O'Neal collected 33 points and 13 rebounds and made several key plays down the stretch to help the Heat record their 11th consecutive home victory, 107-90 over the Timberwolves.
|
Wolves-Heat: 300k 
|
"It was going south," Miami coach Stan Van Gundy said of the Heat's play before the run. "We weren't playing with a lot of intensity but closed out the third strong and then had that unbelievable fourth quarter."
Eddie Jones and Keyon Dooling combined to score the final eight points of the third quarter to spark Miami.
"Keyon came off the bench and just gave us a huge spark," Van Gundy said. "He was one of the keys for us at that point, no question."
Dooling made a driving layup and a free throw with 37 seconds remaining in the third quarter to pull the Heat even, 74-74.
"I just try to be positive and productive on the court," Dooling said. "I just wanted to go out there and bring some energy to the game."
The Heat's edge was 88-84 when O'Neal made a spinning bank shot and a three-point play for a nine-point cushion with 4:51 to play.
Van Gundy said O'Neal had an answer for every defensive effort Minnesota tried to throw in his direction.
"He just shredded them," Van Gundy said. "He made the plays despite the different coverages on him and that's the sign of a great, great player."
O'Neal didn't mind all the attention the Timberwolves gave him in the closing minutes.
"It took their heart away," said O'Neal, who scored 12 points, including making 6-of-7 shots from the line, in the fourth quarter. "That's a tricky team. They played really well but we were up to the challenge down the stretch."
With just under 3½ minutes left, Minnesota elected to play "Hack-a-Shaq" -- or foul O'Neal, a poor free-throw shooter, intentionally -- but the All-Star center made 5-of-6 from the line in a 38-second span, and the Timberwolves switched tactics.
"Today I was in my rhythm (at the line), and I just have to keep that up when teams try things like that," O'Neal said. "It didn't work against New Jersey (on March 3) and it didn't work tonight."
Minnesota head coach Kevin McHale saw the game slipping away and had to try the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy.
"We tried to foul him for a little bit to see if we could get back into the game that way," McHale said. "At that point, we thought he might miss a couple and we could at least make it interesting."
Thanks to O'Neal, who made a surprising 13-of-18 free throws, the Heat went 33-of-41 from the line. The Timberwolves sank just 11-of-15.
"I don't really like (the Hack-a-Shaq plan), but when you are trying to win a game, you'd rather put him on the line than let him dunk it," said Minnesota guard Trenton Hassell, who scored 16 points. "It was a last-resort plan by us, but he was hitting his free throws, so you have to give him credit."
Kevin Garnett contributed 22 points and 19 rebounds and Troy Hudson added 20 points for Minnesota, which had won three straight games.
"We didn't finish with aggression," Garnett said. "We had the game tied, but they surged to start the (fourth) quarter, and we didn't answer back."