Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Shaquille O'Neal has called himself and Eddy Curry the only two real centers in the East. Last night, the Heat and the Bulls played without either one, and Miami coasted to an easy 104-86victory behind Dwyane Wade's career-high-matching 39 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists to clinch the top seed and home court advantage in the East. Miami snapped a nine-game Chicago winning streak and in return Chicago snapped its temper, with Andres Nocioni pushing Dwyane Wade hard after a foul and getting ejected. "It was ridiculous," said head coach Stan Van Gundy. "It was an absolute punk play."
Nocioni apologized after the fact, calling it a "stupid foul" on his part, especially in light of the fact that the game was all but over by then. Udonis Haslem shoved Nocioni into the crowd immediately after Nocioni shoved Wade to the floor, and was also ejected, but he had full justification: "That's the third time in the last four games that someone has done that to Dwyane," said Haslem, "and we can't afford to let our best player get hurt over silly plays like that."
Shaq sat out with a stomach virus while Curry sat out with an irregular heartbeat. Miami's franchise-record home winning streak is now at 18 games. This is the longest home winning streak of any team since Sacramento's streak of 18 in 2002. The last time an Eastern Conference team accomplished this was the Indiana Pacers in 2000.
NEXT GAME
Seven games left. The Miami Heat (56-19, first in the Southeast) visit the Memphis Grizzlies (41-32, fourth in the Southwest) on Friday, April 8th. The game starts at 8:00pm Eastern and will be broadcast on Sun Sports and NBA League Pass.
TEAM NOTES
The Heat have clinched the Southeast divisional title and the Eastern Conference tite. 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
Christian Laettner(foot),Rasual Butler(knee), andDorell Wright(knee) are on the injured list.
Ira Winderman ofThe South Florida Sun-Sentinelwrites: Extending its franchise-record home winning streak to 18 while snapping the Bulls' nine-game winning streak, the Heat assured itself of home-court playoff advantage through the first three rounds. O'Neal long has downplayed any achievements shy of an NBA title and apparently couldn't stomach being part of this one, remaining at home with a stomach virus.No matter, not with Dwyane Wade at the top of his game.
Israel Gutierrez ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: If you can't beat them, flagrant foul them. The Heat clinched the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with a 104-86 defeat Tuesday night of Chicago despite missing Shaquille O'Neal, but not before one Bull took out his frustrations on Dwyane Wade, leading to a shoving match and an ejection.
Israel Gutierrez ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: From Jon Sundvold to Glen Rice to Tim Hardaway to Voshon Lenard to Eddie Jones, the Heat has had an impressive list of three-point shooters. And yet, Damon Jones is experiencing the best three-point shooting season in Heat history. With his first three-pointer Tuesday against the Bulls, Jones reached the 204 mark for the season, breaking Hardaway's record for three-pointers in a season.Jones quickly turned and pointed toward the seat in which Hardaway normally sits to acknowledge the former Heat great, but Hardaway was not in his seat. Then, Jones went on to make his next four three-pointers, finishing the first half 5 of 5 from distance.