Was he disappointed?

“That goes without saying,” he said.

O’Neal shrugged off suggestions that the series was getting nasty because of Stackhouse’s hard knock.

“It was just a hard foul. It’s over for me,” he said. “It was a hard foul that I really, really enjoyed. Felt good, actually, the next morning when I woke up. Now I don’t have to see my chiropractor. He saved me $50.”

While Shaq can laugh, the Mavericks don’t see anything amusing about losing Stackhouse.

“Our whole team was mad, disappointed,” Nowitzki said. “I still think it’s a joke. Shaq has fouled us a lot harder already this series and nothing happened.”

Unlike Johnson, Heat coach Pat Riley felt Stackhouse’s suspension was appropriate and in line with others issued during the postseason.

“It was academic based on precedent,” Riley said, using Miami forward James Posey’s one-game ban for knocking down Chicago’s Kirk Hinrich as an example. “They should not complain about that at all or be upset. That’s just the way that one is.”

After Dallas allowed a 2-0 lead to evaporate under the Florida sunshine, Johnson accused his team of having a “vacation mentality” and promptly moved the Mavericks out of their swanky Four Seasons downtown hotel — a short drive from South Beach’s sights and sounds — to one about 45 minutes from the arena.

At their new digs, the Mavericks have been paired two to a room. They are also eating meals together like they would during training camp.

“It’s really nice,” Nowitzki said, cracking a sarcastic smile.

Johnson is doing what he feels is best to motivate and refocus the Mavericks, who haven’t been the same since blowing a 13-point in Game 3, a bitter loss that they followed up with one of their poorest performances of the season.

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In drawing the spotlight with his angry comments, Johnson, voted the league’s top coach this year, could be trying to direct attention away from his team’s bigger woes: Nowitzki’s shooting slump (2-for-14 in Game 4), and the fact that the Mavericks haven’t been able to stop Heat guard Dwyane Wade, who has scored 42 and 36 points in the past two games.

Whatever Johnson’s motives, he’s counting on his team responding before the season’s biggest game.

Dallas guard Jason Terry said Johnson isn’t alone in being disturbed at the Mavericks’ Miami meltdown.

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“Everybody’s a little edgy right now,” he said. “We’re disappointed. We let two opportunities slip away from us. But we still have to focus in on the task at hand, and that’s winning Game 5.”

With Stackhouse out, guard Marquis Daniels is likely to get more minutes and Dallas will have to find scoring from other sources.

“Obviously, the entire bench is going to have to pick things up,” Adrian Griffin said. “I don’t think it’s one person having to pick up the slack. It’s going to be every player that steps on the court putting forth a little extra effort.”

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