http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/basketball/8498730.htm Posted on Fri, Apr. 23, 2004 Emotions heated on Hornets' side BY ISRAEL GUTIERREZ AND STEPHEN F. HOLDER [email protected] When playoff games get out of hand, sometimes emotions do as well. That seemed to be the case late in Wednesday's 30-point Heat win against the Hornets. After Rafer Alston pulled up for a three-pointer when the game was well in hand for Miami, Hornets guard David Wesley was rather upset. Wesley told teammate Shammond Williams, who was on the floor in the final minutes, to retaliate if Alston pulled up for another three. Alston, told about Wesley's reaction, brushed it off after the game. "There are a lot of fake tough guys in this league," Alston said. "People say stuff like that, but no one's going to do anything on the court. That's just a guy saying what he wants to say. "I remember a couple years ago when they [the Hornets] were up big on this Heat team in that [2001] playoff series, no one said that about them when they were just out there laughing and joking, high-fiving when they were up by 30." Some onlookers might have figured Alston took the three-pointer to extend his streak of consecutive games with a three-pointer, but playoff games don't count when keeping such streaks, and Alston knows that. Alston took the shot because one teammate in particular wanted to see him make a three-pointer. " Brian [Grant] is always egging me on trying to get me to take another three," Alston said, laughing. "He thinks the streak is still going on." A DAY OF REST Since the regular season ended April 14, Heat players have spent every day either playing a game or practicing for a game. Until Thursday, when the team took its first day off. "We've been burning it up since the start of the playoffs, doing nothing but preparing,'' assistant coach Keith Askins said. "It's been weighing on them mentally. That sometimes is harder than the physical work. Just total concentration over and over, it gets to them." Lamar Odom was thankful for the brief break. 'If we practice for two hours out here, at the 1:45 mark, that's when you start to say, 'Whew,' " Odom said. "If you're watching tape for an hour, 35, 40 minutes into it, you're saying, 'Whoa.' "Sometimes you need just a little break, your body, your mind. We have so many days during this thing because it's so stretched out, I think a day off is important. You can get off your feet and rest a little." MOVING ON Just in case a 30-point win and a 2-0 lead in the series has Heat players feeling a little full of themselves, coach Stan Van Gundy had a message for his team. "Coach, after the game [Wednesday] told us, no matter what, we still ain't that good," Dwyane Wade said. "He probably phrased it a little bit differently, but in this game you have to move on." --

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