Savvy veteran Haslem helping drive Heat's late push

As a player who went from an undrafted college star to the French league to a starter on an NBA championship team, Heat forward Udonis Haslem has never had an over-inflated sense of his value. Just last week in a win over the Raptors, the seven-year veteran likened himself to a 1972 Chevrolet "with the carburetor shot, a couple of flat tires, and the engine light on."

He's also one of the many players that falls into the group of "Tito Jacksons" playing for the Heat, according to Charles Barkley -- who calls All-Star Dwyane Wade as the team's "Michael Jackson." Yet with all this humility being either forced upon him (or more often, self-enforced), Haslem has proven to be one of the key forces in Miami surging its way toward a playoff berth.

Haslem, a free agent this summer, started all 75 games he appeared in last season and was solid (10.6 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 51.8 FG pct) as usual. With a contract year upon him, Haslem willfully accepted a move to the bench to allow more minutes for second-year forward Michael Beasley. All season long, he hasn't complained about the reserve role and, despite sometimes out-performing Beasley, has worked with the young big man at times to develop his game.

The role on the bench hasn't made Haslem any less effective, though, as he showcased last week. He taught the Bulls' young big men of Taj Gibson and James Johnson a few lessons in a rout of Chicago that clinched the season series for Miami. Then he had 18 rebounds off the bench in a big road win over the Bucks and capped off the week with 23 points against the Raptors and 10 points and 10 rebounds on Wednesday night in Detroit.

The win in Detroit was particularly intriguing as it was Beasley who rebounded from his awful play in Toronto and scored 28 points while Haslem plugged away in the background. This has been the case off and on all season for the Heat and the up-and-down play of both guys has caused quite a stir in Miami.

In separate columns in one South Florida newspaper, writers are imploring the Heat to decide to keep Haslem or Beasley next season, but not both.

As is typical for Haslem, he's not getting in the middle of any front-office decisions. Instead, he said the Heat have to focus on just making the playoffs and not falling apart down the stretch.

"He's playing 30-some-odd minutes a game, starters minutes, and I'm playing 27," Haslem told the Miami Herald in February. "What do they want, him to play 48 and me to play none? I think we've got something good going. I take pride in seeing him do well."

G. Thabo Sefolosha, Thunder

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
74	28.3	5.9	4.8	1.8	1.2	0.6	.437	.296	.667

Last Week's Rank - --
It's easy to look at the box score from OKC's win over the Lakers last Friday and see Russell Westbrook had 23 points, Kevin Durant scored 26 and Kobe Bryant just had an off night (11 points, 4-for-11 shooting). What's lost in simple stats, though, is the masterful defensive job Sefolosha did on Bryant to spark the Thunder's blowout. Keep in mind that in the previous three OKC-Laker matchups, Bryant had burned Sefolosha and Co. for 32.3 ppg and put up 40 points on them earlier this season -- and L.A. was 3-0 in those games. It was a nice redemption game for Sefolosha (and his reputation as a defensive stopper) as he kept after the Lakers' star the entire game, staying on the ground as Bryant threw every head fake and batch of footwork he could at Sefolosha. In the end, Bryant had nine turnovers (two shy of his career high) and even he had to admit that Sefolosha was a big reason in his struggles that night. "Thabo [Sefolosha] did a great job on one of the best players in the game," said coach Scott Brooks. "I couldn't ask for a better defensive game. Thabo has changed the culture of our team with his defense. He sets the tone, he's an inspirational player. Not too many people can do what he does."

G. J.J. Redick, Magic

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
74	22.0	9.4	1.9	1.8	0.3	----	.431	.398	.869

Last Week's Rank - --
Between Redick, Ryan Anderson and Matt Barnes, it was pick-a-hero-off-the-bench night in Orlando against Denver on Sunday. We had a tough time choosing one from that lot, but gave the nod to Redick. First, he came off the bench after resting for basically 90 seconds (that's how long it took regular starter to injury his big toe and leave the game). You couldn't tell he was basically warming up throughout the game, though, has he routinely found gaps in Denver's defense for jumpers and scored enough to make J.R. Smith play a little defense, too. He was lauded after the game by coach Stan Van Gundy for always being prepared and called him "one of the best-conditioned guys in this league." It's got to be all good news for Redick, who is a restricted free agent this summer and told the Orlando Sentinel he often wants to know what Orlando's plan and said he doesn't even know what his value is in the free market. We don't either, but Sunday's game might be a glimpse of what he could do with an increased role in the offense.

