<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MINNEAPOLIS - On a day Shaquille O'Neal left the Heat to seek treatment for a troublesome left hip, coach Pat Riley insisted the center remains a crucial element of a hoped-for revival. O'Neal flew Monday morning to Los Angeles for treatment of bursitis in his left hip and other hip ailments. Riley stressed that a long-term absence is not expected, and might not even be tolerated. "We're just talking about two or three treatments," Riley said, "and then I hope to have him back by our first home game when we get back." That would be Jan. 16 at AmericanAirlines Arena, against the Bulls. Instead of casting the absence as a possible start of an endgame with the 35-year-old 7-footer, Riley said the team intends to have O'Neal earn his $20 million annual salary, a contract that still has two additional seasons. O'Neal has sat out the past five games with the hip ailments sustained a month ago and aggravated two weeks after. "There's going to be a time when he's going to have to play with it," Riley said. "He's going to have to deal with it in the future and fight through it." After commenting how, even at a diminished state, O'Neal still is capable of significant statistics, Riley mentioned in two radio interviews Monday that his center remains a coveted presence. But after guiding his beaten-down and banged-up team through a Monday practice at Target Center, Riley stressed that O'Neal's future remains with the Heat, the team he helped lead to the 2006 NBA title. "We're not interested in trading him at all, because we want those 17 points and those eight rebounds and 50-percent (shooting)," Riley said. "That's what we want. "I'm not interested in doing that, we're not. I'm just telling you straight out, we're not interested at all in that." Although known for taking midseason injury hiatuses as a means of extending his career, O'Neal had appeared in every game before missing the past five. Riley insisted that O'Neal has been working toward a return. "He's lost 12, 13 pounds over the last two weeks," Riley said. "He's in the low 320s. His body fat is around 11 percent. It's never been there. He's doing everything that he can do. "We just hope that maybe we'll take a shot at this and after 10 days of it he'll be better." Riley said the treatment in Los Angeles is unique from the care previously received in South Florida, and would include acupuncture and possibly other non-traditional remedies. "The inflammation is there so we need to try to correct it another way," he said. Riley also expressed concern about the health of guard Dwyane Wade, who was held out of Friday's loss in Dallas at the start of this five-game trip due to shoulder pain and then played Sunday's loss in Memphis off the bench. Riley, in fact, revealed Monday for the first time the seriousness of the surgery Wade underwent on his left shoulder last May. "I don't think anybody realizes how bad this was." Riley said. "It was a reverse dislocation, which doesn't happen that much. And he had nerve damage." Dorell Wright to return There was some good news Monday, with the team announcing that forward Dorell Wright, who had missed the previous three games with a sprained ankle, was on the way to Minnesota and is expected to play in Tuesday's game against the Timberwolves. Mostly, though, this is a reeling team, with the O'Neal announcement just the latest dose of bad news in an 8-26 season, a season that included the loss of center Alonzo Mourning last month with a likely career-ending knee injury. "Sometimes," Wade said, "It's like having a nightmare and never waking up from it. It's like game after game, day after day, you can't believe that it's happening to you, but it is."</div> Source: Sun-Sentinel
