Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Judging by his season-averages of 21 points and 11 rebounds, both career lows, you might think that Shaq's 33 point, 18 rebound performance last night, powering the Heat past the Knicks 102-94, was a very good game for him. You'd be wrong. It's just a regular game. Just because he doesn't put up those kind of monster numbers every night doesn't mean he can't. O'Neal is the most dominant player in the league right now, and he only has a handful of competition for the all-time title of most dominant.
The crazy thing is the Heat haven't seen Shaq get ramped up to his max. He can do this night in, night out, no problem. Who's going to stop him? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? The NBA has a few good men but none as good as the Big Guy.
Dwyane Wade gave his usual stellar performance of 21 points, nine assists, and six rebounds. The Heat were able to prevail despite both Stephon Marbury's 28 points and 8 assists, and Kurt Thomas's 23 points and 12 rebounds.
When April rolls around, you'll find a lot of people quickly remember that the big guy only improves his performance during the playoffs.
We all know what that means: watch out, world.
NEXT GAME
The Heat (26-8, first in the Southeast) kick off a five game road trip lasting one week. Their first stop is Portland where they take on the Trail Blazers (14-15, third in the Northwest) on Friday, January 7th, 2005. The game starts at 10:00pm Eastern and will be broadcast on the Sunshine Network and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
Heat Fans, pleasemark your calendars: On Sunday, January 23, the Heat will play the New Orleans Hornets at the AmericanAirlines Arena at 6:00 pm. The Heat will be on the road on Monday, January 24, taking on the 76ers at 7:00 pm in Philadelphia.
INJURY UPDATE
Malik Allen(back),Dorell Wright(abdominal), andJerome Beasley(back) are parked on the injured list.
Ethan J. Skolnick ofThe South Florida Sun-Sentinelwrites: Right now, no one can play against him period.When O'Neal gets foes in foul trouble, the going gets even easier for teammates like Dwyane Wade, who either get to the basket -- or because the opponent is in the penalty -- to the line.
Howard Beck ofThe New York Timeswrites: Knicks center Nazr Mohammed picked up two fouls in the first four minutes against O'Neal, and suddenly the Knicks were depending on Vin Baker.Wilkens hardly plays Baker, an enigmatic former All-Star, and he does so only out of necessity. Baker had his moments Wednesday, including a clean swat of a Wade layup late in the first half, but the night mostly went badly for him. Baker looked awkward as he missed his first two shots, a one-legged fadeaway and a layup, and he traveled on his third attempt. Then he took a hard shoulder from O'Neal and watched from his back as O'Neal dunked over him.
Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press writes inThe Miami Herald: O'Neal made 14 of 21 shots, eclipsing the 30-point and 18-rebound marks for the third time this season.Wade added a game-high nine assists. Miami led most of the way, held a 44-32 rebounding margin and showed no ill effects from Monday's home loss to Seattle which snapped a franchise-record 14-game winning streak.
Tom D'Angelo ofThe Palm Beach Postwrites: "Stan told me before the game we needed 30 and 15 and I really wanted to do that,'' said O'Neal, who was playing with a flack jacket for the fifth straight game to protect bruised ribs."They weren't really doubling that much. I tried to take the high percentage shot.'' O'Neal finished by making 10 of his final 12 shots. Included were several baskets in which O'Neal beat his man down the floor for easy layups or, at the very least, unstoppable positioning down low. "If he can even do that three or four times a game, he's impossible,'' Van Gundy said about the streaking O'Neal. "First of all, just imagine if it's you and you're seeing him running at you. Not a great site.''
Charles Elmore ofThe Palm Beach Postwrites: Dwyane Wade smiled when asked whether he ought to be an All-Star starter."I don't know," Wade said. "Those two guards make it tough ahead of me in LeBron and Iverson. They're two crowd favorites. Just to be a top vote-getter period is good for me, as long as the team is playing well. Whatever happens, happens." Wade is No. 3 in the voting among Eastern Conference guards, and if voters go by reputation and points per game alone, LeBron James (24.5 points per game) and Allen Iverson (29.1) probably will stay No. 1 and No. 2 in the voting by the time the game arrives on Feb. 20. James had 843,363 votes at last count, with 825,179 for Iverson and 608,760 for Wade