Diesel Powers Heat Past Wizards
The Miami Heat took control of a close game last night by repeatedly feeding Shaquille O'Neal in the post and The Diesel responded by scoring 10 of his season high 23 in the fourth quarter, leading the visiting Miami Heat past a depleted Washington Wizards team, 92-83. With Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison out with injuries, the Heat ran multiple defenders at Gilbert Arenas all night, holding him to 15 points on 3-15 shooting. Arenas is shooting just 30% from the field in his last four games, all losses.
The Wizards started the game flat and quickly found themselves down 17 due to the hot hand of Miami's Jason Williams, who outscored the entire Wizards roster 14-12 in the first eight minutes of the game. He finished with 23 points, shooting 5-10 from downtown, which opened up the lane for O'Neal and Udonis Haslem's 12 points and 16 rebounds. The Wizards refused to double team Shaq in the post and he made them pay. Brendan Haywood could be heard in the showers after the game singing "All By Myself."
The Wiz fought back in the second and third quarters, even taking the lead briefly, but they could never seem to come up with a bucket when they needed one the most. After Roger Mason Jr.'s three pointer with 6:37 remaining made the score 75-72 and cut the Heat's lead to three, Washington went six possessions without a basket and didn't score another field goal until just 56 seconds remained. At that point the Heat were in control and Washington was forced to continually foul to stop the clock.
Photos by Kyle Gustafson.
After the game Arenas continued his recent streak of not talking to the press, so I went over to Roger Mason Jr., who has recently moved up in the rotation with some hot shooting and inspired play. "We still feel like Shaq is one of the most dominant forces in the game, but Jason Williams and Jason Kapono had it going a little bit, and it was pick your poison out there," he said. "They spread the floor well and Shaq played great down the stretch. Tonight we got good looks but unfortunately they didn't go for us."
Jamison and Butler are both expected back on Sunday when the Wizards host the Warriors, but Jamison could be back for Friday's home game against the Hawks. With or without those players, the Wizards cannot take these two games lightly. "We have practice tomorrow," Mason Jr. said, "it will be good to have another practice with Antawn and hopefully Caron will be back soon. But there's no gimmies in this league, you learn that real early. Just because we have guys coming back doesn't mean a thing. We still have to go out there, compete and get the job done."
Notable: GW's Mike Hall had quite the day yesterday. He was called up from the NBA's D League and signed to a 10-day contract when the Wizards cut James Lang. "Everything happened so quickly," Hall said in the post game locker room. "I got the call and within two hours I was at the airport. I don't even know what I packed. But I'm here now, hopefully for some time. I have a lot of motivation from being down in the D-League. Every player in the D-League would give their right arm for a second in the NBA. I'm not doing this just for myself, I'm doing it for all those guys wishing they had the chance I do. I'm ready."