http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/basketball/8507211.htm Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2004 Heat's formula: Be fast or furious Muhammad Ali's famous bit of poetic serendipity -- "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" -- meant to portray a fighter who could both dance and deck you, an opponent equally adept at ballet and brutality. This has been the Heat in these still-young NBA playoffs as the best-of-7 series moves to New Orleans for Game 3 today with Miami in command. It has been stunning to see a finesse team show its fist. The series wasn't supposed to be like this. Miami leading by 2-0 isn't such a shock, but the way the locals have dominated the bigger, more veteran, allegedly more physical Hornets has to have socked the opponent at gut level. New Orleans has been made to understand that even slowing the Heat into a half-court offense might not be enough. Miami, capable of outrunning the older, less-athletic Hornets -- especially with Baron Davis' ankle not right -- also has demonstrated it is capable of winning when the commerce is in hips and elbows and hard-won rebounds. Through two games, the Heat leads 70-50 in points scored in the lane, and also leads in total rebounds. This despite having, in Brian Grant, a 6-9 center who isn't a center at all. This despite supposedly seeing its low-post game go with Zo. GRANT IS CRUCIAL The defensive job Grant is doing on Hornets All-Star center Jamaal Magloire has been a marvel -- "Phenomenal," is Eddie Jones' word. Magloire has been a pencil drawing. Grant has been the eraser. "They haven't dominated us on the glass or in the paint," Grant said Friday, too polite to note the opposite has been far closer to the truth. Miami remains a team that prefers to fast-break you and score on four-second works of performance art: a board, two quick passes, a jam. The ability to win at a slower pace is latent, but there, availing itself when needed. Grant is at the literal and psychic center of all that. Lamar Odom, rookie Dwyane Wade and Caron Butler will make the plays that lift you off your seat (you're a pretty strong team when leading scorer Jones is at times your fourth-best offensive option), but Grant is there doing the heavy lifting. "Brian gets dirty," as Odom put it. "He's our middle linebacker." Grant routinely takes on opponents taller and heavier, such as Magloire; only in the NBA can a 6-9, 254-pound giant be considered "smallish." Grant is one of those players who can score four points and still have a terrific game. His teammates understand, and appreciate, that Grant doing the grunt work frees them to do their ballet. He'll hand off the spotlight and the microphone. But remember who built the stage. "That's the warrior of our team," described Wade. "Seeing him battle, undersized, gets everybody else going defensively." Hornets coach Tim Floyd admits his team has been "frustrated" by its inability to establish an inside game against Miami, and that starts with Grant, who is familiar with the NBA Cocktail: ice and painkillers. Play is even rougher in the postseason, when the referees let the ticky-tack stuff go and, said Grant, "let men be men." PAINFUL PROPOSITION Players such as Grant get their shins kicked and ribs pummeled by elbows. Knees and ankles require postgame ice packs. And more. "Besides the occasional knock on the head," he said Friday, "your shoulders take a beating. That's what people don't realize. You're trying to hold up a guy 265 pounds rolling around on you. You feel it the next day.'' Miami is showing -- showing the Hornets, at least -- it can win fast, or slow. With finesse, or physicality. The Heat is knit tight and feeling enough confidence to lend you some. Butler spoke Friday about the joy ahead on the pending team flight, about how "everybody claims they're Eddie Murphy on the plane." Coach Stan Van Gundy and his players were saying all of the right things Friday about respecting the Hornets, about this series being far from over. And that was prudent, but a half-truth. New Orleans won't survive a team that can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, seemingly all at once, and both teams know it. --

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