LeBron James and Heat teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas played a little game of dodgeball with the opposition recently.

James got into it with Boston’s Jermaine O’Neal last Sunday when O’Neal threw a body block on James during a fastbreak. LeBron didn’t like the hard foul and he retaliated by hurling the basketball at O’Neal’s back. This ignited a heated confrontation between Heat players and Celtics players near the baseline, with Dwyane Wade and Paul Pierce both seen jawing at each other.

A day later in Atlanta, Ilgauskas exhibited the same dodgeball skills when he fired a ball at the back of Hawks center Zaza Pachulia after Big Z didn’t appreciate Pachulia’s elbow smacking him on his chin. Ilgauskas was slapped with a technical foul and was forced to leave the game because it was his second T of the game. Now, Big Z must have a little history with Zaza because a little elbow to the chin normally doesn’t caused Big Z to go White Goodman on Pachulia’s back.

It must be a South Beach thing. Watch LeBron’s ball-throwing tantrum.

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Shaquille O’Neal loves to give nicknames and enjoys tossing around slogans.

The latest gem from the Big Quotatious was the comment he made about him and fellow Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

When 7-foot-1 O’Neal was asked about his relationship with 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas, the Cavs’ longtime center until this season, Shaq said, “Myself and [Ilgauskas], we are the best center in the game.”

O’Neal has started every game for the Cavaliers this season and Ilgaukas has spelled him time, but the Diesel doesn’t think he has to do the job all by himself. At 37, Shaq realizes that he can’t dominate a game for 40 minutes and has to pick his spots.

This is where he believes having Big Z as the backup helps the Cavaliers.

“I realize we’re gonna share minutes, so it’s vital we go out there and give it all we got,” O’Neal said. “It’s good to have an excellent big man like him as the backup.”

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