The brick wall came tumbling down Saturday.
But that didn't stop the Miami Heat from beating the Los Angeles Lakers in Shaq versus Kobe I.
With Shaquille O'Neal watching from the bench after fouling out late in the fourth quarter, Dwyane Wade and Eddie Jones scored four points each in overtime and the Heat beat the Lakers 104-102 to extend their winning streak to 11 games, equaling a franchise record.
O'Neal had an explanation for his early exit.
"No layups, no dunks," he said.
For everybody?
"Basically everybody, especially him," O'Neal replied.
O'Neal was referring to Kobe Bryant -- a former teammate he has refused to identify by name for quite some time now.
The Heat (22-7) survived despite a season-high 42 points by Bryant. But the Lakers' star was held scoreless in overtime, missing three shots including a 3-pointer at the buzzer that could have won the game.
"I had a pretty good look, but I didn't get the balance I would have liked on the shot," Bryant said.
"I knew that it wasn't going to go in," O'Neal said. "It's called Shaq O'Neal fate."
O'Neal fouled out after getting 24 points and 11 rebounds in his first game against the Lakers since being traded to the Heat last summer.
"I felt I let my teammates down a little bit," he said. "My teammates told me they had my back. I wasn't worried at all."
O'Neal tied the game by dunking off a missed shot with three minutes left, but picked up his sixth foul 45 seconds later when Bryant drove toward the basket.
"I kind of forgot I had five," O'Neal said.
Bryant drew O'Neal's fifth foul in similar fashion with 4:04 to play.
When asked last Monday what would happen if Bryant drove the lane, O'Neal replied: ``When you've got a Corvette that runs into a brick wall, you know what's going to happen.''
"I didn't even realize he had five fouls," Bryant said. "I just attacked and went straight to the basket. He collapsed and I took it right to him."
Bryant said he knew the game would be cleanly played.
"I expected him to just come out here and play," he said. "I knew there was a lot of talk about the brick wall, and all that. But I think that was kind of just to hype the game."
Wade, who had 29 points and 10 assists, scored with 2:06 remaining to give the Heat a 104-99 lead. The Lakers drew within two points when Lamar Odom made his second 3-pointer of overtime with 1:11 to play.
But neither team scored after that. The Lakers got the ball one final time with 3.4 seconds to play, but Bryant couldn't come through.
A pregame tribute to O'Neal was shown on the videoboard before he was introduced to a standing ovation that lasted about 40 seconds. Bryant stood in front of the Lakers' bench and clapped throughout.
O'Neal said he didn't watch the video.
"I didn't want to go back into flashback mode,'' he explained.
O'Neal and Bryant acknowledged each other briefly before the opening tipoff.
"I think it was great before the game that the fans paid their respects for all that he's done for the organization," Bryant said.
O'Neal and Bryant were teammates for eight chaotic seasons with the Lakers. Despite their obvious disdain for each other, nearly unbearable at times, the Lakers won three championships and reached the NBA Finals a fourth time during their last five years together.
O'Neal demanded a trade three days after the Lakers were beaten by the Detroit Pistons in the Finals last June. Phil Jackson was told the same day his services as coach were no longer desired.
Bryant, meanwhile signed a seven-year, US$136.4 million contract to stay. With Jackson and O'Neal out of the picture, the Lakers immediately became Kobe's team.
Once the game began, there were few indications Bryant and O'Neal had a past, much less such an acrimonious one.
"I'm over it -- it's old news to me," O'Neal said when asked if he still had a problem with Bryant. "I think [the media] keeps it going more than me and him. I just wanted to come in and help my team win."
Said Bryant: "Hopefully, this is all behind us now. Everybody's gotten the first game out of their system, and now we can just move on and talk about basketball."
Jones, another former Laker, had 18 points and seven rebounds. Udonis Haslem had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Miami.
Odom scored all eight Los Angeles points in overtime and equaled a season high with 24. Odom, who came to the Lakers in the O'Neal trade, also had 11 rebounds.
Chucky Atkins had 12 points and seven assists, and Chris Mihm had 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Lakers (14-12).
O'Neal was traded for Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant. Butler, a starter, didn't play against his former team, having been suspended for swinging at New Orleans guard Dan Dickau.
Pistons 98, Pacers 93
Rasheed Wallace sauntered off the court and into the exit tunnel, pausing long enough to peel off his headband and hand it to a youngster wearing the rival's colors.
"Just a kid that asked for a headband, wasn't nothing more than that," Wallace said.
It was, however, a lot more than an empty gesture.
On an afternoon when many expected the worst in the first meeting between Indiana and Detroit since their Nov. 19 brawl, peace prevailed -- as did the Pistons.
Nobody charged into the stands, nobody tossed any beer, nobody threw punches or chairs. Instead, the most significant thing anyone hoisted was a 3-pointer by Wallace with 90 seconds left that ended the Pacers' final hopes in Detroit's 98-93 victory Saturday.
"It was just a regular game, everybody playing the way they play," Pistons center Ben Wallace said. "It wasn't like we were out there intimidated, not wanting to touch anybody because it might start a fight. We were out there to play basketball, and that's the way it should be."
The game went off with barely a harsh word exchanged by the teams, whose previous meeting degenerated into one of the worst melees in the history of US professional sports.
Ben Wallace was booed every time he touched the ball, and fans behind the Detroit bench let loose with a few words of angry-but-clean heckling that the players ignored.
A tarp covered most of the exit tunnel, but it was unnecessary. The sellout crowd behaved, and the small contingent of fans who yelled at the Pistons as they walked off the court -- none of whom appeared older than 12 -- wanted nothing more than a hand slap or a headband.
"I think it was over-hyped," said Reggie Miller, who led Indiana with 24 points. "We knew it was going to be a grind-it-out game for 48 minutes. They did all the little things, and that made the difference."
The only positive for Indiana was the return of Jermaine O'Neal, whose brawl-related suspension was reduced by an arbitrator from 25 games to 15. O'Neal had 21 points, seven rebounds and five blocks, but his poor starts to the first and second halves set the tone on an afternoon when the Pacers too often had to play catch-up.
Richard Hamilton scored 25 points, Chauncey Billups made four 3-pointers and scored 20, Tayshaun Prince added 18 and Rasheed Wallace had 16 for the Pistons, who have been having their own problems since the brawl.
The victory moved the defending NBA champions just one game over .500 (13-12) in a season that has been defined by the Nov. 19 game against Indiana.
"People realize that was an unfortunate incident and will never happen again, and now we can get back to playing basketball," said Pistons coach Larry Brown, whose disgust had grown over the past five weeks as he continued to be asked about the brawl.
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