The Bulls have overcome adversity before. With their 2011 MVP Derrick Rose shelved for nearly 27 games in this lockout shortened season due to various injuries, Chicago banded together, showing an impressive resilience and team resolve that helped them finish off the best record in the NBA for the second consecutive season.

They beat some of the NBA’s elite without their no-nonsense, shy in the spotlight superstar, including the team many expected to be in their way as they headed towards the East finish line: the Miami Heat.

Still, the Bulls had developed the type of bench and team chemistry that most teams could only dream of, and they were a unit confident in their abilities to make a deep, championship like run with the uber-talented Rose.

And then, in the midst of a comfortable win over an over-matched Sixers squad, in the first game of the 2012 Playoffs, all that hope, all those dreams, were splattered like a bug. Rose weaved into the lane with the outcome pretty much secured, poetically using his pogo like bounce step to sift through the D, when his greatest opponent defeated him, potentially breaking the hope of a Bulls team ready to take the next step. His health got the best of his jump, and the result was excruciatingly painful.

Rose heard his knee buckle as he went to jump off of it, and he crinkled to the ground, writhing in agony, quickly sending a party atmosphere in the Windy City into complete and total horror. This was Chicago’s nightmare. Rose’s health had failed him once more.  This time it was his knee, not his groin, ankle, toe, or mid-foot. And the end result, announced shortly thereafter, was a stunning banner headline: Rose tears ACL, out for Post-season, Olympics.

Down for several minutes,  he held his hands behind his head, gritting his teeth in torturous disgust, finally grasping his knee as he laid on his side. He was assisted off the court, as he hobbled off in front of a stunned crowd, disappearing into the locker-room, maybe taking Chicago’s very realistic title hopes with him.

In one swoop, all the comfort of a relatively easy win over a talkative Philly team had gone out the window. Replaced by pain, frustration, and prayers.

The road paved like never before for the Miami Heat to get right back to the Finals.

Chicago has won without Rose before, but they did it in individual games, bite size portions, one might say. Given a seven game series to adjust, it’s hard to see guys like Taj Gibson, John Lucas, and Luol Deng carrying the Bulls far into the NBA’s marathon post-season without their scoring stud. It’s almost unfathomable.

For the Bulls, it’s no longer about one guy stepping up, it’s about the whole team doing it: night in and night out, because no longer do they have their superstar to rely on. Rose is the versatility, quickness, and speed that transcends the Bulls from good to elite. He is the engine behind their true aspirations.

The Bulls can push and shove all they want, but it’s going to take a Herculean effort without Rose. It’s going to take luck. It’s going to take a master coaching job by Tom Thibodeau. And even then, it’s probably not close to enough.

Can the Bulls catch lightning in a bottle and then use it to electrocute their opponent? They look likely to beat Philly, but even that’s no guarantee.

That’s sports for ya. In less than a game, the Bulls went from contenders to pretenders, and Rose’s health moving forward has to be nerve-racking. He’s a young guy, but his style is conducive to injury. The way he uses his athleticism and body to move around the D makes him an elite player. You just hope that this doesn’t zap him of his mobility or his pizzazz. You just hope he rebounds from this next fall and that this doesn’t become a nagging issue. Like D-Wade’s Converse catch phrase: you hope that he falls down 7 times, and gets up 8.

Right now we don’t know what the future holds for Rose, but we do know this. If Miami wasn’t under enough pressure already to win the East, well this puts a hammer on that.

It also reminds us of this: Anybody is vulnerable to injury. They’re after all, simply human.

Even the best conditioning in the world doesn’t always over-come the crazy quirks of the human body. Rose was untouched en-route to the lane, and then that buckle. It’s the sound Bulls fans feared, in the same way that Heat fans are on constant guard that D-Wade’s knee doesn’t give out in similar fashion. The human body is not a joy-stick, some of these moves are not natural. All it takes is one moment to change the dynamics. All it takes is one moment to flip the script right out the window.

