"WCW Monday Nitro," the TNT network's pro wrestling weekly series, is one of the top-rated shows on cable television.

While certainly not highbrow entertainment, the WCW -- an offseason employer of Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman -- caters to a certain type of personality.Like the ones who will want to watch Tuesday night's battle between the Utah Jazz and Miami Heat, also on TNT at the made-for-TV time of 6 p.m.

It should be a wrestling match with an occasional game of basketball breaking out.

Sure the Jazz and Heat are two of the top three teams in the league through the first half of this truncated NBA season. But that doesn't mean tonight's game will be a thing of beauty. In fact, it will probably be just the opposite.

The Jazz and the Heat both win with defense. Only two NBA teams have yet to allow an opponent to shoot 50 percent or better in a game this season.

You guessed it. Those two teams are Miami and Utah.

Ever since Pat Riley left the "Showtime" Lakers, his teams in New York and now Miami have gotten the well-deserved reputations as physical, grind-it-out, Eastern Conference-style clubs. Miami already set a league record this year, dating back to the 1954-55 season when the shot clock was introduced, by holding their opponents to under 90 points in 11 consecutive games. During that span, that only ended in a loss to Indiana on Saturday, the Heat held teams to an average of just 81.6 points on 38.7 percent shooting from the field.

"Miami is the best team in the East," said Indiana coach Larry Bird last week. "No one is even close to them . . . . It's unbelievable what (Riley) does down there. He gets his guys to play at a level no one else in the league can compete with. No other team is that intense. Not one. I wish I knew how he did it."

The Jazz, who can get plenty physical and play tough defense themselves if need be, enter tonight's battle knowing what to expect.

"They come out and say, 'Let's use as many fouls as we can.' The refs can't call every one of them," said Jeff Hornacek. "They are going to foul you, grab you and hold you. That's the way they play."

The Heat's physical defense can become frustrating and, at times, make tempers flare -- as the past two Heat-Knicks playoff series will attest. In each of the past two postseasons, Riley's old team and his new one have had on-court brawls that have led to numerous suspensions. Last year the Heat were hurt much worse than the Knicks, as star center Alonzo Mourning threw a punch at New York forward Larry Johnson and was suspended for the next game, effectively ending the Heat's season in the first round.

Mourning had been on his best behavior since then, putting up numbers that warrant MVP consideration -- 20 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.5 blocks on the average.

But he lost it again on Saturday night. He was ejected after getting two quick technicals for arguing a foul call in the second quarter of the Heat's home game against Indiana. Miami, as you might expect without its top player, went on to lose for just the third time in its last 20 games.

"I heard Alonzo say earlier this season that he was going to control his emotions this year," Indiana's Antonio Davis said afterward. "I guess it's back to the drawing board."

To add to his problems, Mourning was also fined $5,000 by the league for wearing white shoes in the game. Really. Since his teammates were all wearing black shoes, he was supposed to as well.

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Coincidentally, the Jazz are coming off a loss in which their starting center was also ejected. While Greg Ostertag certainly isn't in the same category as Mourning when it comes to value to a team, it still hurt when he was tossed late in the third quarter of Utah's loss to the Pistons on Sunday. At the time the Jazz led by 16 points. They ended up losing in overtime.

It was the second time in his career that Ostertag had been ejected. The other time was -- in another coincidence -- at home in a game against the Miami Heat.

Utah has lost two straight regular games for the first time since November 1997, 95 games ago.

"We catch them a little angry, probably," said Riley to the Miami Herald concerning the Jazz.

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