The Heat are really going to have a tough time winning 70 games this season.

Monday’s cancelation of the first two weeks of the regular season, which meant six games for the Heat, was painful for everyone who works in the NBA and the majority of its fans. Already many Heat employees have taken pay cuts up to 25 percent. LeBron James and Chris Bosh are both out $145,000 for each of the six games. Dwyane Wade loses about $141,000 per. No laughing matter whatever your pay grade.

The prolonged lockout has been so money-intensive that it has been easy to forget the basketball perspective. If you can look at that for a moment, however, the Heat may actually benefit from a few extra weeks before training camp begins. With the caveat that it’s just a couple of weeks and not the months which many fear.

Primarily the Heat could use the extra time for health purposes. Both Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem are recovering from offseason surgeries. Miller had surgeries on both his left thumb and left shoulder to repair injuries he played through during the latter stages of the season. Since signing with the Heat, Miller’s had three surgeries and dealt with a series of blows to the head. Had the season started on time, it is a fair guess Miller might not have been 100 percent.

The same goes for Haslem, who is also recovering from multiple issues. Even though he came back for a surprising burst in 12 mostly effective playoff games for the Heat, Haslem was still several months away from being fully healed from the foot injury that sidelined him last November. That injury, a torn lisfranc ligament, doesn’t have a standard timeline to heal. In July Haslem had surgery to remove a screw from his foot and to “clean out” his ankle he told the Palm Beach Post in August.

With Wade, Bosh and James so interested in playing to the Miami audience last week in their charity game at Florida International, it was telling that neither Miller nor Haslem were on the floor. Mario Chalmers played as did former Heat guard Damon Jones. Haslem, though, was limited to ceremonial coaching duty and surgery was the reason. Knowing Miller, he was probably watching mixed martial arts somewhere in between more rehab sessions.

Using his freshly-created Twitter account, Haslem announced Monday that he’d just been cleared to start playing again by his doctor. Being shut down for more than two months after that “clean out” procedure hints Haslem might not have been ready to go even if training camp had started on time.

Also, though it is not believed to be serious, Joel Anthony suffered a sprained ankle playing for Team Canada last month at the FIBA Americas Championship and missed several games. He might not have been 100 percent at the normal start of training camp.

The Heat’s only significant free agent is Chalmers, who is restricted and there is a strong chance that he’ll eventually re-sign depending on how a new collective bargaining agreement works out. If that is the case, it would appear the team’s top seven players from last season will be back.

Certainly, everyone would prefer a regular training camp but chemistry issues would not seem to be as much of a problem with what probably will be little turnover in the rotation. The Heat will be in the market -- though just how much is still buried in the murky CBA waters -- for a replacement center for the now retired Zydrunas Ilgauskas and free agent Erick Dampier. Rookie point guard Norris Cole is expected to challenge for immediate playing time with veteran Eddie House. But compared to last season when there were 10 new faces in training camp, less time to prepare won’t be as much of an issue.

The Heat would prefer not to still be organizing exhibitions and Twitter protests a month from now, of course. The loss of any number of games is a serious matter that sobered everyone in the wake of another failed day of talks. But in the big picture, the Heat might find some silver lining in the delay at this point.