Herald: War of words, act two

[opi@unesco.org]

Tonight is an early preview of what a playoff atmosphere eventually will
be like for all our young stars. Who says the regular season is too long
and dull?

Go Celts! (Miami is 4-0 without Tim Hardaway thus far, and Zo is the
"thinking man's MVP" or at least one of them)

-------
War of words, act two
Friday, December 3, 1999

    While Miami coach Pat Riley was in Florida seeking an end to the
trashy backing vocals for tonight's rematch at the FleetCenter, the
Celtics were simply preparing their counterpunch.

    Miami whacked the Celts at home two weeks ago, breaking a three-game
losing run to Boston and setting off a torrent of trash talk between
Heat guard Tim Hardaway and Celtics forward Antoine Walker. Alonzo
Mourning noted then that ``it's personal when we play them.''

    Now the Heat want to end the verbal proliferation. Uh, not bloody
likely.

    ``Definitely we want to get them back,'' said Paul Pierce. ``You
know, they really embarrassed us. I think that fourth quarter, the way
they put that game away, doesn't really show how close it was (110-92
final).

    ``But I think we're going to be ready for them this time around.''

    Walker, yelled at on the Miami Arena floor by Hardaway, is keeping
an eye out for his own team as much as the Heat.

    ``I think it is personal just because we've got to get off this
skid,'' he said. ``We're on a three-game losing streak and we've got to
get on the right track. And they did beat us pretty well down there and
they did do a little talking behind it. We know that, so we're going
into this game with a little added fire hopefully. And hopefully that's
going to make for good play. But they're still a tough team. They're
still the top (team) in the Eastern Conference and we've got to respect
that. We've got to go in with a level head.

    ``It's always a good feeling when you can have a little added
incentive to get you up for a game in the regular season. But we don't
need any extra incentive now. We need to get back over .500 a few games
and get back to playing good basketball and putting it together. So
there's a lot at stake here other than just playing Miami.

    ``When you're trying to get off a losing streak, you want to play
whoever steps up, whoever comes up to bat. We look forward to playing
them. We really want to play them, because we feel like they beat us
down there and they did a lot of chattering after they beat us.''

    Hardaway may not even be in the building after being placed on the
injured list Wednesday with a jammed right knee. But Mourning will be
bringing his impressive game, if not his lip.

    ``I'm not going to make a big point of this,'' Mourning said before
flying north yesterday. ``It's just another game, a tough road game that
we have to be ready for. They've been struggling a little bit, but what
better way to get back on track than to beat the Heat.''

    Riley, meanwhile, liked his club's intensity last time against the
Celts. But he'd like to quiet the chorus.

    ``(The Heat players) were eager for a lot of the right reasons,''
Riley said. ``And the right reasons were at that particular time Boston
only had three losses and had gotten off to a good start. They had
beaten us three times last year in a row, and they were very, very
competitive games.

    ``But all that sidebar stuff that had to do with the talking, to me,
is frivolous, foolish, player immaturity stuff. I wish we could get
through that and get over that, but I don't think anybody in this league
can anymore. It's just the state of the game.

    ``We're going to get a fired up Boston Celtics team that hasn't
played in five or six days. Whether or not they'll be flat or sharp, we
won't know until we start playing.''

    And listening.