For the Bulls that came at the worst possible time: at the starting line of a marathon.

Photo: Reuters

JOSH MASER

Well, the Heat not only made it, but they won game 1 of the NBA Finals. Deal with it. As most of the world already knows, the Miami Heat are 3 wins away from an NBA title after beating the Mavs in game 1 and knocking out the Chicago Bulls 4-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. For most people that is like nails on a chalkboard.

All season long almost all sports fans not residing in South Florida have cheered against the heat, almost more than they cheered for their own teams. All season long everyone had two favorite teams; your own, and whoever happened to be playing the Big 3 that night. But here they are, three wins away from their first title as a group.

Now throughout the season the Heat have been faced with question after question from these people who wished nothing but failure upon them, and some of it was well warranted. This team had many questions surrounding it, but going into game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks, they have answered all of them. Not only have they answered them, but they’ve left no doubt.

One of the first questions that surfaced, almost as soon as Lebron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach, was whether or not LeBron and Dwayne Wade could coexist on the court and share the ball. That question, in my opinion, was answered a while ago.

Both LeBron and Wade finished top 4 in the league in scoring. Sure, both of their numbers dropped from previous years, but there are only so many minutes in a game, plus they have another All Star on the roster in Chris Bosh. But all in all, both players played close to their career averages, astounding if you ask me.

Speaking of the other All Star on the Heat, there was a notion throughout the season that Chris Bosh was not worthy of being included in the “Big 3” talk, let alone his $100 million plus contract. Many critics referred to the Heat trio as the “Big 2” or “Two and a Half Men” among other insults directed at the former Toronto Raptor. Bosh did struggle at times this season, his numbers suffered far worse than his other two elite teammates, but going from the first to the third option on a team will do that to anyone (and let’s be honest, I would make him the third option too with those two other guys).

Bosh spent most of the year finding his spot in the offense, and the fruit of his labors have been seen in the postseason. Bosh has been crucial; if not essential to Miami’s run to the Finals. In the semifinals versus Boston Bosh ‘s numbers weren’t stellar, but he played Kevin Garnett basically to a draw, and that proved to be a win for Miami who overpowered the rest of the C’s. In the Eastern Finals, Bosh was nothing short of fantastic. He went 30+ points in two of the games, and outplayed Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer combined in the series, a matchup that experts were certain favored Chicago going in.

The team was also criticized for their reliance on Wade and James, their lack of depth, and their bench. There is one simple explanation for this; their bench was hurt. Besides the Big Three, Pat Riley Made two other major signings this offseason, Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem (Re-signing Haslem). They were supposed to be the glue, the small cogs that connected the big ones in the machine.

But the injury bug set in. Miller suffered a Major thumb injury in the pre-season, missing the first half of the season, and Haslem played in just 13 games before a foot injury sidelined him for the remainder of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.

Miller returned, but was never quite the player they hoped for, until the Eastern Conference Finals. Haslem returned for the Eastern Finals and Miller began to find his stroke, both giving crucial minutes on both ends of the floor and both being crucial parts of Miami’s 4-1 win ( I didn’t even get to talk about Mario Chalmers’ play).

This bench play leads into another question about the Heat, that if you stop either Wade or James, Miami can’t win. Well, to say Dwayne Wade had a bad series against the Bulls is an understatement. Sure, he led the game 5 comeback in the fourth quarter, but he had been shooting career low numbers and just plain didn’t look right.

But somehow, the Heat only surrendered one game in the series, and again that can be contributed to the bench play, as well as the stellar play of his other two star teammates (isn’t that why they got together in the first place)?

So here they are, where nobody wanted them to be, three wins away from the promised land.

You can be sure that across the country there will be parties devoted to rooting against the Heat…. I mean watching the NBA finals.

