While the Sacramento Kings have had the luxury of holding out Chris Webber, their All-Star forward who had missed the entire season until Sunday with a sprained right ankle, the struggling Heat has no such breathing room with center Alonzo Mourning.

If Mourning is feeling relatively healthy, then he's playing. And thankfully, the franchise cornerstone seems to have recovered most of the stamina and strength that he lost after the third game of the season, when he contracted a virus that adversely affected his kidney condition. In the first two games of the West Coast swing, Mourning has displayed flashes of the old Zo, scoring 21 points in both the Clippers and SuperSonics games. He averaged 9.5 rebounds and most significantly had five blocks against the Sonics in a season-high 42 minutes.

"He look like he's getting more and more energy and playing the game now a little bit like he played early in the season when he was fresh and rested," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "There's no doubt the eight or nine days to get over the virus took its toll. In the Clipper and Seattle games I saw some flashes of him. He was very aggressive off the boards and blocking shots. I hope he can sustain that."

Mourning averaged 22 points and 10 rebounds in the first three games, but after the virus he missed five games and then fell off to 10.2 and 7.7 over the next seven.

At this point, Mourning isn't interested in talking about individual accomplishments or his health, instead he's focusing on team goals.

"I'm just playing, and not worried about how I'm feeling," Mourning said. "It's just about my time on the court and making the minutes productive to help us win."