C. Brook Lopez, Nets

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
75	36.9	19.1	8.8	2.2	0.7	1.8	.507	----	.813

Last Week's Rank - --
The Nets got themselves out of the history books last week, and a big part of the credit goes to Lopez. He was dominant against the Kings (26 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks) in win No. 8, on fire against the Pistons (37 points on 14-for-17 shooting, 10 rebounds) for win No. 9 and was just plain solid (22 points, 12 rebounds) as New Jersey got win No. 10 against San Antonio and avoided tying the 1972-73 Sixers for the worst single-season record. Now that they've gotten away from the Sixers and their record, Lopez says the Nets aren't just happy to sit at 10 wins. They want to try to catch the 14-win Timberwolves and avoid being the worst team in the league this season. No doubt doing so would give Lopez and Co. something to build on for next season. Speaking of building on things, how much attention did Lopez pay to the much-hyped 60 Minutes interview of prospective Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov? "Uh, I watched the Simpsons," Lopez told The Star-Ledger.

F. Udonis Haslem, Heat

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
72	27.5	9.7	7.8	0.7	0.4	0.3	.490	---	.779

Last Week's Rank - --
If the Raptors somehow stumble and miss the playoffs, coach Jay Triano probably can't fault his strategy down the stretch in last week's loss to the Heat. With Wade heating up in the fourth quarter, Triano elected to put extra pressure on Wade and force him to pass. Problem was, Wade consistently found Haslem in the fourth quarter, who went 5-for-5 down the stretch, nailing jumpers and driving hook shots. "He was the guy they found when we attacked Wade," Triano told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "We tried to take the ball out of his hands and Haslem was the guy who was there to make jump shots." Perhaps more telling than the jumpers was that Haslem played from about the middle of the third quarter till the end of the game while Beasley sat. In the win over the Bucks, both Haslem and Beasley played down the stretch, with both players contributing in the 87-74 victory. The Heat lineup of Jermaine O'Neal, Quentin Richardson, Carlos Arroyo, Wade and Beasley is actually the top lineup Miami has this season on a plus-minus basis. But three of the Heat's top seven lineups on a total plus-minus basis (including their second-best one) features Haslem and not Beasley. It's hard to say that Beasley is worse than Haslem (or the opposite). What is likely certain is the Heat need both guys to keep up their level of play to give Miami a fighting chance in the playoffs.

F. Shawn Marion, Mavs

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
71	32.2	12.1	6.5	1.4	0.9	0.8	.511	.167	.754

Last Week's Rank - --
Games like Monday night's big win over Denver, as our own Art Garcia points out, is why the Mavs made that convoluted multi-team deal last summer to land Marion. Lest you forget, the Nuggets easily dispatched the Mavs in last season's playoffs mostly because Dallas had no one who could make Carmelo Anthony work on defense in that series. Should the teams meet again this spring, not only will the Mavs have home-court advantage (after winning the season series 2-1), but Marion could make life tough for 'Melo. Marion had 21 points and helped keep Anthony to 10 points and frustrated the Nuggets' frontline with some nifty moves around the hoop. In the two games he played against Denver this season, Marion is averaging 16.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.0 spg and shooting 57.7 percent from the field. Last season, small forward starters Antoine Wright (6.5 ppg, 37.5 FG pct vs. Denver) and Josh Howard (9.0 ppg, 25.0 FG pct vs. Denver) were hardly making Melo work in those matchups. Want more proof that Melo might have his hands full with Marion? In last season's playoffs, Anthony averaged 30.0 ppg and shot 49.0 percent. In two games against Marion and the Mavs, he's averaged 13.0 ppg and is only 8-for-35 (22.8 FG pct). "The thing is I learned a long time ago is when a guy has to play both ends of the floor, it's that much harder for him," Marion told the Dallas Morning-News.