The point is that people are going to hate the Heat, right or wrong (just as an example, I once saw someone say they would rather shake hands with Hitler than Lebron James, just saying its getting a little out of control). But those people are going to have to find a way to explain why they think this team isn’t good, because the Big THREE and company look like they’re on a war path.

Photo: Reuters

SCOTT JACOBS

Miami celebrated like they won the championship when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh decided to link their chains together for the next six years.  Starting next week, they’ll be four wins away from getting to celebrate the real thing.

James, Wade, and Bosh joined forces so that they could accumulate rings.  Opportunity number one begins Tuesday.  Miami pulled off the incredible coup in the offseason.  Today, they pulled off an equally epic comeback, outscoring the Bulls 18-3 with 3 minutes to go, to overcome a 12 point Chicago lead sending a rowdy Windy City crowd into pure unadulterated demoralization.

O the highs and lows of being a sports fan.

Ronnie Brewer nailed a 3 pointer off a Kurt Thomas rebound (Thomas played a tremendous game) with 3:54 left, and Twitter became abuzz with “game 6.”  Including me.  I was convinced the Heat weren’t interested in winning this game as much as the previous games, because they had so much wiggle room and a home game to fall back on.  Clearly we all underestimated them.

Brewer’s three point dagger turned out to be the second to last field goal the Bulls would hit.  Rather than running out of the arena en route to one more date in South Beach, the Bulls were tossed out of the playoffs in a blink of an eye.

It was just another amazing Miami run to flip the outcome and the series in their favor.  They did it against Boston you might remember with a 16-0 run to send American Airlines Arena into a mass hysteria.  That was slaying the old guard and the Heat were adamant about how important it was to knock out the champs.  This was taking out the number one seed.

Oklahoma City and Chicago have a lot in common.  Both are young hard-nosed teams, who are well coached and led by dynamic scorers. Both are still learning how to win in the post-season.  Both were in over their heads when the going got tough.

Both had epic collapses, or as some on the other side might say, both were witness to incredible comebacks.  Miami and Dallas parallel each other.  They were both built to win now.  It’s only fitting that they’re the last two standing.  It’s no longer close.

Since the end of round one, Dallas is 8-1 with Miami 8-2.  This is not 2006.  That Heat team over-achieved behind the brilliance of Dwyane Wade.  That Mavs team was the heavy favorite.  If anything, the two have flip-flopped.  Miami is the giant in the room now, with the target on their back all season.  Dallas is the team that made it way beyond most people’s expectations. 

Game on.

As for the Bulls, well they suffered a Dallas Mavericks-esque moment late in game 6.  Trailing by 2 with their MVP on the line, Derrick Rose hit the first foul shot, before spinning out the second.  It was eerily reminiscent of Dirk Nowitzki in game 3 of the 2006 NBA Finals when down 2, he made the first foul shot, before clanking the second.  The Mavs went on to lose, their 13 point cushion evaporating, and their stranglehold on the series disappearing in an instant.  Tonight, with the chance to send the series back to South Beach, Rose’s miss served to preserve another incredible Heat comeback.  Who says five years ago and today have nothing in common?

What can you say about LeBron that hasn’t been repeatedly said this post-season.  Like him or hate him, James has been stellar in closing game situations, developing the killer instinct to send the mighty C’s and pesky Bulls off to the golf course.  If the question during the year was who would take the final shot, well I’ve got news for you: it’s LeBron. If the question during the year was whether the Heat could get rid of this late game bugaboo that plagued them so often during the season, I’ve got news for you: the monkey is off of their back.

“They’re Hollwood as hell,” said Joaquim Noah after the game.  Call them Hollywood South.  In fact not too far from Miami is South Florida’s version of Hollywood.  It’s nowhere near as spectacular as Southern California’s most renowned city, but it goes by the same name nevertheless.  And once again Hollywood will be the focus of the NBA Finals.  Only this time, it’s not the Lakers.

