The shot fell.

Alonzo Mourning, by all accounts the most deserving MVP candidate in the league, watched Houston's desperation attempt drop downward toward the paint. Mourning blossomed under Pat Riley's tutelage into one of the NBA's finest all-around centers, and almost single-handedly carried the Heat to the best record in the East.

But Mourning had spent this extra-long off-season toting around the painful memory of his temper tantrum with Larry Johnson in Game 4 of his 1998 series with the Knicks. After the scuffle, Riley reportedly told his franchise player, "You know, you just cost us the season."

If Houston's shot would only rim out, Mourning would have another round to prove to the pundits and the NBC talking heads that he has mastered his much-maligned rage, that he is no longer an immature punch-thrower, and that he was ready to take up the mantle of the Bulls.

"Regardless of the outcome, I still feel we're a better team than they are," Mourning said.

That and a dollar twenty-five, 'Zo, will buy you a ride on the E train to Madison Square Garden.

The shot fell.

Jeff Van Gundy was simply too worked up to do anything but complain vehemently to the officials about Terry Porter's last-second attempt. Van Gundy can be forgiven his momentary lapse of perspective. The shock of keeping his job may have been too much for him to bear.