http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/108331731856460.xml Hornets crash Heat's playoff party just in time Friday, April 30, 2004 John DeShazier MIAMI -- Better late than never that the real Hornets have arrived and joined the playoff party, resembling a team capable of kicking fanny and moving ahead. Obviously, New Orleans isn't over the hump. If it fails tonight in Game 5 at AmericanAirlines Arena, the team pretty much is back where it started, desperately in need of a victory at home Sunday and one on the road next Tuesday to eliminate the pesky Miami Heat. But at least now this really can be called a series, the only one in the playoffs in which the participants have split the first four games, the only one that is guaranteed to reach six games and has a good chance to go seven. In Tuesday's 96-85 Hornets victory, which tied the series at 2-2, it was Miami exhibiting the foul body language, showing the quick temper, spending as much time or more begging/debating officials as keeping tabs on the Hornets. The pressure cooker that is the road -- with more intense defense by the home team, and more physical play allowed -- seemed to spook the Heat, which twice failed to match New Orleans' fortitude wire to wire. "That's the thing those younger guys are learning," Hornets guard David Wesley said. "The series only gets harder. Right now, we've figured out a few of their weaknesses. Now, we see how they react to that, how they adjust. "I think they may be a little unsure how to deal with some situations." What the Hornets need, of course, is for that unsteadiness to carry over to tonight. Miami has won 14 straight at AmericanAirlines Arena and has home-court advantage in the series, in part because of a 3-1 regular-season advantage over the Hornets. All the Heat has to do is twice recapture what it had in Games 1 and 2 and the Hornets, no matter how game and defiant, will pack for vacation instead of a second-round series that'll begin on the road against the Indiana Pacers. But does anybody else get the feeling New Orleans took up residence in Miami's cranium and could extend the stay a while longer? Ever seen a team as preoccupied about whether an opponent (Hornets guard Baron Davis) is as injured as he claims, as if playing up an injury or an assortment of them really has a bearing on what happens on the court? And, by the way, isn't a team supposed to be resourceful enough to take advantage of injuries, or wise enough to ignore the fabrications and pay attention to what's real on the floor? "It's nice, because it means we're in this," Wesley said. "If we'd lost either of those games (at home), it would have been a tough, uphill battle. Now, the pressure grows." As does the Heat's resemblance to the Hornets of a week ago. The role reversal has been obvious, from one team strutting to the other, from one boiling over to the other, from one seizing momentum to the other. The Hornets are on the roll now, looking something like the team they said they'd be when the party started. But they still haven't done anything beyond what they should've, winning two games at home to counter the two Miami won on its home floor in the most even pairing in the first round. Something out of the ordinary is needed today, or on Tuesday, if the series comes down to one game, winner take all. Something like molding Miami into the team the Hornets want it to be, the team the Hornets have made it be the last two games. . . . . . . . John DeShazier can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 826-3410. --

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