A six-pack of notes on a Monday night:

### The notion of a marriage between the Dolphins and Lions free agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh --- an idea that had seemed highly improbable –-- gained some steam tonight with two developments:

Mark Dominik, the media person who’s closest to Dolphins GM Dennis Hickey, mentioned the Dolphins as a potential landing spot.

We also received word that there are segments of the Dolphins organization that are very intrigued by the idea of pursuing Suh.

On Monday night, hours after the Lions opted not to put the franchise tag on Suh, ESPN’s Dominik, who was Hickey’s boss in Tampa and remains close with him, listed Miami, Atlanta and Jacksonville as three top contenders for Suh. He said the Dolphins have a "real shot" to get him.

“The last team I would say has a chance is the Miami Dolphins,” Dominik said on ESPN. “When you’re talking about state taxes and you’re in Tennessee, Texas or Florida,… any of those teams has a shot. … Miami is another team I could see being interested in Suh.”

Still, there are factors working against this, including the fact other teams have more cap space. And though the Dolphins could clear more than $40 million in space, they have multiple needs to fill in free agency and privately acknowledge needs at middle linebacker and cornerback.

On the flip side, the Lions were able to accommodate Suh, Calvin Johnson and Matt Stafford under their salary cap.

If the Dolphins signed Suh, they could have more that $32 million in cap commitments to Suh and Ryan Tannehill in 2016. Suh wants to be the highest-paid defensive player in football, with the type of contract normally given to franchise quarterbacks.

Suh has played in 78 of 80 regular season games, with those two missed games resulting from suspensions for player-safety violations. He is a four-time first team All-Pro with 36 career sacks.

Bottom line: It would still be somewhat surprising if the Dolphins could pull this off. But it would not be shocking, provided they go ahead with a serious offer.

“We don’t need him or his price tag,” always entertaining Miko Grimes (wife of Dolphins cornerback Brent) said on Twitter.

An Internet report, unconfirmed by The Herald, said Suh is in South Florida tonight. But he isn't allowed to talk to other teams before Saturday and cannot sign anywhere (except for the Lions) before March 10.

### Impressive offensive display by the Heat tonight in this 115-98 win over Phoenix, including a career-high 26 points in 25 minutes from rookie Tyler Johnson; 21 from Goran Dragic (including 10 in the fourth) in just 15 foul-plagued minutes; 17 points (and 10 boards) from Hassan Whiteside before his ejection for tackling Alex Len after Len threw him aside; 16 from Wade and 12 from Michael Beasley.

According to ESPN, Johnson never scored that many points in any game in four years at Fresno State.

Miami (26-33) remained in seventh place in the East. The Heat would have fallen to 10th with a loss tonight.

### Reaction afterward: Erik Spoelstra: "You had two desperate team. We came in feeling this was an absolute must win.... Tyler was fantastic. He looked like the closest facsimile of a young Goran Dragic. He put his head down and attacked the basket. Mike was very good in the fourth quarter... .The guys wanted to get this win for Goran and Zoran. Without saying a lot, we knew this would mean a lot to him."

Spoelstra said "Hassan has to take the next step of being game-planned and being a guy teams aren't going to want to give up dunks and opportunities at the rim. If he did not retaliate, the punishment would have been on Len."

Said Whiteside, who was ejected in the third quarter: "I'm starting to realize a lot more teams are getting physical with me and I'm down for it. That's why I lift weights.... I shouldn't have retaliated. I should have just walked away." (Len also was ejected.)

Said Dragic: "I was a little anxious to do well, so I got into foul trouble. I'm happy with the win."

### Count former UM athletic director Sam Jankovich among those troubled by the state of the UM football program.



“The thing that bothers me more than anything is the team is not improving,” he said. “The team just doesn’t play with the intensity you need or seem to improve. I don’t think Miami has played well since joining the ACC.

“Leaving the Orange Bowl had a real impact on the program. I follow it pretty closely [from Idaho], and I don’t think it looks very good. It’s concerning. They’re losing a lot of the enthusiasm that made the program so great. It’s very disappointing to see the program just existing” instead of thriving.

### Fox gave the Marlins two regional appearances on their national TV schedule, both in prime time: May 22 against Baltimore and July 4 at the Cubs. Two other games will air on Fox Sports 1: May 15 against the Braves, June 23 against St. Louis.

But ESPN hasn’t committed to carrying any Marlins games on its partially-released Sunday night schedule.

In all, 154 of 162 Marlins games will be televised. Of the eight that aren’t on TV, all are on weekday afternoons except a Thursday night 10 p.m. game in San Diego on July 23.

### UM’s basketball season is on life support, with Jim Larranaga saying Miami needs to win Wednesday at Pittsburgh, Sunday at Virginia Tech and two games in the ACC Tournament to earn an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

Larranaga said the losses to FSU, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech “really do hurt” but “five of the [conference] losses shouldn’t be held against us.”

The bright side of UM closing the regular season with two road games? “We’re averaging five more points on the road in the conference than at home,” Larranaga said.

He said Angel Rodriguez told the team’s trainer that his wrist is feeling a little better.

Twitter: @flasportsbuzz