of better ball movement and for his team to stick to a plan that could have a huge payoff this summer. For a night, that happened.
Start with Mike Miller. Over the past two weeks the nagging injuries to LeBron, Bosh and Wade has fed Miller minutes he otherwise wouldn't have had. They were halting, uneven, some good and some bad, but they were minutes just the same.
Until Saturday. Then they became more. They became the reward for the payoff.
Against the Raptors, Miller emerged as a secondary star, the kind of perimeter threat Pat Riley had in mind when he brought the sharpshooter here to punish teams for focusing too heavily on the Big Three.
He scored 32 points, had 10 rebounds, added three assists and notched six three-point shots. He was simply unconscious during a 22-point second quarter. It was a night of absolute excellence for him.
After calling him out -- in a good way -- before the game, LeBron had some words for Miller during the torrid stretch.
"Basically he said, 'Way to shoot it, welcome back, let's have some fun,' " Miller said.
This is where LeBron's excellence comes in, excellence beyond the 38 points he scored, the 11 rebounds he pulled down, the six assists he contributed or the force he displayed in the paint.
LeBron did exactly what Spoelstra had asked all week: Include everyone else. Make them better. Spread your own excellence around, make it stick, make it contagious.
The King can, if he chooses, be as positive a force for this team as he has been a negative one for his own image. It is his to decide, but focusing less on cartoons and shoes and more on the Mike Millers, the paint, the process -- those things will lead to winning, and winning can repair much of the damage done to him away from the court.
He started on that track Saturday.
LeBron helped spread the ball, truly, thus backing his coach's words with his own intense talent. He took on that role of leader, helping lead Miller back to a place of importance for this team. He was a complete player, attacking down low, rebounding, using his body because, without Bosh, it was the selfless thing to do. Finally.
"I've been just in Mike's ear," LeBron said after the game. "We got Mike here for a reason...when he's shooting the ball it looks just like a practice shot. He's got one of the best jump shots, one of the best releases, one of the best forms on this team.
"I told him, 'Welcome back and it's good for you that you're now relevant once again,' " he said. "And teams (like) New York, they're going to have Mike Miller on the scouting report."
If LeBron will be willing to stay at power forward more often, willing to rebound, willing to shun the glitz of his own perimeter shooting for the grit of going down low, many good things can follow.
Then there was Spoelstra, and this is the part that is most fragile in terms of lasting. It is also just as important as Miller's resurgence and LeBron exhibiting actual leadership skills: The young head coach reclaimed his team.
After LeBron fired shots at the end of the Atlanta game that made it appear there was either no offense or no way The King was willing to run one prescribed by someone else, the team emerged Saturday with the selfless ball movement Spoelstra has said he wanted all week.
Don't underestimate the practices Spoelstra said they ran all week, nor the emphasis on moving the ball around and finding a better cohesion.
Don't underestimate how much losing forced, or maybe just helped, LeBron to accept this part of the Heat's journey.
"I think that's the trust coach Spo was talking about," LeBron said. "As we get more comfortable with guys out on the court you start to trust more. You know you can go to those options. As the practices go on we started playing with different lineups, as the games go on we start playing (and trusting) with different lineups."
Yes, Saturday night was a butt-whooping against an abysmally bad team, which is all the more reason it matters these things happened.
This is the NBA. It's all too easy for incredible talents and incredibly talented teams to ignore warning signs, especially when they flash in games easy to overlook.
The Heat, instead of overlooking Toronto, used them to iron out some important issues.
That's real progress. That's the kind of victory the Heat must have, and hold on to, if they're to beat teams like Boston when the real tests begin.
"It was everyone," Spoelstra said. "LeBron set the tone in moving the ball early on, trusting, getting the guys the ball when they're open. Our ball movement as a team was very good. We talked about finding our shooters when they're open and not missing the moment."
Not missing the moment, indeed.
LeBron as leader. Miller back. Spoelstra once again shaping his team's approach.
You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter.
