O’Neal Excels in His Home Debut

Shaquille O’Neal swatted away Boris Diaw’s layup to preserve a 26-point lead by the Miami Heat, then waved into a nearby television camera the moment he landed on his feet.

O’Neal found a few ways to say hello to his new city Monday night, dominating so much in the early going that he was able to sit out almost an entire half of a 92-82 victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Miami.

It was O’Neal’s only appearance at American Airlines Arena during the exhibition season, and he decided to play after sitting out the Heat’s two previous games because of a sore hamstring. The game drew a near-sellout crowd of 18,454, and the Heat even had fans in the fourth-level balcony -- a section of the arena that was closed and curtained off for 40 of their 41 home games last season.

“You’re in October, it’s NBA preseason basketball and there’s usually not a lot of excitement anywhere for preseason basketball,” Miami Coach Stan Van Gundy said. “But because of the acquisition of Shaquille, we’ve got the excitement of a regular-season opener here, which is great for the city.”

O’Neal, traded by the Lakers to Miami in July, finished with 15 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots in 21 minutes. He addressed the crowd before tipoff, thanking those who bought season tickets and telling everyone he was glad to be there.

O’Neal also was glad to see overmatched fourth-year center Jason Collier trying to stop him, scoring nine of Miami’s first 11 points -- all from very short range.

“I want to go out there and give the fans a good show, show them everything is going to be OK,” said O’Neal, who had 11 points and two rebounds by the time he took his first rest with Miami leading, 20-11. His blocked shot against Diaw with 1.9 seconds left in the first half helped Miami to a 55-29 lead.

O’Neal played less than five minutes in the third quarter, his best moment coming when he fired a pass three-quarters of the length of the court that Dwyane Wade turned into a dunk.

Wade led Miami with 18 points, and Antoine Walker had 25 for Atlanta.

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Cleveland Cavalier guard Dajuan Wagner, whose NBA career has been slowed by injury, sprained his right ankle in an 88-69 victory over the visiting New Jersey Nets.

X-rays were negative.

Cavalier guard Lucious Harris also didn’t return after bruising his right big toe.

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Former New York Knick guard DerMarr Johnson signed with the Denver Nuggets.

Johnson, a 6-foot-9 shooting guard who was the sixth overall pick by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2000 draft, played 21 games last season for the Knicks.