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68 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, April 25, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 25, 2005 Miami�s Shaquille O'Neal (32) dunks the ball over New Jersey�s Vince Carter during the first quarter. AP The Heat is on Wade, Jones carry Miami past New Jersey in Game 1 of their series By TIM REYNOLDS The Associated Press MIAMI — Mindful of Shaquille O’Neal’s playoff history, the New Jersey Nets wanted to limit his touches. And while their plan kept O’Neal’s numbers down, Dwyane Wade and Damon Jones took advantage of all the extra open space. Wade had 32 points and Jones made seven 3-pointers and scored 30 — playoff career-highs for both — as the Heat defeated New Jersey 116-98 Sunday in the opener of their first-round series. Wade connected on 12 of 18 shots and had eight assists, while Jones was 10-for-12 from the floor — including 7-for-9 from 3-point range — as the Heat set franchise playoff highs in scoring and field-goal percentage (.592). Advertisement "I had a conversation with D. Jones and D. Wade and told them if I wasn’t 100 percent, I’d need them to give a little extra," said O’Neal, still slowed by a bruised thigh. "They both stepped up and shot the ball well. I didn’t have the explosiveness I usually do. I didn’t have ‘The Diesel’ explosiveness. Today I had ‘The Firecracker’ explosiveness." O’Neal graded himself "an F" health-wise. He had 17 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes, well off his 27.1-point career playoff average and the 36.3-point pace he had against the Nets in the 2002 NBA finals. "I don’t think we’ll see Shaq at his absolute best until probably until late in this series or into the next series," Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. Vince Carter had 27 points and 10 rebounds for New Jersey, which won 15 of its final 19 games to get the East’s No. 8 seed but is now 0-4 against Miami this season. "We knew they could score a lot of points if we didn’t defend the 3-point shot and just left them open," Carter said. "He attracts a lot of attention. We just have to do a better job, that’s all, of trying to run them off the 3 a little bit." Jason Kidd added 18 points for the Nets, who have won just one playoff series — a first-rounder against Indiana in 2002 — after dropping a Game 1. Game 2 is Tuesday night in Miami. After Jones and Wade made consecutive jumpers to give Miami its largest lead, 20 points, with 7:48 left, Carter’s deep 3-pointer with 6:37 left capped a 7-0 run that drew the Nets within 99- 86. But O’Neal scored the game’s next three points, the sellout crowd exhaled, and the outcome was sealed. "It’s playoff time. It’s not the Dwyane show. It’s not the Shaq show," Wade said. "It’s the Miami Heat’s time." Travis Best, Clifford Robinson and Nenad Krstic each had 11 points for New Jersey. Udonis Haslem had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Miami. New Jersey forward Richard Jefferson, who missed the final 49 games of the regular season with a ruptured ligament in his left wrist, returned and had nine points on 3-for-7 shooting in 23 minutes. "I feel fine, surprisingly," Jefferson said. "I didn’t have my lateral quickness. It’s tough trying to guard an All-NBA player like Dwyane Wade when you don’t have that." With Miami mired in an early 1-for-9 slump, New Jersey hit eight of 10 shots and took an 18-11 lead when Kidd made a layup with 4:38 left in the opening quarter. The Heat, however, quickly got back on track. Wade hit two jumpers in the final 32.4 seconds of the quarter to give Miami a 22-19 lead, and Alonzo Mourning — playing against the team he opened the season with — had consecutive baskets, including a two-handed slam of a miss by Wade, early in the second quarter to fuel a 20-3 run that put Miami up 31-21. The Nets missed 16 of 17 shots over an 11½ -minute stretch of the half and trailed by as many as 16 late in the second quarter before going into halftime down 54-42. Allowing Miami to put together one big run doomed the Nets in each of their three regular-season losses to the Heat. In those games, Miami used a 19-6 run in the first game, a 19-8 flurry in the second and a 28-7 burst in the third to turn close games into relatively one-sided affairs. And once again, the Nets couldn’t find a way to overcome the big Miami burst. New Jersey got within 10 points on four separate occasions in the third quarter, yet never cut the Heat’s margin into single digits and trailed 87-73 entering the fourth. "We played hard," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "We just have to do a few things better." Notes: Krstic was taken for back X-rays after the game. ... Miami’s reserves were 7-for-10 from the floor for 15 points in the first half; no Nets reserve had a field goal before Clifford Robinson’s jumper from the right corner with 7:39 left in the third quarter. ... Heat G Keyon Dooling made the first playoff appearance of his career after 277 regular-season games. ... Celebrities in the crowd included rapper Jay-Z, Raiders wide receiver Randy Moss and actor Jamie Foxx, who’s scheduled to begin shooting his next film, "Miami Vice," here in June. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Slippers Student Loans Tatoo tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoos Advertisement s