The Big Houdini Shaq fined $10,000 for skipping postgame interview

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14803108.htm

How much worse can it get for the Heat?

BY DAVE HYDE
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - This was in the locker room moments after the Miami Heat lost Game 2. Amid the disappointment, frustration and lack of Shaquille O'Neal's accountability, there was still an odd but obvious optimism about the rest of the NBA Finals.

It was best stated by Gary Payton.

"Well, we can't play much worse," he said.

"You sure?" he was asked.

"I'm sure," he said. "We can't. We have to play better than that. And, you watch, we will."

The wonder of any best-of-7 series is you never know until later when that moment will happen, the moment that will stick with you, the one you point to later and say was most pivotal to the outcome. Was it Dallas guard Jason Terry in Game 1? O'Neal's showing in Game 2?

Or, as Payton was suggesting, as the Heat must believe, is that moment still out there? Will they play better, not simply because they have for most of these playoffs, but also because they can't play any worse?

The Heat is 8-1 at home in these playoffs. It's 20-4 since Dwyane Wade's rookie year. No, it never has played a team as good as Dallas, which has been good enough on the road to close out every series this year - at Memphis, San Antonio and Phoenix.

If you're the Heat and looking for toeholds of optimism right now, it's that Wade and O'Neal can't play be expected to play three sub-par games in a row. That's where this night starts and certainly where this series does if it ever really starts for the Heat.

It's telling of how the two Heat starters reacted to Sunday's loss. It also is opposite of how you might expect considering their standing in the league.

Wade, at 24, in his third year, went to an interview stage after the game and took every question asked of him. He displayed a maturity that he didn't in his unusual game on the court, as well as a touch with answers that revealed he'd be fine next game.

For instance, what had to change for the Heat to succeed?

"Everything," he said, even smiling.

Meanwhile, O'Neal, 34, one of the league's franchise players, ducked all questions. It was something to behold. You can think players can talk or not talk to the media, depending on their wont. But what does it say when one of the league's franchise players, who's intensely liked by the media, plays his worst playoff game and leaves his teammates to answer for it?

O'Neal even walked off into the night muttering that he just had five shots. Accountability, by such standards, went out the window. It was the biggest star for himself.

I'm generally a bootlicker for O'Neal. I like him as a player and for his personality. He's funny. He's usually honest. He's always respectful. He gets in no trouble. But, come on, you're on basketball's biggest stage getting out-rebounded by Dallas reserve Erick Dampier? Have made 2 of 16 foul shots? Saw your team play better in Game 2 with Alonzo Mourning in and you out?

And you slap at teammates for not getting you the ball more?

One of them would be right to respond, "Hey, get an offensive rebound. You had plenty of chances with all our missed shots."

Maybe Dallas is just this much better. Maybe Dirk Nowitzki is this much sharper. Maybe Josh Howard and Terry are this much more athletic. Maybe the Dallas bench is far deeper than the Heat's, its strategy is sounder than the Heat's and these two opening games are an indication of all that.

You've got to hand it to Dallas coach Avery Johnson for doing what no team has done this series: Double-team O'Neal and dare Wade to beat it. That would seem to play right to the Heat's strength. Instead, Dallas has made it work.

You know what the real shame is? Tuesday night should be a celebration for Heat fans. You've waited 18 years. You've seen the unlucky and unseemly. You should be able to enjoy this night for arriving, no matter how it does.

Instead, you're stuck with the cautious optimism of the likes of Payton.

The Heat can't play any worse than these first two games. Can it?

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201426.html

Dampier Has No Trouble Playing Second Fiddle

By Michael Lee
Washington Post Staff
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Page E03

MIAMI, June 12 -- The revenge of Erick Dampier has begun. Before the NBA Finals, Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal surprisingly had no disparaging comments for his personal punching bag for insults, saying that he would keep things "classy." With the Heat down, 2-0, to the Dallas Mavericks in this best-of-seven series after a 99-85 loss in which O'Neal scored a playoff career-low five points, what can the Big Aristotle say?

Dampier and Mavericks starting center DeSagana Diop have bottled up O'Neal like never before in the Finals -- a time when O'Neal has historically been his most dominant. He entered these Finals -- his sixth -- averaging 32.6 points and 13.7 rebounds in 24 games, but he has averaged just 11 points (on just 16 shots) and 6.5 rebounds per game in the first two games.

The Mavericks have double- and triple-teamed O'Neal each time he's touched the ball and disguised where the help is coming from, leaving the Heat offense discombobulated. "Yes, we need to get him the basketball," Heat Coach Pat Riley said of O'Neal. "They doubled him every single time he caught the ball. He made the pass that he was supposed to make, and the other times they would front him. Anytime he tried to throw the ball over the top, we didn't get out of it what we want. So, obviously, we have to go to work on that."

The feud between Dampier and O'Neal began two years ago when Dampier was in Golden State and proclaimed himself the "second-best center" in the league. Since then, O'Neal has called Dampier "soft." He said Dampier's game was more suited for the WNBA. He responded to a question about Dampier by saying: "Who? Ericka?" When he struggled in the first two games against the Washington Wizards last season, O'Neal said, "I feel like Erick Dampier, and that stinks."

Dampier was reduced to being the second-best center on his own roster after Dallas Coach Avery Johnson benched him in favor of Diop in midseason -- and he wasn't utilized at all in the previous series against Phoenix. But Dampier was acquired by Dallas in the summer of 2004 to slow down O'Neal and he has been effective in this series. Since Dampier joined the Mavericks, O'Neal and the Heat are 0-6 against Dallas.

Dampier outperformed O'Neal with six points and 13 rebounds in Game 2, but refused to continue the war of words. "Obviously we made some comments back and forth last year. I think that's behind us now," Dampier said. "So, you know, I think the most important thing is just for me to go out there and play and help the team win."

But Dampier was able to slip in a minor jab at O'Neal, who has complained of not getting enough touches in this series. "In Game 1, they said he didn't get a lot of touches. You went back and watched the game, I think he got 30 touches and 12 times he passed it out," Dampier said. "How many more times does he want to touch the ball?"

Haslem Expects to Play

In a startling sign of just how badly this series has started for the Heat, forward Udonis Haslem went in to deliver a hard foul on Mavericks point guard Jason Terry in the second quarter of Game 2 and wound up in the most pain when he collided with Terry and landed on his left shoulder. Haslem sat the entire second half, with an ice pack wrapped around his shoulder. He said he will be back for Game 3 Tuesday night in Miami. "There's no doubt I'll be playing. I mean, this is the Finals," Haslem said. "It's all right. I'll go home, work on it, and I'll be ready for the next game."