But this much is true about great teams.  They can talk all they want, but if they don’t back it up they’re going to get shellacked.  Miami threw their new team of stars a celebration worthy of an NBA championship in the offseason, and drew the ire and attention of the sports universe.  From there they were automatically the hunted, America’s most hated sports team.  And most talked about.

After a season of ups and downs (and 58 wins) Miami went into the post-season knowing this was where they’d be judged.  They emerged from the Eastern Conference playoffs tonight with a gold star and one final series to bring home the hardware.

Not only did they come together, they showed just how scary they could be.  We often forget that this is year one of The Experiment.  This trifecta along with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller is locked up for the next 5 seasons. Gulp.

But it’s evident that when Miami is hot they pack Heat that no one can match.  Exhibit A was tonight, when Miami couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat.  But then like a bat out of hell, they got their groove, and despite sporting a 12 point deficit late, it was just another obstacle on the road to The Finals.  You know, for Hollywood.

The comeback’s complete, The Finals are set.  Two teams are left. 

Dallas. Miami.  Four more wins gets you that big trophy that looks like a ball going into a net.

For LeBron and Dirk a title secures them hoops immortality.

For years they’ve accomplished everything individually as players, but their teams always came up short.  They’ve both been to The Finals and both lost.  They’ve been the hero and the goat.  They’ve been told they were too soft, too fragile, that they lacked that killer instinct.  They’ve been told that greatness only follows those who win championships, not regular season games.

One of them is getting a ring.  The only question now is who.

Photo: Reuters

SCOTT JACOBS

You are watching the makings of a machine.

Earlier in the year if Dwyane Wade or LeBron James had an off night, Miami lost.  It was simple as that.  The Heat were a two superstar express, with Chris Bosh riding shot-gun much of the season.  They couldn’t close out close games.  LeBron couldn’t hit the big shots.  No one on their supporting cast could be relied upon.  They looked like they weren’t ready as a team, to do what everyone knew they were capable of.

The post-season has a funny way of changing things don’t it?

Wade struggled much of the night in game 4.  But the Heat got 26 points combined from Mike Bibby, Mario Chalmers, and Mike Miller (who finally awoke from his season long coma and stretch of injuries to give Miami a huge fourth quarter).  Chris Bosh was actually the go-to guy for much of the fourth quarter and overtime, recording his third 20+ scoring game in this series, and LeBron was once again cool as the other side of the pillow.

Not only are they ready, but the Miami Heat are feeling it.  They can taste it now.  Yes, the series has been air tight, but the Heat have done 3 times what they couldn’t do once against the Bulls in the regular season: win, and win close.  They’ve also done what no team has done to the Bulls all year: send them to their third loss in a row.  The culmination has Miami flying sky high, one win away from a trip to The Finals that seemed so improbable during certain stretches of the season.

Think this team wants it after all the crap and pressure they’ve gone through this season?  Late in OT, Wade blocked a shot, LeBron dove to the floor, deflected it to Haslem, who threw it to Miller.  I expected Miami to be an offensive juggernaut.  At times this year they’ve flashed that potential.  But in a hotly contested defensive battle, it’s been Miami’s defense that has proven itself to be the real revelation.  Miami’s ball pressure is so tight and their ability to recover on defense so quick.  It’s no wonder they spun the Bulls into a turnover web, running Chicago roughshod into a 3-1 hole.

The doubters are now quiet.  Miami’s running on all cylinders, and if Mike Miller can play like this on a normal basis (12 pts, 9 rebounds) forget about it.  The true test of a championship team is if they can play defense, and win games when their stars aren’t always their best.  Wade was a shell of his usual spectacular self for much of the evening, but his teammates were there to pick up the slack, something that Miami could not rely on earlier this year.

The Heat are having fun, and they’re loving every minute of this wild ride in year one of The Experiment.

