Miami

Don't Get Cocky


Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services 

Miami so far owns a 1-0 lead over the Nets but they should be careful not to get cocky. Fortunately, they've been in the same position throughout the season and have never taken an opponent lightly, but nevertheless it bears repeating, as Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson are likely to explode tonight.

Game 1 was the first time Kidd, Carter, and RJ played together since RJ went down with injury. The three still need to acclimate to each other and as the series wears on, they will. The Nets are an explosive team who generate runs by scoring off of turnovers, and turnovers are one area where the Heat have been vulnerable this season, particularly with the ball in Dwyane Wade's hands. On the other hand, that's also exactly when the Heat have been most formidable: with the ball in Dwyane Wade's hands.

So it's not that big a concern.

Nevertheless, Damon Jones is not likely to play as well as he did in game one, though Shaquille O'Neal is quite likely to play even better than he did. The Heat need to be sure they're confident but not overconfident or else the Nets will shock them, the key word there being "shock" because if all goes normally, this series should be 2-0 by the end of the night.

NEXT GAME
The Heat (leading the series 1-0) host the Nets (trailing the series 0-1) for the second game TONIGHT. The game starts at 8:00pm Eastern and will be broadcast on TNT, Sun Sports, and TSN.

TEAM NOTES
Game Three Road Rally - Thursday! Join Burnie, the HEAT Dancers, the Xtreme Team and Michael Baiamonte as they host a Game Three Road Rally presented by Bacardi at Gatsby's in Kendall. The excitement of the NBA playoffs continues when the Heat battle the New Jersey Nets on April 28th at 7:00pm. Enjoy Bacardi specials and the Miami Heat playoff game at Gatsby's.

Red Zone Prize Pack Make an impression this summer in your brand new collection of red HEAT Jerseys! Show off your Red Zone style and flair all while making your friends green with envy.

INJURY UPDATE
Christian Laettner(foot),Rasual Butler(knee), andDorell Wright(knee) are on the injured list.Shaquille O'Neal(virus) is still recovering but should be ready to go on Thursday.

NEWSLINES

The Seattle Timeswrites: When Stan Van Gundy made a reference to the next series in his postgame comments after the Miami Heat's 116-98 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Sunday, the Heat coach swears he meant it as innocuously as possible.Van Gundy was referring to the timeline of when Shaquille O'Neal, who played Sunday with a deep thigh bruise, would likely be at 100 percent. But some in the New York media took it as a signal that Van Gundy was overconfident in the Heat's ability to quickly dispatch the Nets and move on to a second-round matchup against Chicago or Washington.

Bob Considine ofThe Asbury Park Presswrites: Change alone is unchanging.So the Nets will make specific adjustments in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, trying to even the score after a deflating 116-98 loss in Game 1 on Sunday. But they also have to re-establish the swagger they have had against most other teams in the NBA, because against the Heat they're now 0-4 this season — even with Shaquille O'Neal's comparatively modest performances.

Michael Russo ofThe Sun-Sentinelwrites: Damon Jones is glad his job is only to spray 3-pointers rather than devise a more efficient defensive scheme to shut down the Heat.That's the chore that has fallen to New Jersey Nets coach Lawrence Frank after the Heat scored 116 points in Sunday's 18point Game 1 victory. "I expect them to do something," Jones said Monday. "I just don't know what it is."