The Next Five

G -- Manu Ginobili, Spurs: It's hard to figure out exactly what the Spurs are doing lately. First, they pull off two big wins last week: a 102-97 triumph over Cleveland and a 94-73 rout in Boston. Then they follow that up by losing to New Jersey (giving them their 10th win of the season) and a rather pedesrian win over the barely-alive-in-the-playoff-race Rockets. One thing has been clear, though: Ginobili is finding his form that has been missing for about, oh, two seasons now. While Tim Duncan remains the Spurs' season leader in scoring, the last 10 games have been all about Manu. He's averaging 24.2 ppg and shooting 51.7 percent from the field. He also has helped pull Richard Jefferson out of a season-long funk and the Spurs are getting great contributions from he and Jefferson, going 7-3 with the duo in the starting lineup. How the Spurs recover from that hiccup in New Jersey (which, coincidentally, Ginobili sat out) and play heading into the postseason with Ginobili, Jefferson and a soon-to-be-healthy Tony Parker could provide a good playoff scare for some high-seeded team.

G -- Andre Miller, Blazers: After butting heads with coach Nate McMillan early in the season over his role and struggling to find a rhythm when he did play most of the time, Miller has been superb the last week and a big factor in Portland staying in the West playoff picture in March. Portland went 4-0/3-1 in the last week and MIller was key in big wins over the Mavs (19 points, 10 assists) and the youthful Thunder (26 points vs. Russell Westbrook). Over his last 23 games, he's upped his scoring average to 15.4 ppg and was solid throughout March, averaging 15.8 ppg and 5.8 apg as the Blazers went 11-2.

F -- Gerald Wallace, Bobcats: Wallace hasn't struggled to get his scoring numbers of late as he's had double-digit scoring in each of his last nine games and five 20-point games in that span, too. Since going on his double-double tear in late December and early January, Wallace has setted into more of a scoring role and hasn't averaged double-figure rebounding totals since December (when he was at a season-high 12.4 rpg for that month). Part of that is due to the health of Tyson Chandler, who's finally in the lineup and is helping with the rebounding work. But even with Chandler's return, Wallace was back to his old board-crashing self on Wednesday night, getting 12 rebounds and showing his trademark hustle as the Bobcats moved a little bit closer to the playoffs.

F -- Jeff Green, Thunder: With the playoffs right there for the clinching in Oklahoma City, players such as Green, Sefolosha and Russell Westbrook have helped Kevin Durant carry the crunch-time burden. We detailed Sefolosha's contributions above and Green is worth mentioning, too, for his big moment in Boston on Wednesday. He drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in the last two minutes, the last one a pure example of how Durant's scoring touch is creating opportunities for others. Green's 3-pointer with 1:22 left came after Boston had trimmed the lead to one and Green got the open shot because the Celtics opted to double-team Durant before he caught the ball. As Durant ran the double team into the paint, Green curled off a baseline pick from Nenad Krstic to hit the shot. As much as the Celtics complained after the game about Durant's 15 free-throw attempts, they should complain more about not sticking with Green down the stretch.

C -- Andrew Bogut, Bucks: Hard to find fault with the big Aussie's performance over the past week: the Bucks went 2-1 and their only loss was a narrow one at The Q against LeBron and the Cavs. He was solid against fellow budding big men Marc Gasol (18 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks in an OT home win over the Grizz) and Chris Kaman (14 points, nine rebounds, two blocks in a blowout of the Clips). Though he didn't have to face Shaq in that loss to the Cavs, Bogut was still solid against the Cavs' outstanding defense on him, going for 19 points and 12 rebounds. It was a solid month overall for the Bucks (who were 11-4 in March) and Bogut (who averaged 15.4 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 3.1 bpg) and both are well on pace to be factors come postseason time.

NBA.com's Five on the Rise is a weekly look at young players and resurgent veterans who have yet to reach stardom or who have regained the form of their younger day and, most of all, have made the biggest impact for their team in the last week. These rankings are just one man's opinion and are released every Thursday during the season. If you have an issue with the names on this list, or have a question or comment for Jeff Case, send him an e-mail.