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Closer Look Heat face yet another endless summer
Posted: Monday May 22, 2000 12:09 AM
By Marty Burns, Sports Illustrated MIAMI -- Like a basketball version of Rodin's "Thinker," Heat center Alonzo Mourning was sitting silently at his locker stall, chin in hands, a full hour after his team's Game 7 loss to the Knicks on Sunday afternoon. Still clad in his game shorts, ankles wrapped in tape, Mourning didn't say a word. He just stared hard at the red carpet in front of him. Most of his teammates had long since showered, dressed and left the building, but Mourning couldn't bring himself to move. As a security guard stood nearby to ward off reporters, Zo just looked on in quiet disbelief. "Definitely, we are the better team," Mourning had said earlier in brief remarks to the media. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way we wanted it to. I think we put more into this than they did." Miami the better team? Clearly, Zo don't know diddly. The better team doesn't lose a pivotal Game 7 at home. Not by blowing an 11-point first half lead. Not with Jamal Mashburn going 3 of 15 and Clarence Weatherspoon taking the final shot with the game on the line. However, Mourning was correct about that last part. The Heat did put more into the series. Motivated to slay the Knicks beast that has tormented them the past three years, the Heat played as hard as a team could in this series. Despite a gimpy Tim Hardaway, the Heat stayed alive against a more talented New York team largely through sheer effort and determination. They won the rebounding battle each of the first five games. They had more second-chance points in six of seven games. They somehow managed to double-team both Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston for much of the series, and hold the Knicks under 42.5-percent shooting six times. No wonder Heat forward P.J. Brown proclaimed himself "mentally exhausted" after the series. "We wanted to beat them so bad," Brown said. Even Miami coach Pat Riley, seldom satisfied, couldn't find fault with his team's effort. "I've never been part of a team that showed as much intensity, as much effort, as much caring, prior to getting to the Finals," Riley said. "I'm proud of my guys." The question for Riley now is: If a Heat team hell-bent on revenge after two straight playoff ousters can't beat the Knicks, what makes him think they will ever do it? Isn't it time for Riley the GM to break up this aging band of overachievers and start over? Maybe trade Brown, whom many teams covet, for another scorer to go with Mourning? Or deal Mashburn, who might never live down this latest playoff failure? Or let free agent Hardaway walk away? Or even -- gasp -- take a chance on free agent Isaiah Rider? "I'm not going to get into that right now," Riley said, the wrinkles on his face never more pronounced. Riley might not have wanted to think about the future in the wake of such a painful defeat, but his players could not help themselves. In the funereal Heat locker room, Mashburn said he hoped Riley would keep the group together for one more title run. "I hope to see these guys come back next year, myself included," he said. A few lockers away, Brown was more realistic. "I don't know if time will heal this," he said. "After all we went through last summer, this was something we looked forward to. To come up short like this, I don't know. We'll see." Meanwhile, the one person certain to return -- Mourning -- sat by himself quietly, chin in hands, staring at the floor.
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