Shaquille O’Neal News

“Get me lucky again then. Get me lucky every year. No one gets lucky and wins a championship”

The past two NBA champions square off tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena, although you’d hardly know it looking at the records.

While the defending-champion Spurs remain among the leaders in Western Conference, the Heat not only lugs an 8-32 record into the nationally televised game, but is 52-70 since winning its 2006 title.

‘The last two years has been a groundswell of just a lot of dynamics,’ coach Pat Riley said Wednesday of everything ranging from injuries to Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade to a variety of personnel mistakes. ‘The downturn started last year and it’s just gone right off into this season.’ Read more

“No one gets lucky and wins a championship. A championship is earned and is engraved in stone.”

Winning the 2006 NBA championship put the Heat in elite company. But its regular-season record since - 52-70 - makes the Heat one of a kind. via Palm Beach Post

JEFFREY M. BOAN/EL NUEVO HERALD ‘This is not territory that many teams get to,’ coach Pat Riley said of the Heat’s woes. via The Miami Herald

Notebook

Heat center O’Neal might be out a month

The Heat’s ability to break its 14-game losing streak didn’t get any easier Tuesday when it was learned Shaquille O’Neal could miss as much as a month with acute inflammation of the left hip and quadriceps.The team said O’Neal will spend two weeks receiving treatment and ice for the inflammation and fluid that has accumulated. If the inflammation and fluid have subsided, more time will be needed for rehabilitation. — South Florida Sun-Sentinel Read more

“The recovery rate is extremely high”

Nene’s tumor malignant but was discovered early A testicular tumor removed from Nuggets forward Nene was malignant. via Detroit News Online

“We’re going to win one of them”

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Larry Hughes, right, knocks the ball out of the hands of Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, left, during the first quarter in Miami on Monday, Jan. via The South Mississippi Sun Herald

Heat squanders another late lead in loss Heat coach Pat Riley said he has been impressed with Shaquille O’Neal’s production since the center returned from a week of extensive treatment in Los Angeles for his … via Miami Herald

The woeful Miami Heat try to avoid their 14th straight loss when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena. via WFTV

“It sounds like a broken record”

Even when the Heat was at the top of its game in the late ’90s, the Knicks seemingly were always there to provide ample grief.

Now with the Heat at its lowest point in years, the Knicks merely piled on the misery Saturday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.

Storming back from a 10-point third-quarter deficit, the Knicks handed the Heat its 13th consecutive loss 88-84, giving coach Pat Riley the longest losing streak of his career.

‘It’s not for the lack of want,’ Riley said of his team’s struggles. ‘You can’t over-talk it, because you don’t want to make it worse than it is.’ Read more

“One thing after another begins to break down from an individual standpoint and then a team standpoint”

Team captain Udonis Haslem believes all the Heat players have to understand coach Pat Riley’s complex system before the team’s defense will improve.

‘We have guys who don’t fully understand the system,’ Haslem said. ‘Scoring isn’t an issue. We have to guard somebody. It is the system Coach Riley was using before I was born.

‘When I was a rookie, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to learn it, but it helped me make up for some of my mistakes.’

Riley disagrees. He believes players should know the system, with the exception of rookie Daequan Cook and veterans Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, who were obtained in a trade. Read more

“It’s safe to say, when you’re having a year like we’re having”

So Isiah Thomas says he’s not quitting. Maybe he should. So Barry Watkins , Knicks owner James Dolan ’s personal mouthpiece, says there is no truth to the report that Dolan is considering firing Thomas. via SI.com

“I’m happy they were falling tonight. Everything I shot felt good. I felt like I was going to make every shot that I shot. The basket feels real big when you have that type of confidence, and this game is all about confidence.”

Bobby Jackson scored 25 of the 50 points by New Orleans reserves - going a perfect 7-for-7 from three-point range - as the Hornets pummeled the Miami Heat, 114-88. Jackson’s accuracy set a new franchise mark … via WTVJ Miami Channel 6

Observations from Friday’s 98-91 loss to the Trail Blazers at AmericanAirlines Arena: Why still watch? It’s rather simple: Dwyane Wade. via Miami Heat

“Casey Margenau and I walked through the vineyard, and these vines are 30 years old, and they don’t produce the yields that they used to, but they yield good wine”

Local By George Rowand Source: Loudoun Times-Mirror FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 2008 UPDATED FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 2008 The on-again, off-again sale of Oasis Winery in Hume was off-again last week, when McLean Realtor … via Loudoun Times

So was the recent confrontation between Joakim Noah and Ben Wallace a rallying point for this team? Impossible, say the Bulls … because that confrontation simply never happened. via Netscape