Miami has come a long way from the shaky unit that seemed to shrink when the games got close.  Now Miami does pressure better than any team in the league.  They have a system.  They have three guys who can be the hero on any given night.  On this night the offense went through Bosh.  It was pick and pop hoops with him and LeBron with some Miller sprinkled in.  Wade was a ghost.  I repeat, a ghost.

Which is precisely why you form this kind of trifecta.  The Heat would never have won a game last year if Wade played like this.

Which is why this team is different.  Scary different.

Their 5 man rotation in place, the revolving door that was Miami’s bit players has now been cemented.  The Heat have the guys they want.  They’re clicking.  It’s bad news for the Bulls who are riding Rose to exhaustion.  He has no one else to go to when the game gets late.

That used to be the problem for LeBron, Wade, and Bosh.

Now they have each other and a supporting cast that isn’t just there for show.

Now, they’re the show.

Photo: AP

SCOTT JACOBS

What once seemed like a possibility now feels more like fate.

The Dallas Mavericks have been on a parallel crash course to meet the Miami Heat in a 2006 NBA Finals rematch all post-season.  Since the start of round 2, no two teams have played better.  No two teams have been more clutch.  No two teams are closer to the ’ship as of this present moment.

No two teams would make for a more fascinating NBA Finals.

And after completing an unbelievable 15 point comeback in the last five minutes, before controlling the game in OT, the Mavs are on the cusp of their grand breakthrough, back to the stage where they had their well documented breakdown: the NBA Finals.  One win left and after the way OKC looked after this back-breaker at home, it’s hard to see them having any fight left.  Dallas had no problem closing out L.A. so something tells me they’re going to take care of the Thunder in front of their home crowd, sending off a celebration that will include everything but parade routes — that didn’t work out so well the first time.

Bulls fans, go ahead and yell.  Your team hasn’t played well offensively yet still was in position to steal game 3 before Chris Bosh caught fire and LeBron James put on the finishing touches.  Great, fantastic.  Here’s a cookie.  The fact of the matter is they don’t have the firepower to match Miami.  Oklahoma City doesn’t have the moxie to take out a team as hot as Dallas.  Since that epic meltdown in round 1 in Portland (which feels like a decade ago) Dallas hasn’t lost a ROAD game, and has confidence higher than Snoop Dogg.

They walk around with a swagger, but it’s more of a quiet confidence.  They know that they were the team that was too old.  “Blow the team up,” everyone told Mark Cuban after the Mavs whimpered out of last year’s post-season with a brutal dismissal at the hands of the hated Spurs.  “Dirk can’t be ‘the guy’ people started to whisper aloud.  ‘This team’s window has closed permanently shut.’

And now?  Well, after the Mavs inevitably close out the pesky, but in over their head Thunder, I’d love for them to play that song, ‘How You Like Me Now.’  Because, no one saw this turnaround coming.  They were the quietest three seed in recent playoff history, and after knocking out the resilient Trail Blazers, few gave Dallas much of a shot to beat the defending back to back champs.

They pulverized ‘em, laying the groundwork on the ever closing road to redemption.  Dirk has been picking up more accolades than a pickup artist gets chicks, and the ‘too old, over-the-hill, lack that second scorer’ team is one win away from the NBA Finals.

They’ve been a team in disarray since blowing that 2-0 series lead versus Miami back in 2006 — when Wade decided to carry the Heat entirely on his back, including an unforgettable game 3 comeback.  The Mavs kept winning in the regular season, but kept fading when the post-season lights became their brightest.  The culmination coming when they sported the league’s best record in 2007, and were promptly blitzed by the hot shot Warriors, who haven’t been relevent since.  Avery Johnson was fired in 2008, and the Mavs appeared ready to start over.

They didn’t.

Instead they began slowly adding pieces, starting with Jason Kidd, the centerpiece of a blockbuster deal that seemingly said to the world, ‘we know our window is closing, here goes nothing.’

