Miami center Shaquille O'Neal will miss Wednesday's game against the Toronto Raptors due to a hyper extended knee.

O'Neal had missed 18 games earlier in the season with a sprained right ankle, which was the most action he had missed since he was held out of 20 games with an abdominal strain during the 1997-98 season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Heat forward Udonis Haslem has been fined $5,000 by the NBA for removing his jersey before leaving the court after he was ejected from a game.

Haslem was thrown out of the game against Indiana on Monday night. He became tangled with the Pacers' Jermaine O'Neal with 5:25 remaining in the second quarter and the two began exchanging heated words.

The Associated Press is reporting that Heat forward Udonis Haslem was ejected in the second quarter after scuffling with Jermaine O'Neal on Monday night.

Haslem rebounded a missed jumper by Indiana's Danny Granger with 5:25 left in the half, and O'Neal locked his arm around Haslem's -- spinning the Miami player around. The two began exchanging heated words and were separated by Heat center Shaquille O'Neal, among others.

No punches were thrown and no players left the bench area, although both coaches -- Miami's Pat Riley and Indiana's Rick Carlisle -- were on the court as the tensions continued to escalate.

Both players were issued technical fouls. Haslem, though, was also charged with an offensive foul, and was issued a second technical after arguing that call. He left the floor angrily, tearing off his jersey and throwing it onto the court.

Alonzo Mourning first thought he'd suffered a cramp. His team's medical staff feared it was a ruptured Achilles' tendon.

The Miami Heat center was relieved to learn he had a torn right calf, an injury somewhere in the middle.

"It is discouraging," Mourning said Friday. "But at the time same, I know it could have been worse."

Heat coach Pat Riley is taking the long view when it comes to Alonzo Mourning's partially torn right calf.

The prognosis after Thursday's MRI had Mourning out two to four weeks. But Riley also referred to a similar injury that sidelined third-string center Michael Doleac at the start of the season.

"When Doleac had his calf injury in training camp, he was about a month," Riley said Friday. "We're hoping that it's that. If it's two to four weeks, then I'll be happy."

According to the Miami Herald, Heat coach Pat Riley said after the team's loss to the Detroit Pistons that backup big man Alonzo Mourning had a torn calf muscle and that he would be out an indefinite amount of time.

'It's a tremendous loss to us, man,'' Udonis Haslem said of Mourning. ``He's one of the guys that we can count on every night, whether he's making shots or how much time he gets.''

According to the Associated Press, Heat center Shaquille O'Neal was held out of the Miami Heat's matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night because of a sore right thumb.

O'Neal is listed as questionable for Wednesday night's game at Detroit.

O'Neal participated in Tuesday's shootaround and was listed in the starting lineup, but the team made a late decision to let him rest the thumb.

The Detroit Pistons Monday clinched the Central Division title when they defeated the Atlanta Hawks 91-84.

The Pistons (53-13) also reduced their magic number to clinch the Eastern Conference's best record to nine over Miami.

Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal was fined $5,000 by the NBA on Monday for a flagrant foul against Chicago's Andres Nocioni.

O'Neal's foul in the second quarter Heat's 85-82 win over the Bulls on Saturday was originally ruled a flagrant foul penalty one, but was upgraded to a flagrant foul penalty two by Stu Jackson, the NBA's vice president of basketball operations.

Sunday's win against the Knicks didn't promise the Heat another meeting with the Pistons in the playoffs, but it did reserve a place for the Heat in the postseason.

The Heat tallied its 15th win in its past 16 games with a 111-100 victory against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, tying the earliest in the schedule the Heat has clinched a playoff berth.