Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Shaquille O'Neal led everyone with 34 points and 15 rebounds, and Dwyane Wade had 33 points and 9 assists, but the real significance of the Heat's 111-99victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday was something you won't find in the official NBA box score: it was the emergence of Qyntel Woods. In a rare glitch, the NBA's link doesn't even include his contribution, but the formerly injured and overlooked swingman's performance was too important to overlook.
Woods played 22 minutes and got 8 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 steals. It has long been his defense that head coach Stan Van Gundy had been worried about; his offensive game, especially his one-on-one game, was never an issue. Woods broke through into the rotation thanks to reportedly excellent practices and some injuries.
It is those injuries that will add to the significance of Woods' return.
Eddie Jones was limited to 25 minutes in the New Orleans game, giving Woods the extra minutes. But Rasual Butler is getting antsy sitting on the injured list when he may not be that injured at all. There have been reports of his unrest and the real problem will come when Miami needs to choose a playoff roster. If Butler is left off of it, there will be problems.
Ah, the problems of too much talent. It's better than the problem of not enough.
NEXT GAME
The Heat (55-19, first in the Southeast) host the Chicago Bulls (41-31, second in the Central) tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 5th. The game starts at 7:30pm Eastern and will be broadcast on Sun Sports and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
The Heat have clinched the Southeast divisional title. Congratulations Miami!
The Miami Heat offers $10,000.00 in scholarship fundsto high school seniors each year. Scholarship applications are available in December each year and recipients are awarded in April. This is the seventh year that the Miami Heat has offered scholarships.
INJURY UPDATE
Keyon Dooling
(ankle) is questionable for tomorrow night's game.Christian Laettner(foot),Rasual Butler(knee), andDorell Wright(knee) are on the injured list.
Michael Cunningham ofThe South Florida Sun-Sentinelwrites: When coach Stan Van Gundy activated Woods from the injured list Tuesday, he cited Woods' work in practice.After the shaky debut, everyone else finally got to see what Van Gundy meant Saturday. Woods, playing 22 minutes with Eddie Jones hobbled by a sore ankle, led the Heat bench with eight points and tied Jones for the team lead with four steals.
Stephen F. Holder ofThe Miami Heatwrites: Qyntel Woods might be the biggest mystery on the Miami Heat's roster, but if he gets his way, he will be a known commodity before long.After making his Heat debut against the Pacers on Thursday, Woods was pressed into action again Saturday at New Orleans, playing 22 minutes with starting small forward Eddie Jones limited by an ankle injury. While he looked uptight and out of sorts at Indiana, Woods began to settle in against the Hornets, showing flashes of the athleticism and skills that have intrigued the Heat since the 2002 draft, when Woods was Portland's first-round pick. ''I just want to show everybody I can still play,'' said Woods, who had eight points Saturday.
John Lombardo ofThe South Florida Business Journalwrites: Miami Heat President of Business Operations Eric Woolworth knows it doesn't take a genius to sell out AmericanAirlines Arena these days.Just having Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade in the house does much of a sales staff's work for them. But what about leveraging the NBA's hottest brand in one of the league's toughest markets to do business? That's a far bigger challenge.
Chris Perkins ofThe Palm Beach Postwrites: With only eight regular-season games remaining, the Heat finds itself in a bit of a quandary. Its nine-man rotation has been disrupted because of illness, injury and personal matters, and that has left coach Stan Van Gundy searching for alternative combinations.There's room for the recent acquisitions — center Alonzo Mourning, guard Steve Smith and forward Qyntel Woods — to fill in the gaps, but none has shown Van Gundy what he wants to see. "They've got to get on the same page with the rest of us defensively and offensively in terms of what we're running," he said.