Today Kidd won the game with a clutch three.  He has like 16 steals in four games versus OKC.  He’s been the rock Dallas envisioned when they acquired him from New Jersey for Devin Harris, Gana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Moe Ager, Keith Van Horn, a pair of draft picks and cash.  Looking back that trade was a steal for Dallas, who also received a few other guys in the swap.

Then Dallas acquired Shawn Marion in the 2009 offseason as part of a three team swap.  Tonight Marion made a huge block on Kevin Durant at the end of regulation, a ball that ended up in the hands of… you guessed it Jason Kidd.

Those were two moves of many that Dallas has made (the Tyson Chandler trade also comes to mind), with the two consistent pieces from that 2006 team being Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki.  Well Miami has two guys left from their title team: Wade and Udonis Haslem.

These two teams are so different from the ones that clashed in an epic six game series in 06.  Miami is stocked with top-tier superstar talent.  Dallas is now the team that Miami once was: led by a superstar and veteran guys.  A relatively deep team that had a bunch of guys who were craving that elusive championship.

Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, and Antoine Walker were just a few well known veteran guys who were running out of time in their career before running into Dallas.  They got their rings.  Soonafter they were gone from the league.  Old age catching up to them.

Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Peja Stojakovich are all veterans now, and they’re all staring down the ends of their careers.  This could be their last shot.  O the parallels!

That loss to Miami sent Dallas on a seemingly never-ending soul search, and it hasn’t been a smooth road back to the top — where the air is crisp, and the haters are silent.  But that’s exactly where Dallas finds itself, behind the amazing Dirk, who scored 40+ points for the second out of four WCF games.

This isn’t just a better team than the Thunder, it’s a hungrier one.  It’s  team that’s been clawing back towards this stage for 5 years, and now, on the verge of that coveted second chance may run into the team that sent them spiraling in the first place.

Nothing’s set in stone yet, but Miami-Dallas is getting closer to fruition.  The way these playoffs have played out, it shouldn’t end any other way.

Photo: Getty

So, did anybody hear that the Lakers are out? I am of course being facetious, because the words “Lakers” and “swept” usually mean “The Lakers swept,” not “The Lakers got SWEPT.” But that’s exactly what happened as the L.A. went down 0-4 to Dallas in Phil Jackson’s last year coaching in the NBA. Pepper on some ejections on top and you’re looking at a nice, hearty dish of failure.

Now, I’ll be clear. I’m not trying to be a hater. The Lakers are still a big, solid team, and you can bet even without Phil Jackson that they will be back at it again next season. It’s just kind of amazing, because now, the Dallas Mavericks actually have a shot to win the NBA championship. And boy do I want to see Kidd win one. He deserves it. He is smart, experienced and determined, but he’s also old and desperate.

At 38, he is one of the oldest players right now in the NBA, and I’m sure he smells retirement right around the corner.

So here’s what I want to happen.

I want Memphis to beat the Oklahoma City and go on to the Western Conference finals. They are truly the Cinderella story of the NBA playoffs. Nobody thought they were going to beat the Spurs until they did. However, if they do in fact face Dallas in the championship, I think they will see their fairy tale story come to an end.

The Thunder would absolutely give Dallas more of a challenge, so go Grizzlies.

It’s not looking pretty in the East. Miami looks like they can win the whole conference and move on to the finals for the first time since 2006. I can only hope that the winner of the Bulls/Hawks series can pull off an upset.

So what’s the prediction: Miami will meet Dallas in the NBA Finals with the Mavericks winning it all.  Along with Dirk and a well rounded supporting cast, it will be Jason Kidd who is going to be kicking on the after burners to make it happen.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Maybe the Chicago Bulls didn’t need LeBron James afterall.

Last night red-hot Chicago did something they haven’t done since their Michael Jordan glory years — that being, lock up the East’s number one seed, just months after missing out on both LeBron and D-Wade.

Though many pundits expected them to land one of the two big fish from that epic free agent class of 2010, the Bulls ended up with neither, and were forced to build a team the normal way — through savvy signings and progression from their young guys. 

