Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Kobe Bryant tried to win last night's game in Miami all by himself and for the first few minutes it looked like he might do it as he scored seven of LA's first nine points and Miami found itself down 9-2 less than two minutes into the game. But that would prove to be the largest lead the Lakers would hold all game. After that, it was all Miami, and it ended up 102-89in favor of the East's, and possibly the league's, best team.
In essence, Miami spotted the Lakers six points in the first minute and a half, as LA raced out to a six-nothing start over Miami. And that still wasn't enough. Given that so many games are decided by fewer than five points, spotting your opponent a half dozen really means that the Heat should have won by an even wider margin than the actual 13. It's just an example of how dominant they are.
The Lakers are all but out of the playoffs. The Heat are all but in the Finals. The difference? Shaq? Yes. And also Dwyane Wade.
Wade and Bryant exchanged lots of words, starting with a foul called on Wade that led to Kobe's two free throws to give the Lakers the early 9-2 edge. If you watch the replay you will see it was a clean block, similar to Tayshaun Prince's rejection of Reggie Miller in last year's playoffs. Wade flew out of nowhere to reject Bryant, but was whistled.
In the end, Wade and Bryant nearly cancelled each other out. Wade ended up with a game-high 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block. Bryant finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block. Both did the bulk of their damage at the free throw line, with Wade hitting 11-of-12 and Bryant hitting 8-of-9.
NEXT GAME
The Heat (51-16, first in the Southeast) stay home for the weekend to host the New York Knicks (26-36, fifth in the Atlantic) tomorrow night, Saturday, March 19th. The game starts at 7:30pm Eastern and will be broadcast on Sun Sports and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
The only way to secure great seats for this year’s playoffsis to purchase season tickets for next year.
INJURY UPDATE
Wang Zhi Zhi(respiratory infection),Qyntel Woods(knee), andDorell Wright(knee) are all on the injured list.
Dan Le Batard ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: Miami Heat president Pat Riley is asked the last time he has been around a team playing this united, this unselfishly, this well.He bypasses the past decade in Miami and all those Atlantic Division titles of Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. He skips past the Patrick Ewing team that was within one good fourth quarter of winning New York a championship, too. And he doesn't stop until he arrives at the three-peating Lakers of Magic and Kareem.
Barry Jackson ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: As he walked around TNT's production room, complaining about the horrible weather here Thursday, Barkley made clear he expects to return in late May. ''I'll be totally shocked if the Heat is not in the Eastern Finals,'' he said, even though he predicted a Lakers' win Thursday.``They and Detroit are the only good teams in the East, and that's going to be a monster series. I only think they can beat Detroit if they get help from Alonzo Mourning.''
Kevin Ding ofThe Orange County Registerwrites: The Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal cold war thawed a little Thursday, but for the third game in a row, the Lakers let the wick on their postseason flame grow shorter. By losing to the Miami Heat, 102-89, the Lakers dropped 1 1/2 games behind Denver for the final Western Conference playoff berth. The Heat has 51 victories, two more than any team in the league.
Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press writes inThe Miami Herald:Kobe Bryant missed his first nine shots of the second half, and Dwyane Wade and Keyon Dooling keyed a big fourth quarter that gave the Miami Heat a 102-89 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night - and let Shaquille O'Neal enjoy a season sweep of his former team. Wade had 27 points, O'Neal had 25 points and 12 rebounds and Dooling scored a season-high 17 for Miami (51-16), which won its 11th straight game overall and single-season record 14th straight at home. The Heat is nine games ahead of Detroit in the Eastern Conference race, 13 1/2 games ahead of Washington in the Southeast Division with 15 regular-season games remaining and within percentage points of San Antonio (49-15) for the league's best record... Something Bryant said just before halftime actually raised Wade's level of focus. Bryant, according to Wade, told Miami's second-year guard "Stop crying" as the teams were preparing to leave the court following a first half in which Wade was often agitated over non-calls."I don't want to say what I said," Wade said. "I told him that I wasn't talking to him, for one. And for two, I pretty much told him a lot of stuff. I don't want to get into it."