<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CHICAGO -- It does not matter that Shaquille O'Neal played as poorly as he ever has Thursday night. Does not matter that he looked like he was trying to cause the rim harm with what few shots he threw very hard at the frightened backboard. Does not matter that he could have exchanged his hands for two giant frying pans without an appreciable difference in his grace or production. Nor does it matter that Antoine Walker played a careening game of basketball Thursday that wouldn't have looked a lot different if he had consumed an entire bottle of Grey Goose vodka before tipoff. Or that Miami played no defense except for the thuggish, dirty, frustrated kind that got James Posey ejected late, Miami showing the most fight when it mattered least. It does not even matter that pouty, sore-loser Miami lost a playoff game here to the Chicago Bulls in a blowout because, well, only one team was playing to save its season. Here's the only important detail to be pulled from this wreckage: Zo played. That's it. Alonzo Mourning played. Miami losing this game will be good for the Heat in the long run, believe it or not, because it allows Mourning another game to get conditioned and ready to send his special brand of menace at the Nets or Pacers -- teams more worthy of meeting Miami's challenge than these inexperienced, mediocre Bulls. Mourning is not ready for playoff basketball yet after a month off, as his stat line (two rebounds, two turnovers, no blocks in eight minutes) suggests, but he'll be needed as the playoffs get bloodier, and running with the Bulls on Thursday will help. Chicago can't and won't beat Miami in this series. Thursday was an aberration, not a trend. Consider the Bulls the blind-folded person up against the wall, and Miami the firing squad that somehow had its rifles jam up on the kill shot. Chicago scored 109 points. Miami scored a lot less than that, but it is impossible to tell how few because workers had to be sent up into the rafters to fumigate the Heat's half of the scoreboard. No one played well for Miami on Thursday. Not one player. But no player on the court played as poorly as O'Neal. He was outplayed by Michael Sweetney, for the love of Wilt Chamberlain. O'Neal hurt Miami more than he helped. He has never played a worse playoff game when healthy. Miami would have been better off starting the retired Pat Cummings at center in his short-shorts. Miami has the three best centers in this series. O'Neal is the single biggest difference between these two teams, figuratively and literally, and he ought to spend the next three days steaming about how embarrassing he was. And God help the Bulls when they see Angry Shaq on Sunday. He missed all his free throws Thursday. He had more turnovers (seven) than free-throw attempts (six). He had four rebounds and one assist. Chicago outscored Miami 40-32 in the paint, and that is unfathomable given Miami's strengths and jump-shooting Chicago's weakness. O'Neal would have fouled out about seven different times if the refs didn't object to calling a sixth foul on a superstar of his size. In fact, on one play, Bulls center Tyson Chandler somehow fouled Shaq's elbow with his chin. Pat Riley appeared to be trying to embarrass his starters late by keeping them playing in a blowout, an unwritten no-no, but Miami's veterans are too savvy for that. So they all appeared to team up to try and get thrown out of the game. Posey pushed one Bull before finally dropping a shoulder into another as if he were learning from Nick Saban tackling drills. Posey didn't hit many shots Thursday except for that cheap one. Riley eventually benched his starters after Udonis Haslem got a technical and Antoine Walker fouled out. Still, Miami gets more production from the center position than any team in the league. Riley probably wishes he could fuse Shaq's physical gifts with Mourning's will to produce the most dominating force in the history of games, but he'll settle for what he has. What Mourning has done this season, returning from kidney issues to play at an unfathomable level, is the single most underappreciated story in this entire sport. Makes for a bad formula for the baby Bulls: Embarrassed Shaq + Recovering Zo = Look Out Below!</div> http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sport...ll/14446983.htm This article really gave me some encouragement for Game 4. With an embarrassed Shaq, and a Recovering Zo Game 4 will be a completely different game.
i really like that plan if they did it on purpose..but you never know if the bulls can come back and win
No team purposely plans on having the most dominant center of all time have his second worst playoff game of his career, or to lose by over twenty points in the playoffs. The Bulls took it to the Heat in game three, and the heat just fizzled out. Although, I expect the Heat to come out with fire in game four there is no writer that is going to tell me a team is not in a state of concern after losing in a blow out, especially in a playoff game. Believe it or not I don’t think Mourning will have that big an affect on this series. The Bulls are primarily a perimeter oriented team so it’s not like Mourning’s presence down low will be forcing them to do anything they don’t normally do any how. Not only that, but the Bulls primary slashing guard, Ben Gordon, has a killer floater that can’t really be blocked or altered, not even by Mourning as it was shown when Gordon hit a floater over him in game three. Oh, well I’m pumped for game four can’t wait should be a great game. Edit: Like I said^
