But Walton also sees the league's second-best center: the Nets' Nenad Krstic.

"I voted for Nenad Krstic as the All-NBA second-team center and I'm hopeful he is going to be the prototype of center play in the future," said Walton, who led Portland to the 1977 title and is now a TV analyst. "His game is not based on size and strength. It's not based on huffin' and puffin' [or] smoke and mirrors. It's based on skill, timing, positioning and an analytical approach to winning."

Krstic will not be aligned against O'Neal in the series that starts here tonight. That wonderful assignment will fall to Jason Collins, who received a preview of what's ahead when he took an elbow to the mouth and a head to the chin against Indiana. But Krstic still has a huge role for the Nets. Last year, Krstic averaged 18.3 points in the Heat's first-round sweep.

"Krstic can be effective against Shaq because he can score, he can handle the ball, he can shoot, he can think and position himself," Walton said. "The question then is what will New Jersey be able to do defensively against Shaq? Can they make him a shooter as opposed to just a dunker?

"No one is ever going to win a pushing and shoving match against Shaquille. He's just too strong, too big, too smart, too good, too experienced."

Inside, no one stops Shaq - other than the refs. And O'Neal and Heat coach Pat Riley already have begun campaigning for the favorable whistle. So while Collins and Cliff Robinson figure to do the heavy defensive lifting, Krstic must be the offensive thrust among the big Nets bodies. He knows the Heat will come at him differently than last year. How does he think they'll try to stop him?

"They can't stop me. Kidding, kidding, don't say that," Krstic joked. "Maybe if I get a post game, they send [help] like Indiana the last couple games, but they can't do more than that because I've got Vince [Carter] and the other guys. So it's difficult for them."

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Nice