Miami Heat Head Coach Pat Riley released a statement on Thursday concerning a reported incident involving guard Smush Parker.

"We are currently investigating the reported incident. Until we have concluded it, Smush will not be with the team. He has not been suspended and is currently on our inactive list. This is a legal matter, and we will have no further comment until the legal process runs its course."

The Miami Herald reported on Wednesday that a woman from Miami has accused Parker of twisting her arm during an altercation about a valet parking fee and is seeking criminal charges.

Heat captain Udonis Haslem said it was vital to locker-room chemistry that everyone accept coach Pat Riley's lineup changes.

The tweaks worked to near-perfection Tuesday night, when point guard Jason Williams and small forward Ricky Davis were replaced in the starting group by second-year guard Chris Quinn and veteran Penny Hardaway.

The moves resulted in more scoring off the bench and the Heat's most lopsided victory of the season, 20 points over the Bobcats. Riley has hinted at keeping the lineup for Friday's game against the Celtics.

Haslem said hard feelings had to be put aside for the changes to work.

''Everybody understood it wasn't nothing personal -- we're just trying to find something that works,'' Haslem said. ``It wasn't that J-Will and Ricky weren't doing their jobs.''

A Miami woman accusing Heat guard Smush Parker of twisting her arm during a dispute over a valet fee is seeking criminal charges against the fourth-year NBA player.

Yomaira McKenzie, 41, said Parker "lost it" Tuesday morning when he was asked to pay the $12 valet parking charge he allegedly owed at a condo building at 355 Biscayne Blvd. McKenzie is an assistant manager at Standard Valet, which services the building.

According to a Miami police incident report, Parker, 26, claimed he had paid the fee in advance a night earlier. He said he did not have any available cash to pay Tuesday.

Tension apparently escalated when Parker, denied his keys until he settled the debt, allegedly pushed a valet podium and grabbed McKenzie's arm in an attempt to get his keys, according to the incident report.

Parker was not arrested or charged at the scene Tuesday, which is standard procedure in most simple misdemeanor battery cases that aren't witnessed by police. In such cases, the victim must contact prosecutors and seek formal charges, Miami police spokesman Detective William Moreno said Wednesday.

McKenzie said Parker twisted her wrist and arm. McKenzie's attorney Ron Guralnick said McKenzie has already pressed charges with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

He also criticized police Wednesday for not arresting Parker Tuesday.

"If he wasn't a sports' personality, he would have been arrested on the scene," Guralnick said.

Steve Francis almost joined the Clippers in the off-season. Instead, he signed a two-year deal with Houston, where he was a three-time All-Star before being traded to the Orlando Magic along with Cuttino Mobley in 2004.

"I had conversations with the Clippers, the coach; we had some deep conversations up until the last couple of days when I made a decision to come to Houston," Francis said Monday before the Rockets' 88-71 victory over the Clippers at Staples Center.

"I made an easier decision I thought was best for my family, my daughter, my wife. We have a home in Houston. We've been living there for seven, eight years."

Mobley, Francis' longtime friend, was a recruiter in the Clippers' attempt to land him.

Some in the Clippers' organization doubted they ever had a true shot at signing Francis, believing he wanted to play for a team with legitimate title aspirations and a dominant one-two punch in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

At the beginning of the season, he found himself questioning it. He did not play in 11 of the team's first 13 games and was buried deep on the depth chart.

"Of course, by me not playing the first 11, 12 games, I not only possibly thought of if I should've [come] here but Miami, or Dallas, or Cleveland," Francis said.

Heat Coach Pat Riley figured the Orlando Magic would be formidable under his former assistant, Stan Van Gundy. But Riley said he never imagined the Magic would be this good, this early in the season -- Van Gundy or no Van Gundy.

"I think everybody is maybe a little bit surprised about how good they are this early," Riley said of the Magic, which leads the division. "But I'm not totally surprised by it."

Stan Van Gundy will face his old team Miami tonight when the Heat and Magic meet for the first time since Van Gundy took the reigns in Orlando.

Van Gundy, for his part, says it doesn't feel different.

"When we played them in the exhibition season, it was nice to see some of the guys I worked with and kind of wave at them, but there were no real emotions there," he said.

Van Gundy learned at Riley's knee, serving six years as top assistant before getting the chance to be Head Coach of Miami in 2003, while Riley continued as Heat President. He lasted just over two seasons before resigning 21 games into 2005-06, when Riley returned to the sideline.

Both sides insist the decision was mutual, and Van Gundy hasn't wavered on the issue since leaving the Heat. But it was a peculiar parting -- at 112-73, he is still has the franchise's best winning percentage.

Dwyane Wade called him out in the media. Pat Riley called him out with a quick hook.

Apparently, Shaquille O'Neal has received the message.

"I'll step up," the Heat center vowed after Tuesday's practice. "I will. Have no fear."

"Some of what he's saying and some of what Dwyane's saying is true," he said. "I've got to step up."

Wade said his call for a move away from the constant pounding of the ball into the post was never meant as a slight.

"He's worked for 15 years to power ? bang, bang, bang," Wade said.

"Now we're trying to make it easier on him. We don't want him to go out there and bang, bang, bang as much."

O'Neal, 35, said his reference of now playing "my way" was his way of getting back to a more driven approach.

"I'm not a trouble-maker," he said. "I'm not trying to start any trouble. But that's something I always say to myself, 'my way.'"

After a bad loss to a previously winless Seattle team, one in which Shaquille O'Neal did his best to latch himself to the bench with fouls and looked uninterested when he was on the floor, Pat Riley used words like ''nothing at stake'' and threatened ''massive changes'' if things didn't change.

"I said, yeah, we're 1-7, if I'm going to make changes, I'm going to make changes," Riley said Tuesday. "It could be massive. It could be two guys. That's pretty massive. It could be somebody out of the rotation. It could be bringing in somebody from the outside."

A Sixers' team official said there was no truth to a rumor of trade talks with the Miami Heat concerning point guard Andre Miller.

Heat center Shaquille O'Neal has taken cortisone shots to ease pain in his surgically repaired left knee.

But he has no plans to take himself out other lineup to rest the nagging injuries that have limited his play.

O'Neal has played with stiffness in the knee and a bruised left thigh he sustained in the preseason. He started Saturday against the Nets but was curiously replaced by Alonzo Mourning 58 seconds into the game. O'Neal returned two minutes later.

"He is experiencing some discomfort," Coach Pat Riley said. "Cortisone treatment is a part of a player's season. Every time he feels a little aggravation there, he'll take a shot. Until we see something visibly there, he'll fight through it."

O'Neal, who had the knee surgery in November 2006, said he would work through the stiffness in his knee.

"I'm going to battle it," said O'Neal, who has missed 60 games because of injuries over the past two seasons. "It's getting better."