Temperature Rising

MIAMI— 

With Derrick Rose and Chris Bosh sidelined, this hardly was a playoff preview.
Instead, it merely muddled the playoff picture.


On a night the Chicago Bulls could have locked up the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory, the Miami Heat instead kept that door open for themselves with a gritty, emotion-filled, tension-packed 83-72 victory Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena.

With LeBron James fueling the Heat with 27 points as part of his ongoing late-season MVP push, the Heat, already assured of no worse than a No. 2 East seed, could still rise to No. 1 if they win the four remaining games and Chicago loses one its final three games.

The 72 points were a season-low for the Bulls, who closed at 35.7 percent from the field, shooting 15 of 56 after opening 10 of 14 from the field.

The No. 1 seed in the East would have homecourt advantage over No. 2 in the Eastern Conference finals, should both teams advance. And these teams very much have the look of unfinished business after closing the season series 2-2.

With Dwyane Wade back for the Heat and Luol Deng back for the Bulls after each sat out Wednesday with minor ailments, there was enough in place to still give this true Heat-Bulls passion.

That passion included a double-forearm shove and second-quarter ejection for Heat forward James Jones for his above-the-shoulders hit on Bulls center Joakim Noah, and later a flagrant foul on Wade for a forearm blow against former Detroit Pistons nemesis Richard Hamilton.

Shortly after that third-quarter Wade-Hamilton incident, James decked Bulls guard John Lucas with a questionable backcourt screen, with the two each called for technical fouls.

"A physical Eastern Conference game," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra termed it during his televised interview at the end of the third quarter. "It's an emotional game, a passionate game."

Wade, who has been dealing with a sore ankle, got off to an uneven start and appeared to lack full lift, but still was able to contribute 18 points.

With Bosh out and Wade somewhat off, Heat point guard Mario Chalmers, able to avoid the defensive workload against Rose, stepped up with 16 points.

Noah offered a foul-plagued double-double for the Bulls, with 15 points and 10 rebounds, with Lucas pacing Chicago off the bench with 16 points.

The Heat pushed their lead to 11 in the third quarter on a Mike Miller 3-pointer and took a 66-61 edge into the fourth.

They held on from there, even with James cramping, requiring stretching on the bench at the start of the fourth quarter.

With Bosh out, it left the Heat with their 15th starting lineup of the season, one more than during last season's 82-game schedule.

In fact, Thursday's starting lineup of Dexter Pittman, Udonis Haslem, James, Wade and Chalmers had not played a single second together prior to Thursday night.

The Heat's rotation took another jolt with 6:05 to play in the second quarter, when Jones was ejected. Jones was called for a Flagrant 2 foul, with the ejection standing after video confirmation.

It was the second such ejection of Jones' career and the third ejection for the Heat this season. Spoelstra was ejected Jan. 11 against the Los Angeles Clippers for arguing officiating and Juwan Howard was ejected for two technical fouls Feb. 14 against the Indiana Pacers.

The Heat's lack of quality depth drew requisite scorn from TNT analyst Charles Barkley at halftime.

"Their bench is so bad," he said. "Unless LeBron James goes crazy, this Heat team is not going to win the championship."

He wasn't far off, particularly with rookie point guard Norris Cole again overmatched. But Shane Battier did come on to provide quality defense.

The Heat took a 27-23 lead into the second period, with James scoring 15 first-quarter points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 shooting from the line.

The Bulls then pushed to the lead in the second quarter before the Heat went into the intermission up 42-40.

It was so back-and-forth early that neither team led by more than three points over the final 10:54 of the second quarter.