O'Neal outplayed Tim Duncan and Dwyane Wade scored 28 points to lead the Miami Heat to their sixth straight win, a 96-92 victory over the Spurs in a possible preview of the NBA Finals.
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Now O'Neal has the Heat on top of the Eastern Conference while the Spurs own the best mark in the NBA. On Sunday, O'Neal proved his new team may indeed be good enough to get to the Finals.
"This was a very good win for us against one of the elite teams in the league," O'Neal said. "I know those guys (the Spurs) and I know how they play, and that's to my advantage because I can pass that experience on to my teammates."
The game featured 22 ties and 22 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than six points. In the end, O'Neal and Wade made the difference.
Wade, who didn't play in the Heat's loss at San Antonio on Nov. 12 due to injury, scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, including a pivotal 17-foot jumper with 25 seconds left.
"We put Dwyane in some pick-and-rolls with Shaq at crunch time, and I thought they were very effective," Miami coach Stan Van Gundy said.
After San Antonio pulled within 93-92 on a driving layup by Manu Ginobili over O'Neal with 44 seconds left, Wade drilled a jumper from the left elbow.
Ginobili, who scored 24 points, drove to the basket again, but this time O'Neal forced a miss. Shandon Anderson was fouled after grabbing the rebound and hit 1-of-2 free throws with 6.9 seconds left to increase the lead to 96-92.
"That's the type of team you can't play cute with, and we dug in down the stretch," O'Neal said. "We matched their energy to come through with some huge plays at the end."
O'Neal scored 27 points and Duncan scored 20, including 17 in the second half. But Duncan made just 5-of-14 shots as the Spurs shot just 39 percent.
In the last five minutes, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sat down center Rasho Nesterovic to force O'Neal to defend Duncan, but the move backfired.
"I wish I could have done a little more," said Duncan, who was 10-of-12 from the line and grabbed nine rebounds. "I think it really would have changed the game if I could have knocked down a couple more of those shots."
"You don't want Tim and Gino (Ginobili) to beat you, so you want to stay on them and pressure them and I thoughout we did a great job of that when it mattered most," Wade said.
Meanwhile, the Heat shot 52 percent against the league's best defensive team.
"We just won one game today, nothing more and nothing less," Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Three months from now, when it really matters, no one is going to remember this game."
The final lead change came when Damon Jones hit his third 3-pointer, giving the Heat an 87-85 advantage with 3:05 left.
After two free throws apiece by Wade and Duncan, O'Neal powered past Duncan for a layup with 2:12 remaining and Wade scored on a layup with 1:33 left to increase the lead to 93-87.
Ginobili converted a three-point play and added another layup with 44 seconds left to pull the Spurs within 93-92.
The sellout crowd included former Heat center Alonzo Mourning, who agreed to a buyout of his contract with Toronto on Friday and hopes to sign with Miami once he clears waivers Tuesday.