EAST RUTHERFORD, United States (AFP) - Shaquille O'Neal wasn't in top form for his debut with Miami, but that didn't stop the Heat cruising to victory over the New Jersey Nets in their National Basketball Association season opener.
O'Neal's status for the game was in doubt because of a strained left hamstring, but he was able to take the court.
Nursing the sore hamstring and battling foul trouble, the superstar center wasn't his usual dominating self, but that proved irrelevant as the Heat defeated New Jersey 100-77.
O'Neal's move from the Los Angeles Lakers - and away from a tense relationship with former teammate Kobe Bryant - has been heralded as a signal that the NBA's Eastern Conference is on the rise.
Even a limited O'Neal proved valuable to the Heat.
Almost always commanding a double-team, O'Neal's presence opened up things for Dwyane Wade and Rasual Butler. Wade netted 21 points and Butler chipped in 16.
"With five or six guys in double figures it shows what an unselfish team this is," O'Neal said. "We've got a pretty good defensive team, a lot of good shootes, a lot of unselfish players.
"It's going to be fun playing with these guys."
O'Neal, who picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, made 7-of-9 shots and collected 16 points and five rebounds in 21 minutes.
After O'Neal went to bench at the 8:34 mark of the third, the Heat outscored the Nets, 24-13, to end the quarter and open a 74-56 cushion.
Miami never trailed and led by as many as 28 points in the fourth quarter.
The Nets, who made the playoffs for three straight seasons and reached the NBA finals in 2002 and 2003, were without All-Star point guard Jason Kidd, sidelined until at least December, and their new-look lineup never gelled.
Olympian Richard Jefferson, one of the few stars the Nets still have, scored 19 points. Zoran Planinic, often buried on the bench last season, added 11 and four assists.
While Shaq's Miami debut drew scrutiny, the game was a milestone, too, for the Nets' Alonzo Mourning, playing his first regular season game in nearly a year after receiving a kidney transplant.
Mourning suffered renal failure in November of last year and was forced to leave the game to undergo a kidney transplant.
Mourning had left the Heat and signed a four-year, 22 million-dollar contract with the Nets last July, despite missing the entire 2002-03 season with a kidney disease.
11/04/2004 - 17:23 GMT - AFP