Heat's O'Neal-Less Front Court Struggles, but Survives

The Miami Heat's role players, as role players are wont to do, have spent much of the past few weeks taking exception to the notion that theirs is a two-man team, solely reliant on Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.

Despite two straight otherworldy performances from Wade, this trip to the District was indeed vindicating for several of those less-heralded players, a point punctuated by Eddie Jones's winning three-pointer and Alonzo Mourning's blocked shot in the final seconds of last night's 99-95 series-clinching victory over the Washington Wizards, a game O'Neal missed because of a bruised right thigh.

Now, as Miami enters the Eastern Conference finals still undefeated in the postseason, the question changes from how quickly the Heat could dispatch with the Wizards to how far this team can advance without having O'Neal at full strength.

"Ultimately, we need the big fella to get where we want to go," said guard Keyon Dooling, one of several reserves who played a key role in this series. "C'mon, when you have the most dominant force in basketball, you don't want to see him sitting on the sidelines."

O'Neal will have at least seven full days to recover for the conference finals, which will not start before May 23. Miami Coach Stan Van Gundy has said that any decision about O'Neal's playing status will be made primarily by the team's medical personnel; Van Gundy also said O'Neal continued to be dejected about his absence.

After posing for pictures and shaking hands in the MCI Center's back hallways following last night's game, O'Neal declined to answer questions. But his teammates admitted that one of their motivations to win last night's game was earning O'Neal the maximum amount of time off.

"That was something that we all came in and really wanted to do: To give him some rest where he can get back and be the 'Diesel' that we all know he can be," said Wade, who, like other members of the Heat, had encouraged O'Neal to sit out if it would help his health. "We're going to ride him when he gets back, because we know he's going to come back hungry and mad, and we know what a mad Shaq is like."

While Mourning figured in several crucial plays to hold off the Wizards' comeback, the deficiencies of a Heat team without O'Neal on the floor became increasingly evident last night.

Mourning, one of the stars of Miami's Game 3 win, committed two turnovers in the first five minutes. More importantly, he proved unable to avoid foul trouble, picking up his third midway through the second quarter and then drawing his fourth early in the third quarter.

His replacement, Michael Doleac, is a capable spot-up shooter perfectly willing to make use of his 6-foot-11, 262-pound body. He drew a personal foul every 7.3 minutes he played in the regular season -- the highest ratio of any of Miami's regulars -- and managed to do slightly worse in that regard against the Wizards, earning nine fouls in 41 minutes.

His foul trouble last night led to Christian Laettner's first action since this series moved to the District. The trio of backup big men combined for 11 fouls and 12 points, six fewer than an injured O'Neal is averaging in the postseason.

The Heat improved to 8-3 in games without its starting center, and yet two of Miami's three losses without O'Neal came against Indiana and Detroit, its two possible opponents in the conference finals.

"I'm praying for him; we definitely need him," Udonis Haslem said. "Obviously we're better with him. But if for some strange reason he's not healthy, we've got to push on and carry him like he's been carrying us all season."