MIAMI -- Life without Alonzo Mourning hasn't been as bad as the Miami Heat originally thought.

	Brian Grant has nice numbers, but he's not a go-to guy for Miami.

It's been worse.

Without their heart and soul, the Heat has lost eight of its first 13 games, assuring Pat Riley of his first losing November in 19 seasons of coaching.

Without Mourning, the Heat is averaging 83.7 ppg, second-worst in the league. It's made only 40 percent of its shots, also second-worst in the entire league. If not for the Bulls, Miami would be dead-last in both categories.

So for all those people who thought the Heat could overcome the loss of Mourning to a kidney ailment, there's a lesson to be learned here: Even when you're playing in the lame Eastern Conference, you can't have your No. 1 gun go down for the entire season.

After importing Eddie Jones and Brian Grant and Anthony Mason and putting together a $70 million roster, the Heat has stumbled out to its worst start since 1996. If the East wasn't as bad as it's been, they'd really be in a panic state down here.

But as of the start of the week, only five of the conference's 15 teams had winning records, so who's to say the Heat can't still fight their way into the playoffs?

Not that the locals are noticing. The stands have been half-empty and the talk of the town is the Dolphins.

	Ceballos

So in the "desperate times make for desperate measures" category, the Heat went out Sunday night and traded for a player Riley would have had nothing to do with in previous seasons. He used the nearly $4 million medical exception for Mourning by acquiring Cedric Ceballos. The ex-Laker/Mav/Sun/Piston should fit right in here. Playing only 13 minutes a night for the Pistons, he was averaging only 5.8 points on 39 percent shooting.

"When I was with the Lakers and Cedric was on the team, he was great at scoring in transition," Jones said. "He can score in many ways."

But all anybody remembers about those days was how Ceballos left the team without permission late in the 1995-96 season and went to Lake Havasu, Ariz., to do some water skiing.

Come to think of it, Ceballos should like the Heat's new practice facility. Located in America Airlines Arena, it overlooks Biscayne Bay. Then again, he might want to leave the skis at home.

As the Heat was awaiting the arrival of its newest player, Riley put out the not-so-subtle word that Ceballos has to get into shape to make the rotation.

"We all know what he can do," Riley said. "But we also know the rap on him. Maybe he can recapture some of that scoring magic. But he needs to get into great, great, great condition."

But you'd figure that even if he's only in halfway decent shape, Ceballos should help. The Heat hasn't gotten any production at all out of what has been passing for a bench.

"We need offense," Riley said. "We need a guy who can put the ball in the basket."

	Hardaway

Among many other things. Jones hasn't been able to produce on the road, where Miami has lost five of six games. Grant hasn't been able to shoulder the scoring load from game to game, not exactly a surprise since he's not a go-to player. Tim Hardaway's chronic knee problems are starting up again. The offense bogs down when Mason dominates the ball. When you see them out on the practice floor, they look like a very good team. But that's only because Mourning is among them, going through his own shooting drills every day.

"It's been very tough without 'Zo, but we knew it would be very tough without him," Hardaway said. "But we've been making it tough on ourselves, too, by not executing at the offensive end. We've got to get better in every area. It can happen. Hey, the East is up for grabs."

Thank heaven for that.

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