<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">So, let's just say Haslem was caught between a Shaq and a hard place. ''Zo has been our anchor,'' Haslem said. ``Obviously we lose a little bit with the Big Fella [O'Neal] out, but I don't think we lose a lot. Zo, he can do just as well as Big. Well, maybe not just as well. But I don't think it's that much of a drop-off at all.'' Judging by the numbers, Mourning's play might actually be a step up. That's because Mourning has been filling up the defensive stat sheet with dominant numbers while filling in for O'Neal the past 10 games. Mourning's latest stingy performance came Saturday when the 36-year-old center had a season-high seven blocked shots, one shy of the league-wide season high, in a 98-97 victory at Memphis to open the Heat's four-game Western Conference trip. It was just the kind of defensive tone coach Pat Riley said the team would need to set throughout the trip if the Heat (7-9) is to return to Miami above .500 for the first time since Nov. 10. The Heat plays the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday, the Sacramento Kings on Thursday and the Denver Nuggets on Friday. The trip comes at a time when Mourning is playing arguably his best stretch of basketball on both ends of the court since he returned from kidney surgery in 2004. Mourning has 23 blocks in the past five games and has scored in double figures in five of the past six while shooting 65 percent from the field. Vintage Zo, circa mid-1990s, perhaps? ''I was blessed to come back from the kidney surgery,'' said Mourning, who has moved up to eighth in the league in blocked shots this season (2.56 per game). ``I wouldn't have come back if I didn't think I could play the way I've always played. It's a God-given ability I'm trying to use to help my team win games.'' Riley said Mourning might have been at his defensive best late in the third quarter against Memphis when he blocked five shots, including three on one Grizzlies possession, and altered several others while playing 11 of 12 minutes in the period. ''He's been incredible down there [and] we're just so blessed to have him,'' Riley said. ``To get seven blocks, everybody knows he's there. He changed six or seven shots, and then there are six or seven times when guys didn't want to go.''</div> Source
