Miami Heat

[omad]

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Miami 115, Milwaukee 89
O’Neal, Heat Start Fast, Rout Bucks

MIAMI, April 4 (Ticker) -- Shaquille O'Neal and the Miami Heat wasted little time sending the Milwaukee Bucks packing.

O'Neal had 24 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks and Udonis Haslem added 17 points as the Heat breezed to a 115-89 victory over the Bucks.

Led by O'Neal and Haslem, Miami (49-25) remained 3 1/2 games in front of New Jersey for the second seed in the Eastern Conference.

"It's all in our hands," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "I'm not looking at numbers. I'm not looking at who they (Nets) are playing."

"Coach jumped on me the other day," said O'Neal, who shot 9-of-13 overall. "He told me I was settling and they have done a great job making sure we stay in shape. This is the lightest I've been in about 10 years. Hopefully, the guys will get it to me so I can run for them. If you feed a big dog then he's active like that."

The Heat jumped out early by scoring the first 13 points of the contest and never trailed.

"That's one of the better, more complete games that we've played in a long time," Riley said. "It's the first time that Shaq, in a couple of weeks, has been running to the rim and we got him early in transition and that's what it was. We have to get back to that game."

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[king_mark]

in a match-up agianst the giants of the league, i think the heat is slow.. against the pistons, they won only once this season.

[lunateec22]

Miami = mental lapses... for god's sake. they have to keep their heads above...

[footlose]

to all heat doubters, see I told you, wait till the playoffs, theyre one of the toughest team right now, leading 2-1 in the series against detroit

[celtic_predator]

Wade-Shaq... better duos than Kobe-Shaq.

[footlose]

im not nostradamus but if the heat will win ugma then expect the heat to wrap the series in 6 or 7. and eventually win the crown.

theres no way the mavs or the suns will beat either the pistons or the heat. like what happen to the orlando magic in 95 they were the favorites but inexperience and eventually lost to the houston rockets in 4 games. mao sad nay mahitabo sa suns kundi mavs inig abot sa finals. both teams are inexperience, if you compare them to the heat or pistons.

[markuz29]

im a big heat fan. been absent to work several times just to watch heat in the payoffs! go HEAT! hope this time they will make the NBA Finals for the first time in heat franchise history.

just like the other guys, i thought heat will not make it due to their season match-up record against the top-5 NBA teams.. but the 4-1 Heat vs Nets series, it sends a message that this time HEAT is a different team and a team to beat.

i lost some bucks last year for betting on heat.. this time i hope to gain the lost money

yahoo....

[edgeknife]

I'm not a Heat fan, but it's a payback time for the Miami Heat to defeat Detroit Pistons!!! One small mistake for the Pistons and GAME OVER!!

:mrgreen: All rights!!

[lunateec22]

I'm not Heat fan too, but for I'd like to see them make the Finals... i don't know about this but this 3-1 lead is a payback from last year's series loss to Detroit wherein both Wade and Shaq are battling injuries. I can see the Heat wrapping this whole series... but, again, we don't really know.

[depechebox]

their chances are strong, esp. shaq and wade are healthy, they lost in game 5 bec. of their poor free throw shooting, they beat themselves in game 5.