nbascribe
06-18-2006, 06:14 PM
Shaq Value
Shaquille O'Neal came up big in Game 4, and needs to pull an encore.
BY ISRAEL GUTIERREZ
[email protected]
It takes a big moment to swing a series this momentous.
Or a big man.
An inspired fourth-quarter performance from Dwyane Wade in Game 3 may have provided the Heat life, but it may just be the showing from Shaquille O'Neal in Game 4 that has given the Heat a true opportunity to win an NBA title.
Entering tonight's pivotal Game 5 of a tied series, the Heat now knows it has an actual advantage in the middle of the floor instead of an enigma. With 17 points, 13 rebounds and three assists in Game 4, O'Neal and his teammates showed that the Mavericks' double-team isn't impossible to figure.
And even if the league's most dominant force is forced to become more playmaker than punisher, the Heat now believes its biggest weapon can be just as effective.
''I don't know if they're going to let him punish anybody anymore for the rest of the way,'' point guard Jason Williams said. ``I think [O'Neal] enjoys passing the ball, too, because he thinks he's a more complete player when he passes and gets a couple of assists.''
For the first two games of the Finals, the Mavericks' double-team was confounding the Heat and stalling an offense that was desperate to keep up with the Mavericks. Game 2 featured O'Neal's worst playoff performance ever, frustrating the big man to the point where he took a $10,000 fine rather than talking about the experience.
In the opening quarter of Game 3, it seemed as if O'Neal had finally broke through and figured out how to be his usual forceful self, but in the final three quarters O'Neal was once again mostly ineffective and committed seven turnovers for the game.
Then came Game 4, when O'Neal picked his spots to attack, was more active running the floor and on the boards and patiently dissected the Mavericks' double-team when it was run at him -- throughout the game.
''I think he's getting in a little bit of a rhythm in the way they were playing him, and we made some adjustments as far as how we want to move around him to get open,'' Udonis Haslem said. ``I think one thing he doesn't get enough credit for is his passing. Obviously he's a great scorer and he rebounds and blocks shots, but he also passes the ball really well for a guy his size.
``I think he really enjoys dishing the ball. There are some guys that pass the ball because they have to, they don't have another choice because there are four or five guys on him. I think he actually looks to pass and he gets joy out of making other guys better.''
O'Neal helped make James Posey into a key factor in Game 4 with 15 points, and he found a way to make Shandon Anderson an offensive threat in his 19 minutes on the floor rather than just a defensive specialist.
And if O'Neal looked like he was more vocal in Game 4, it's because he was, directing his teammates on how to best expose Dallas' defense.
''He just tells me to get the right spacing,'' Williams said of O'Neal. ``He doesn't like little guards, especially a guy guarding me, close to him. He wants me to get them away from him so if he puts the ball on the floor he can attack.''
O'Neal's production in Game 4 was a bit overshadowed by the performance of Wade, who followed up his 42-point performance in Game 3 with 36 more in Game 4. And those back-to-back showings may have the Mavericks defense shifting their focus away from O'Neal and toward Wade.
What will it mean for O'Neal if the Mavericks send bodies in the direction of Wade rather than him?
''It will be good,'' O'Neal said. ``You know, no one has figured that out, not even me, how to slow down Dwyane. He's a very, very unselfish player, very humble, very great player. You know, the good thing about our team is we've seen it all. So whatever they do, we've seen it before. We know what to do and we know how to adjust to it.''
If the Mavericks do significantly change their defensive approach, however, the Heat won't have a two-game period to adjust to it. With the series now a best-of-3, winning its lone remaining home game is crucial to Miami's chances of taking the title.
The Mavericks will be both shorthanded and motivated by the suspension of Jerry Stackhouse for his flagrant foul on O'Neal in Game 4. But the Heat might still have a greater motivational factor: knowing Games 6 and 7 would be played in Dallas.
''We don't want to go back [to Dallas] down 3-2 with two games on their home court,'' Wade said. ``It's important for us to come out and continue to keep playing the way we play as a team, and that's together with confidence and energy, and defense is very key.
``Me personally, I never want to look at anything as pressure. Hopefully my team doesn't think it's pressure. We just look at this as a golden opportunity, man.''
It doesn't get much more pivotal than this. So it helps to have a man in the pivot again.
''Like I've been saying, we know what we have to do, we have to take care of the ball, keep taking the high-percentage shots, just keep playing our game,'' O'Neal said.
