MIAMI – Ideally, the shot would have been put up by Alonzo Mourning. If not, Tim Hardaway. Next in line would have been Jamal Mashburn or Dan Majerle.

But Clarence Weatherspoon?

The burly 6-6 forward, who entered the game shooting .393 in the series and had missed five of his previous eight shots, emerged as the Heat’s “go-to guy” on their final shot of the game. But his 16-foot jumper hit the back, right side of the iron and bounded away, carrying Miami’s last hope to outlast their bitter rival Knicks with it.

“The play was drawn up so we could run two people out, whoever was curling was curling and ‘Zo dug in to get the pass,” said Weatherspoon, who was pressured by a charging Marcus Camby. “They came out to the top. Mash drove he kicked it to me. I drove and put up a shot with a chance to rebound. That’s it.”

The Knicks were determined that if they were to be beaten, it would not be by Mourning. So as soon as Dan Majerle fed Mourning low following the Heat’s timeout with 12.4 seconds left, the Knicks basically held a convention around him.

“We swarmed. Sent everybody,” acknowledged Jeff Van Gundy. “At that point, it was just getting the ball out of his hands.”

So Mourning fired the ball to Mashburn, who was having the type of shooting day that warrants caning in certain Third World countries. Mashburn passed up an open shot, advanced the ball a step or two and passed to Weatherspoon.

“I knew there was a lot of time on the clock. When the ball went out of bounds (after Weatherspoon’s shot) there was two seconds,” said Mashburn. “If anything, I wanted to get the final shot. You can’t fault ‘Spoon. If he made it he would have been the hero.”

Any regrets for Mashburn on not taking the final shot?

“I’ve got to live with it,” he said.

As for Mourning, he wanted the shot, but felt it better to pass out with the Knicks covering him from every conceivable angle.

“I had the ball in my hands and they ran two guys at me so I had to kick it to Mash (who) was wide open,” Mourning said. “Mash swung it to ‘Spoon and they ran a man at him and we just made some decisions from there. I would have taken the last shot if I had a good look at it. When I caught it, they were on me. So I swung it to Mash and he went to ‘Spoon who let it fly. It was the right play.”