Miami
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Since the arrival of the Big Diesel on the fair shores of Miami, the Heat have been one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the league. It's not solely due to Shaq's woes at the line. There's a psychological, almost viral, effect on teammates when a key starter shoots bad free throws. The problem is that Shaq's ability to hit the key shots is not as infectious.
Shaq is not the only example of a starter seemingly bringing down the rest of the team's free throw shooting percentage. In principle, it should never happen. Your ability to hit free throws should not be impacted in any way by your teammates' abilities. They should all be random samples. But they don't quite seem to be. Look at Antoine Walker. He seemed to bring down the free throw shooting percentage of Al Harrington, who used to be able to hit them before playing alongside Walker in the frontcourt.
Miami has missed a lot of free throws as a team and it's not solely Shaq's fault. Perhaps what is happening is subconsciously a player might assume that poor free throw shooting is acceptable and allow himself to sink to that level. Or perhaps the awe and respect Shaq gets means other players subliminally believe it's okay to miss free throws, even a little. What they don't see is Shaq's ability to hit the most important free throws, at end of games, etc.
It's time, hard as it may be, to ignore Shaq and to focus on nothing but putting the ball in the hole.
NEXT GAME
The Heat (56-21, first in the Southeast) are off until Thursday when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers (39-37, second in the Atlantic). 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 title. Congratulations Miami!
Do you think you know everything about the Heat? Would you consider yourself an expert on everything from Keith Askins to Wang Zhi-Zhi? What about Burnie, the HEAT Dancers or the Xtreme Team? What do you know about this season, Shaq, Dwyane or Udonis? If you’re a know it all, then prove it. Enter the Heat Trivia Engine Contestand compete with other fans for fame and prizes! You can win autographed memorabilia from this year's amazing run!
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.
Stephen F. Holder ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: But the one category in which the Heat could have helped itself is free-throw shooting, which has been a recurring problem all season.Miami's 14-of-26 shooting Sunday was hardly an aberration. In fact, the Heat, a team with championship aspirations, ranks last among the NBA's 30 teams in free-throw shooting at 67.2 percent. At this stage of the season, the misses are becoming increasingly frustrating. ''We were just shooting ourselves in the foot at the free-throw line,'' coach Stan Van Gundy said after Sunday's game.
Greg Cote ofThe Miami Heraldwrites: Down-to-the-wire between Shaq and Phoenix's Steve Nash for league MVP. Nash may benefit from O'Neal's recent illness. Shaq may be helped by the fact many NBA writers will find it impossible to vote for a long-haired, short, white Canadian... You see where the Heat's Dwyane Wade tried to improve his defense by watching tapes of Michael Jordan? Unfortunately, they were of MJ playing baseball.
Broderick Turner ofThe Press Enterprisewrites: Pat Riley came to be honored with the rest of the 1985 Lakers team that finally beat the hated Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, on the 20th anniversary of the feat. But Riley, who coached the Lakers to four NBA championships in the '80s and now is president of the Miami Heat, couldn't avoid being asked about possibly being the Lakers' next coach.He said he has no interest in the job... Riley will become fully vested and get 10 percent ownership in the Heat after this season. Still, his name continues to come up in discussions about coaching vacancies.