Nets Can Handle Heat, But Only for a Half
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Alonzo Mourning made his return in a Miami Heat uniform during garbage time last night, logging the final 2:19 of a blowout victory against the team that traded him two months ago.
“The boos were faint,” Mourning said after the Heat’s 106-90 victory over the Nets. “I’m not the person they should be booing. They should be booing the person that broke the team up, to tell you the truth.”
Mourning brought along some bitterness in his return to the arena where he toiled for small parts of the past two seasons before being dealt to Toronto in December as part of the Vince Carter trade.
Most of the time Mourning was a cheerleader, and he had plenty to be cheerful about as the Heat had everything working during a dominant second half.
Dwyane Wade had 16 of his 27 points and six of his eight assists during the third period, which began with New Jersey ahead 48-44 and ended with Miami leading 76-65.
Shaquille O’Neal returned from a three-game absence due to a knee sprain and had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Heat.
Miami also got 15 points from Eddie Jones and 13 from Udonis Haslem to improve to 43-16. The Heat went 2-1 in their three games without O’Neal, who sprained his left knee February 22 against Chicago.
“My knee felt pretty good,” O’Neal said. “I was hurting last week and (coach) Stan (Van Gundy) told me to take a couple extra days off, so I did.”
The Nets went ahead by 14 points during the first quarter as Vince Carter shot 5-for-6 and Wade was 1-for-6, but Miami worked its way back during the second quarter and pulled to within four points by halftime.
“I think we can play with the Miami Heat. We showed that,” said Carter, who led New Jersey with 27 points. “The one thing is we just can’t have lapses, quarters where we don’t play our best basketball. I think we can play with the best teams in the league. I don’t care what anybody else thinks.”
Carter shot just 1-for-11 in the second half and missed his final seven attempts. The Nets shot only 37% overall and were out rebounded 47-31.
A 3-pointer by Damon Jones tied it at 48-all early in the third quarter, and Wade had 12 points and six assists over the remainder of the period to help the Heat to an 11-point margin entering the fourth.
