Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Shaquille O'Neal returned to the lineup and immediately led the team in rebounds with 13 rebounds. Dwyane Wade remained the leading scorer for the fourth straight game, scoring 27 points, but Shaq's 20 points and 2 blocks helped the Heat extend their grip on the best record in the East as they toppled the New Jersey Nets 106-90. There was another appearance by a former Heat and Nets center: Alonzo Mourning's first appearance came against the Nets.
Mourning played only two minutes, the last 2:19 of the game in garbage time, getting two defensive rebounds and dishing out an assist. The Heat came back from a 14-point deficit in the first half to win by an even larger margin.
Eddie Jones had a nice game with 15 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out after 28 minutes.
The Nets tried the hack-a-Shaq strategy late in the game but O'Neal finished 8-of-11 from the charity stripe. "Most of the time," he said, "I make those shots. I don't know why people think that works."
NEXT GAME
The Heat (43-16, first in the Southeast) host the Sacramento Kings (36-23, second in the Pacific) TONIGHT and we'll get to see if the Lakers-Kings rivalry carries over to a Shaq-Peja rivalry. Most of the primary antagonists have switched teams, including Chris Webber, but any game against Shaq is a special game for the opponents. The game starts at 8:00pm Eastern and will be broadcast on Sun Sports and ESPN.
TEAM NOTES
The only way to secure great seats for this year’s playoffsis to purchase season tickets for next year.
INJURY UPDATE
Steve Smith(back),Qyntel Woods(knee), andDorell Wright(knee) are all on the injured list.
The Buffalo Newswrites: Alonzo Mourning made his return in a Miami Heat uniform during garbage time, logging the final 2:19 of a blowout victory against the team that traded him two months ago. "The boos were faint," Mourning said after the Heat's 106-90 victory over the New Jersey Nets. "I'm not the person they should be booing. They should be booing the person that broke the team up, to tell you the truth."
Barbara Barker ofThe Sun-Sentinelwrites: Nets loyalists believe he is an ingrate. They believe he was selfish for strong-arming the team into trading him in December. They believe he should be indebted to Nets president Rod Thorn for taking an expensive gamble on his ability to play with kidney disease. Mourning, back in New Jersey last night in a Miami uniform, had a message for those fans: You would have done the same thing.
Alan Hahn ofThe Sun-Sentinelwrites: There is no counter- attack to Shaquille O'Neal in the NBA, let alone the Eastern Conference, so any attempt to figure out how the Nets would try to match up with him was senseless. "I have no shame in saying that there is no game plan for Shaq," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said."If there was, he wouldn't be the most dominant player in the NBA."