MIAMI — Nuggets Friday morning shootaround. Coach Brian Shaw meets the media.

Media: How’d it go out there today?

Shaw: “Ahahahaha. We had a … what’s the right word … everybody was in good spirits, I’ll say that. Two days here in South Beach in the sun and all of the other activities that go on here, everybody seems to be in a good mood.”

Media (somewhat tongue-in-cheek): Will they be ready to go by tip-off?

Shaw: “That is the question.”

Shaw knows the drill in Miami. He was a player here. The Heat has one of the biggest advantages in the league — simply being in Miami.

And so the sun and fun become distractions. Late nights become sluggish mornings. Sluggish mornings become sloppy shootarounds. Preparation is impacted. The start of the actual game is impacted because of the toll all of that took.

It’s not like the Heat need anything extra; the team already has the best player in the world in LeBron James. But James and his teammates will take every little extra edge they can get.

Shaw hopes his players remembered why they were in town — to play basketball.

“Here, especially teams that come from cold-weather cities that want to lay in the sun all day, and obviously nightlife is available until all hours of the night,” Shaw said. “Us, we make one trip here so the mentality is to try to get it all in at once.

“I was a player. I understand that, I don’t try to tell the guys don’t go out and don’t have fun and don’t enjoy your time here, just remember what you’re here for. And make sure that, whatever you do, that you’re able to come into work and do what you need to do for your job when the ball goes up in the air.”

Shaw knows his Nuggets will face an angry Heat team, which has lost four of its last five games. But he’s confident his team will be ready for the challenge.

“In the games that we’ve played against the top-tier teams we seem to have been able to get up for those games and compete and play well,” Shaw said. “I’m expecting nothing different tonight.”

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost