boutons
05-13-2005, 12:02 PM
Blinded By the Flash
By Michael Wilbon
washingtonpost.com
Friday, May 13, 2005; D01
Usually only bad news spreads so quickly. Shaq would miss the game. Seriously, no Shaq for Game 3. Twenty thousand people were passing the word. There was Shaq in the MCI Center hallway in a suit, vest and tie, a fetching ensemble. He was ready for a magazine cover shoot, but not a basketball game. Bruised thighs that haven't responded well to constant treatment would keep him on the bench and hand the Wizards a victory, right?
Steve Nash may be the NBA's MVP, but Shaq is the man you least want to play against, the most dominant force in sports and the most important basketball player in the world. To see him sitting on the sideline in that beautiful gold tie with the perfect knot is pure heaven for an opponent, especially an opponent playing at home. A team couldn't get better news than to hear "Shaq's out" a half-hour before a playoff game, down 0-2 in a series.
But the Wizards couldn't take advantage of his absence, largely because Alonzo Mourning grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots. And while Mourning held it down inside, the Wizards were also being overwhelmed by a storm named Dwyane Wade. The kid Shaq calls "Flash" effectively ended Washington's season with a stunning performance: 31 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocked shots. Wade, Shaq or no Shaq, is perfectly capable of shock and awe all by himself. No wonder Shaq, the moment Miami's 102-95 victory was done, walked over to Wade and said, "I love you. I owe you one."
Turns out Miami has not only the best player in this series, but it has the runner-up as well. We're going to look back in a few years at this series as the coming-out party for one of the five best players in the NBA. The Wizards honored Larry Hughes before the game for being named to the NBA all-defensive team, and it's as if Wade was offended by the notion. He hit jump shots, spinners and even a half-hook late in the game when his team desperately needed a basket. It's not often a player scores 31 points with no three-point baskets.
But to hear him tell it, he had a terrible first half. "The worst I've ever played," he said. "I came out [in the absence of Shaq] and tried to play the perfect game, and that's not me."
There will be plenty of hand-wringing about what the Wizards didn't do. The coaches and players will look at the box score and cringe at seeing that Udonis Haslem grabbed six offensive rebounds and 12 total. You can't get outrebounded 43-29 at home by a team missing Shaquille O'Neal. It just shouldn't happen that Wade, at 6 feet 4, grabs more rebounds than any Wizards player. And once again, the Wizards couldn't keep themselves between the ball and the basket, as evidenced by Miami's 51.3 shooting percentage. I don't care how many shots a team makes, playoff games still come down to defense and rebounding, and the Wizards didn't do a good job in either department.
Miami, meanwhile, is so built for the playoffs, from Shaq to Wade to Mourning, who enjoyed a triumphant homecoming. The former Georgetown star returned to Miami as an insurance policy, a guy in the twilight of his career who would spell Shaq for 10, maybe 12 minutes per night. Yet, he played 35 minutes in Game 3 and scored 14 points. It's difficult to imagine a sweeter outcome for Mourning, who retired after a kidney transplant and had to miss most of two seasons. "At shoot around this morning," Mourning said, "Shaq came to me . . . on the bus and said, 'I'm going to need you tonight.' And I said, 'Okay, I haven't forgotten how to play this game.' "
Mourning had as many rebounds as Brendan Haywood, Jared Jeffries and Michael Ruffin combined. . How satisfying it must be for him to contribute to a meaningful victory in May down the street from Georgetown, down the road from his home in Chesapeake, Va. How cool it must also be for Mourning to play with a great young player in ascension, like Wade. "He's a special individual," Mourning said of Wade. "He had his head down at halftime and was upset with himself. I told him, 'I've been doing this for 13 years and I've seen it all. We're looking for you to carry us.' "
Don't get me wrong: Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Hughes are very, very nice players. They're all-stars. Arenas didn't have his stroke and took some questionable shots, but he kept his head enough to hand out a club playoff-record 14 assists. Jamison, whose knee is wracked with tendinitis, scored 21 points. And Hughes expended every ounce of energy he had on both ends. They need a big roughneck to play with next year if they want to go toe-to-toe with Miami and Detroit and Indiana in the playoffs. Right now, in terms of this series, none of the Big Three is as good as Wade.
That's not meant to be a criticism. No perimeter player in the game is as good as Wade -- not Kobe, not LeBron, not Carmelo, not Iverson. The only thing Wade doesn't do well is shoot three-pointers, so he doesn't shoot them. If he wasn't making a critical basket, he was grabbing the rebound or blocking the shot (twice) or making the pass that led to the pass that led a basket. With Shaq, Wade is unstoppable. Without Shaq in 10 games this season (in which Miami is 7-3), Wade is shooting 58 percent. He's highly skilled, utterly fearless and the Wizards had nothing for him, no answer. So the season will come to an end, almost certainly tomorrow night in Game 4. Shaq will get a chance to debut another fine garment and will get another chance to owe Wade in the end. And the Wizards will try to figure out what this second round of the playoffs is all about. "We have had a terrific season, thus far," Eddie Jordan said. "It would be great to symbolize the season by not allowing them to close us out at home." But it will take blocking out Mourning and forcing Wade to his right when he'd rather go left and finding Haslem and Damon Jones in scramble situations. It's going to require the Wizards to be pretty much perfect and Miami to let down, and given the talent and resolve the Heat players have in abundance, extending this series seems to be an awfully tall order. As Jordan said, "They've learned to play without Shaq, and they've learned to win without him, too."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
By Michael Wilbon
washingtonpost.com
Friday, May 13, 2005; D01
Usually only bad news spreads so quickly. Shaq would miss the game. Seriously, no Shaq for Game 3. Twenty thousand people were passing the word. There was Shaq in the MCI Center hallway in a suit, vest and tie, a fetching ensemble. He was ready for a magazine cover shoot, but not a basketball game. Bruised thighs that haven't responded well to constant treatment would keep him on the bench and hand the Wizards a victory, right?
