Miami ? Shaquille O’Neal laughed at the idea: diaper-clad men of gargantuan size summoned as battering rams to make the NBA’s most imposing big man even better.

Don’t laugh, Shaq. It might happen.

Coach Pat Riley is talking about adding extra bulk – and he means real tonnage – to Miami Heat practices.

Riley’s idea? Sumo wrestlers.

“We’re going to bring them in and have them lean on him and lean on him, and we’re not going to let him just back them in,” Riley said. “And then he’s going to have to take 100 jump hooks and 100 turnaround jumpers.”

In Riley’s eyes, there isn’t much difference between sumo wrestling and the way teams defend his 7-foot-1, 340-pound center. Matches between sumotoris dressed in mawashis – diapers, in the vernacular of the uninformed – typically last 10 to 15 seconds, with two massive men pushing and shoving, trying to knock the other from a circular area.

Defending Shaq is essentially the same concept.

“The only ways for teams to keep Shaquille from getting good position is to hold him and to grab him,” Heat center Alonzo Mourning said.

Riley divulged his plan Sunday, after the Heat beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 97-92 – a game where O’Neal struggled a bit offensively, shooting 8-of-18 and finishing with 18 points.