Heat, Spurs, Suns Aim for Top

The smart money says it’ll be a San Antonio-Miami matchup in the NBA Finals, and it’s hard to argue otherwise -- at least with the Eastern Conference half of that presumption.

The Heat entered the weekend with an NBA-high 51 victories, an 11-game winning streak and record of 35-6 -- that’s a victory percentage of .853 -- in games against Eastern Conference opponents.

Even Shaquille O’Neal is surprised.

“I did not know that we would get to 50 wins this fast. I did not know that we were going to be this good,” O’Neal said after Miami completed a season sweep of his old team, the Los Angeles Lakers, with a 102-89 victory Thursday night.

“I am a little bit impressed, but we have a lot of work to do,” O’Neal said.

If recent history holds and Miami continues dominating the East, the Heat should be the favorite to emerge atop the league standings after 82 games, beating out San Antonio and Phoenix.

After facing the Rockets and Suns next week, the Heat will play 11 of its final 12 games against teams from the East. The Spurs play six of their final eight games on the road, while the Suns’ stamina is about to face a serious test -- five road games in seven nights beginning Sunday at Memphis.

The Suns are 7-2 over the past three weeks, a stretch of success that has included victories over quality opponents Dallas, Seattle, San Antonio, Detroit and Denver.

San Antonio has gone 9-3 since its loss at Miami on Feb. 13, remaining in a virtual tie with Phoenix for the top spot in the West despite injuries that have kept Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Nazr Mohammed out of the lineup for varying lengths of time.

The Spurs held Kevin Garnett to just two points over the final three quarters of an 89-73 victory Wednesday, a game so lopsided it prompted Wally Szczerbiak to remark that the Timberwolves did not even belong on the same court as San Antonio.

The Spurs’ longest victory string was eight straight in November and December, while Phoenix had an 11-game winning streak in December.

Along with its current run of 11 straight victories heading into Saturday night’s home game against New York, Miami also had a 14-game winning streak in December and January and a seven-win run in February.

“I think we’re playing the most consistent. Doesn’t mean we’re the best basketball team in the league,” Heat guard Damon Jones said. “Camaraderie and unity are two big key issues in being a successful basketball team. I think that’s why to this point in the season that we’ve been so good, because everyone is on the same page.”

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Jamal Crawford of the New York Knicks made all the highlight reels last week against Washington by tossing a pass to himself off the backboard, catching the ball and dunking it.

“Is that legal?” Crawford was asked in the locker room afterward.

“I’ve done it four times,” Crawford shot back incredulously, saying he made the same move three times during his first three years in the NBA while playing for the Chicago Bulls.

The move is indeed legal, though it came up for internal discussion at the NBA last summer.

Ronnie Nunn, the league’s supervisor of officials, said the competition committee debated the rules interpretation -- and the merits -- of using the backboard for a self-pass.

“The competition committee thought it should be allowed because it’s an exciting play,” Nunn said, “and I can understand and appreciate the evolution of it.”

The NCAA also allows a player to bounce the ball off the backboard, catch it and shoot it -- though there is a caveat.

Such a move is illegal in college if a player has already given up his dribble. In other words, an NCAA player could throw himself an alley-oop backboard pass on the fast break, but if he were trapped in the low post having already dribbled, he could not free himself by caroming the ball off the backboard without also hitting the rim.

NBA rules make no such distinction, competition committee chairman Stu Jackson said Friday.

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Some tension is apparent among members of the Seattle SuperSonics, who had been at or near the top of the league standings all season until their recent 2-4 stretch.

After Wednesday night’s 102-95 loss at Detroit, forward Rashard Lewis told reporters: “It seems like other guys are on different agendas. Some guys were trying to win, some guys weren’t.”

Also, fellow All-Star Ray Allen complained about his role in the offense after playing a season-low 28 minutes.

Coach Nate McMillan met with both players Thursday.

“We’re playing in spurts right now,” McMillan said. “We’re not getting two units playing well together and those were the things that we had all season long.”

With a 10-game lead over Denver in the Northwest Division, Seattle is averaging 100.2 points per game -- seventh in the NBA -- but has become more of a half-court team lately. Seattle has reached 100 points just four times in the last 14 games, none since March 2.

Many of the Sonics, including Allen, Antonio Daniels, Vladimir Radmanovic, Reggie Evans, Jerome James and Vitaly Potapenko, can become free agents in the offseason.

“I really don’t like to talk about [free agency], but it’s hard not to because it’s on everyone’s mind,” said McMillan, whose contract also expires at the end of this season.