Shaquille O Neal

WASHINGTON -- On a bulletin board before the game, coach Pat Riley had presented his Miami Heat players with the doctrine according to Riley. Topping the list of offensive rules that Riley wrote in black and white was: "Establish a low-post game. Play inside-out. Pass it out. Re-post." The Heat players must have taken the coach's entreaty to heart because Miami scored 60 points in the paint - to Washington's 38 - and used its post game to send the Wizards to a 128-113 defeat last night in front of the sixth sellout crowd of the season at MCI Center.

Once upon a time - actually, thrice upon a time - Pat Riley walked away from a team he had coached to the very top, or near it, at least partly because the players he had pushed to the limit had tired of having their buttons pushed so hard and so often. Riley wasn't the first, or last, coach to sense that his message, after having delivered it at such an intense pitch for so long, was being tuned out. He was one of the first to acknowledge it, though. Most recently, he copped out two years ago when he quit the Miami Heat four days before the season began, saying the team "needs a new voice, a new energy, a new philosophy."

All-NBA team (First-place votes in parentheses) First team F - Tim Duncan, San Antonio (95) 553 F - Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas (75) 510 C - Shaquille O'Neal, Miami (122) 616 G - Allen Iverson, Philadelphia (69) 498 G - Steve Nash, Phoenix (118) 606 Second team F - LeBron James, Cleveland (45) 421 F - Kevin Garnett, Minnesota (34) 408 C - Amare Stoudemire, Phoenix (9) 367 G - Dwyane Wade, Miami (35) 417 G - Ray Allen, Seattle (1) 177 Third team F - Tracy McGrady, Houston (15) 264 F - Shawn Marion, Phoenix 134 C - Ben Wallace, Detroit 105 G - Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers (1)

WASHINGTON - Shaquille O'Neal's case for being cheated out of this year's Most Valuable Player Award took a hit last night. So did whatever chance the Washington Wizards had of making their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Miami Heat competitive. With O'Neal sidelined due to a bruised thigh that has ham pered him at times in the post season and caused him to miss the last two games of the regular season, the Heat recovered from a sloppy start to beat the Wizards, 102-95, before a sellout crowd of 20,173 at MCI Center.

While Temple's Nehemiah Ingram joined the ranks of America's sporting "goons" last month by sending Saint Joseph's John Bryant to the floor with a hard foul, ending Bryant's season with a broken arm, excessive force on the college basketball court has a long history. The question is to what extent coaches commission such acts - as Owls coach John Chaney admitted doing, earning himself a five-game suspension before his return this week - or whether players or officials are more to blame for the incidents.

Vanderbilt running back slain Vanderbilt running back Kwane Doster was shot to death early yesterday in Tampa, Fla., when someone fired at the parked car he was in, police said. Doster, 21, of Tampa, died at Tampa General Hospital after being shot near the Ybor City nightlife district, police spokesman Joe Durkin said. Detectives were trying to find the killer and determine a motive. Doster and two friends had stopped their car while "cruising around" when another car pulled up beside them, Durkin said.

When today's nationally televised NBA doubleheader was put together last summer, the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons figured to be the two best teams in the Eastern Conference, while the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers had just been involved in a blockbuster trade. After what has transpired the past few months, the two games have become hyped as if they were the seventh game of the NBA Finals. But how much will today's matchups be about brawls and bravado, and how much will be about basketball?

WASHINGTON - Shaquille O'Neal was on the Miami Heat bench, having fouled out with just under a minute left. The Washington Wizards were ahead by a point, thanks to two free throws by Gilbert Arenas. All the Wizards had to do was stop Dwyane Wade, something they had not done with much success in the fourth quarter of last night's game at MCI Center. As Wade drove to the basket, the Wizards collapsed on the talented second-year guard. Too bad they forgot about Damon Jones. Taking a kick-out pass from Wade, Jones hit a wide-open three-point shot, his fifth of the game, to lift the Heat into the lead and - with the help of a partial block by ex-Wizard Christian Laettner on the next possession - to a 98-93 win. "We've run that play time and time again all year.

MIAMI - Shaquille O'Neal is planning and plotting his future. It doesn't include making many more rap albums, dumb movies or doing his own reality TV show. Another few years of basketball and O'Neal, 32, will be ready to fulfill his real dream: running for sheriff in Orlando, Fla. "Everything for me has always fallen in place," O'Neal said before a recent exhibition game there against the Magic. "Play four more years, retire and lock all you bad guys up. Right now, it's just talk, but I'd love to have the opportunity.

There was a time when Chris Rock wasn't that funny. During his three years on Saturday Night Live, Rock's talent was mostly wasted in the restricted format. Rock's true comic voice didn't emerge until 1996 when Bring the Pain, his first HBO special, aired. In that career-defining special, the screechy-voiced comedian prowled the stage with a bug-eyed confidence like never before. Watching Rock was like watching David Banner transform into The Hulk. On that night, Rock went from meek-looking joke teller to all-powerful Super Comic.