Shaquille O'Neal came up big in Game 4, and needs to pull an encore.
BY ISRAEL GUTIERREZ
[email protected]
It takes a big moment to swing a series this momentous.
Or a big man.
An inspired fourth-quarter performance from Dwyane Wade in Game 3 may have provided the Heat life, but it may just be the showing from Shaquille O'Neal in Game 4 that has given the Heat a true opportunity to win an NBA title.
Entering tonight's pivotal Game 5 of a tied series, the Heat now knows it has an actual advantage in the middle of the floor instead of an enigma. With 17 points, 13 rebounds and three assists in Game 4, O'Neal and his teammates showed that the Mavericks' double-team isn't impossible to figure.
And even if the league's most dominant force is forced to become more playmaker than punisher, the Heat now believes its biggest weapon can be just as effective.
''I don't know if they're going to let him punish anybody anymore for the rest of the way,'' point guard Jason Williams said. ``I think [O'Neal] enjoys passing the ball, too, because he thinks he's a more complete player when he passes and gets a couple of assists.''
For the first two games of the Finals, the Mavericks' double-team was confounding the Heat and stalling an offense that was desperate to keep up with the Mavericks. Game 2 featured O'Neal's worst playoff performance ever, frustrating the big man to the point where he took a $10,000 fine rather than talking about the experience.
In the opening quarter of Game 3, it seemed as if O'Neal had finally broke through and figured out how to be his usual forceful self, but in the final three quarters O'Neal was once again mostly ineffective and committed seven turnovers for the game.
Then came Game 4, when O'Neal picked his spots to attack, was more active running the floor and on the boards and patiently dissected the Mavericks' double-team when it was run at him -- throughout the game.
''I think he's getting in a little bit of a rhythm in the way they were playing him, and we made some adjustments as far as how we want to move around him to get open,'' Udonis Haslem said. ``I think one thing he doesn't get enough credit for is his passing. Obviously he's a great scorer and he rebounds and blocks shots, but he also passes the ball really well for a guy his size.
``I think he really enjoys dishing the ball. There are some guys that pass the ball because they have to, they don't have another choice because there are four or five guys on him. I think he actually looks to pass and he gets joy out of making other guys better.''
O'Neal helped make James Posey into a key factor in Game 4 with 15 points, and he found a way to make Shandon Anderson an offensive threat in his 19 minutes on the floor rather than just a defensive specialist.
And if O'Neal looked like he was more vocal in Game 4, it's because he was, directing his teammates on how to best expose Dallas' defense.
''He just tells me to get the right spacing,'' Williams said of O'Neal. ``He doesn't like little guards, especially a guy guarding me, close to him. He wants me to get them away from him so if he puts the ball on the floor he can attack.''
O'Neal's production in Game 4 was a bit overshadowed by the performance of Wade, who followed up his 42-point performance in Game 3 with 36 more in Game 4. And those back-to-back showings may have the Mavericks defense shifting their focus away from O'Neal and toward Wade.
What will it mean for O'Neal if the Mavericks send bodies in the direction of Wade rather than him?
''It will be good,'' O'Neal said. ``You know, no one has figured that out, not even me, how to slow down Dwyane. He's a very, very unselfish player, very humble, very great player. You know, the good thing about our team is we've seen it all. So whatever they do, we've seen it before. We know what to do and we know how to adjust to it.''
If the Mavericks do significantly change their defensive approach, however, the Heat won't have a two-game period to adjust to it. With the series now a best-of-3, winning its lone remaining home game is crucial to Miami's chances of taking the title.
The Mavericks will be both shorthanded and motivated by the suspension of Jerry Stackhouse for his flagrant foul on O'Neal in Game 4. But the Heat might still have a greater motivational factor: knowing Games 6 and 7 would be played in Dallas.
''We don't want to go back [to Dallas] down 3-2 with two games on their home court,'' Wade said. ``It's important for us to come out and continue to keep playing the way we play as a team, and that's together with confidence and energy, and defense is very key.
``Me personally, I never want to look at anything as pressure. Hopefully my team doesn't think it's pressure. We just look at this as a golden opportunity, man.''
It doesn't get much more pivotal than this. So it helps to have a man in the pivot again.
''Like I've been saying, we know what we have to do, we have to take care of the ball, keep taking the high-percentage shots, just keep playing our game,'' O'Neal said.