Steve Nash may be the NBA's MVP, but Shaq is the man you least want to play against, the most dominant force in sports and the most important basketball player in the world. To see him sitting on the sideline in that beautiful gold tie with the perfect knot is pure heaven for an opponent, especially an opponent playing at home. A team couldn't get better news than to hear "Shaq's out" a half-hour before a playoff game, down 0-2 in a series.
But the Wizards couldn't take advantage of his absence, largely because Alonzo Mourning grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked four shots. And while Mourning held it down inside, the Wizards were also being overwhelmed by a storm named Dwyane Wade. The kid Shaq calls "Flash" effectively ended Washington's season with a stunning performance: 31 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 blocked shots. Wade, Shaq or no Shaq, is perfectly capable of shock and awe all by himself. No wonder Shaq, the moment Miami's 102-95 victory was done, walked over to Wade and said, "I love you. I owe you one."
Turns out Miami has not only the best player in this series, but it has the runner-up as well. We're going to look back in a few years at this series as the coming-out party for one of the five best players in the NBA. The Wizards honored Larry Hughes before the game for being named to the NBA all-defensive team, and it's as if Wade was offended by the notion. He hit jump shots, spinners and even a half-hook late in the game when his team desperately needed a basket. It's not often a player scores 31 points with no three-point baskets.
But to hear him tell it, he had a terrible first half. "The worst I've ever played," he said. "I came out [in the absence of Shaq] and tried to play the perfect game, and that's not me."
There will be plenty of hand-wringing about what the Wizards didn't do. The coaches and players will look at the box score and cringe at seeing that Udonis Haslem grabbed six offensive rebounds and 12 total. You can't get outrebounded 43-29 at home by a team missing Shaquille O'Neal. It just shouldn't happen that Wade, at 6 feet 4, grabs more rebounds than any Wizards player. And once again, the Wizards couldn't keep themselves between the ball and the basket, as evidenced by Miami's 51.3 shooting percentage. I don't care how many shots a team makes, playoff games still come down to defense and rebounding, and the Wizards didn't do a good job in either department.
Miami, meanwhile, is so built for the playoffs, from Shaq to Wade to Mourning, who enjoyed a triumphant homecoming. The former Georgetown star returned to Miami as an insurance policy, a guy in the twilight of his career who would spell Shaq for 10, maybe 12 minutes per night. Yet, he played 35 minutes in Game 3 and scored 14 points. It's difficult to imagine a sweeter outcome for Mourning, who retired after a kidney transplant and had to miss most of two seasons. "At shoot around this morning," Mourning said, "Shaq came to me . . . on the bus and said, 'I'm going to need you tonight.' And I said, 'Okay, I haven't forgotten how to play this game.' "
Mourning had as many rebounds as Brendan Haywood, Jared Jeffries and Michael Ruffin combined. . How satisfying it must be for him to contribute to a meaningful victory in May down the street from Georgetown, down the road from his home in Chesapeake, Va. How cool it must also be for Mourning to play with a great young player in ascension, like Wade. "He's a special individual," Mourning said of Wade. "He had his head down at halftime and was upset with himself. I told him, 'I've been doing this for 13 years and I've seen it all. We're looking for you to carry us.' "
Don't get me wrong: Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Hughes are very, very nice players. They're all-stars. Arenas didn't have his stroke and took some questionable shots, but he kept his head enough to hand out a club playoff-record 14 assists. Jamison, whose knee is wracked with tendinitis, scored 21 points. And Hughes expended every ounce of energy he had on both ends. They need a big roughneck to play with next year if they want to go toe-to-toe with Miami and Detroit and Indiana in the playoffs. Right now, in terms of this series, none of the Big Three is as good as Wade.
That's not meant to be a criticism. No perimeter player in the game is as good as Wade -- not Kobe, not LeBron, not Carmelo, not Iverson. The only thing Wade doesn't do well is shoot three-pointers, so he doesn't shoot them. If he wasn't making a critical basket, he was grabbing the rebound or blocking the shot (twice) or making the pass that led to the pass that led a basket. With Shaq, Wade is unstoppable. Without Shaq in 10 games this season (in which Miami is 7-3), Wade is shooting 58 percent. He's highly skilled, utterly fearless and the Wizards had nothing for him, no answer. So the season will come to an end, almost certainly tomorrow night in Game 4. Shaq will get a chance to debut another fine garment and will get another chance to owe Wade in the end. And the Wizards will try to figure out what this second round of the playoffs is all about. "We have had a terrific season, thus far," Eddie Jordan said. "It would be great to symbolize the season by not allowing them to close us out at home." But it will take blocking out Mourning and forcing Wade to his right when he'd rather go left and finding Haslem and Damon Jones in scramble situations. It's going to require the Wizards to be pretty much perfect and Miami to let down, and given the talent and resolve the Heat players have in abundance, extending this series seems to be an awfully tall order. As Jordan said, "They've learned to play without Shaq, and they've learned to win without him, too."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company