http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...w-?slug=sk-rankings032905&prov=yhoo&type=lgns THE HIGH FIVE 1. Miami Heat (53-18) ¡V With Shaquille O'Neal in foul trouble, Dwyane Wade single-handedly took over Friday's game against Phoenix. The victory over the Suns keeps the Heat in the top spot, although they suffered an obvious letdown the next night in Charlotte. 2. Phoenix Suns (53-17) ¡V The Suns may want to play for road-court advantage down the stretch. Their 29-8 mark as visitors is better than their 24-9 record at home. 3. San Antonio Spurs (52-18) ¡V The Spurs are staggering a bit heading into April. First, Tim Duncan goes down, and now Devin Brown gets hurt. A big victory over Houston on Sunday helped calm Spurs fans' nerves, but they still wonder if injuries will derail this team's title hopes. 4. Dallas Mavericks (47-23) ¡V Avery Johnson has taken over for Don Nelson, and the Mavericks haven't skipped a beat. They're feeling good about their playoff chances. 5. Houston Rockets (43-28) ¡V Last week's big win over Miami was a huge confidence booster for Yao Ming. He is now 4-4 lifetime in head-to-head regular-season matchups with Shaquille O'Neal. More importantly for the Rockets, they're playing their best ball heading into April.
He was in terms of pure stats, but the foul trouble really plagued Yao, mainly his fault, in that game. He had something like 12 pts 9 boards in 24 mins if I remember right. He took it to Shaq the few times. Yao is the only center in the league that makes Shaq work on both ends of the court. Thats why Shaq/Yao generally offset each other on most nights. Just look at last year's playoffs Shaq had probably the worst playoff series ever against Yao. If the two teams meet in the finals this year it will more or less be the same and the other players will determine the outcome 5th is surprising on kerr's list actually and yeah he is a douchebag
Who'd we replace at #5? Since some team has to be #5, maybe we're the lesser of two evils in Kerr's mind.