Well, Derrick Rose has developed into a stud, and Utah Midwest (the Bulls brought in 3 Jazz players over the summer — Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, and Ronnie Brewer) has become a potent trifecta for a Chicago team that has pulled off an incredible feat — from 8th to 1st in one season.

Boozer paced the Bulls with 24, Brewer chipped in 12, and Korver added 10 more as the Bulls defeated the horrendous Cavaliers (irony much), giving them their 59th win of the season.  Of course it was the Cavs who knocked out the Bulls in last season’s playoffs, behind who else, LeBron James.

But while the Heat have shown great inconsistency against the league’s best, and feature a clear shortage of quality big men, the Bulls have found the perfect balance: great defense, fantastic point guard, strong inside post game, and terrific outside shooting.  That’s the recipe for success in the NBA, and o yeah, Rose.

The third year star who fatefully fell into Chicago’s lap, because the Heat failed to get the first pick a few years ago (instead ending up with Michael Beasley) is having a breakout MVP caliber year for the Bulls averaging 24.9 ppg, 4.1 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and most importantly has become the unquestioned leader on a team where everyone knows their role.

Throw in a fantastic first year head coach in Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls have the pieces — young or not — to make a run deep into the playoffs and maybe well into June.  This all coming after a slew of injuries that the Bulls valiantly withstood early on in the year.

So for all you Super-team lovers and mega-team dreamers, maybe the Bulls have a lesson to offer up: if you build a team the right way and add the type of pieces, like a Boozer, like a Korver, like a Brewer that are going to put you over the top, you can be a much better team than someone who has 3 superstars and precious little else.

Nope, the Bulls didn’t get LeBron.

Maybe they never needed him in the first place.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Mike Miller looked up to the scoreboard high above his head and smiled.  It was a sarcastic smile of course, one drenched in disdain and frustration, and whatever pent up annoyances building behind a thoroughly aggravated and flat out baffled Heat team. He was just the poster-child for this latest failure, a gut-wrenching 87-86 loss to a really good Bulls team.  The win secured a season sweep of the Heat for Chicago (the team LeBron spurned for South Beach) and further deflated a Miami team backpedaling itself into a corner of shame and ridicule.

Four losses in a row.  All to winning teams.  All in front of the media’s watchful and acute eye.

You see, Miller played a terrible game, capping off an 0-5 night (including 0-4 from 3 point land, his so called specialty) and causing the foul that officially buried Miami against another elite team, but he’s just one piece to a broken Heat puzzle.  After another brutal loss in another playoff-like game, Miami finds itself 3rd in the East, sliding in the standings, and breaking down little by little after each setback.

And they’ve been coming in droves.

What a week to forget.  Losses to the Knicks, Magic, Spurs, and Bulls were more than just L’s, they were statements.  An indictment on the work that Miami has to do, and whether they even have the mental fortitude to make it anywhere once the playoffs start.

With two of the league’s best closers, once again looking lost on another broken final play, the Heat fell again, leaving just more questions, and even fewer answers.  And for the team that claimed to embrace the villain role, the Heat don’t look all that comfortable anymore with being the Hated.

“This is painful for every single one of us to go through this, there are couple of guys crying in the locker room right now, it is not a matter of want,” Erik Spoelstra said, the so called coach of this collection.

Yeah, crying.  There’s no crying in baseball, but in basketball, well, maybe I’d be crying too if I was a team under so much spotlight it appears to be burning a hole through their foreheads.

You see, for a team that everyone says is lacking mental toughness, crying doesn’t solve anything.  In fact, it makes it look worse. The joke keeps getting worse.  The punchlines deeper.  Twitter explodes a little more after each shameful Heat loss.

“I told my team, I’m not going to continue to fail late in games,” James said. “I put a lot of blame on myself tonight. I told the guys that I just keep failing them late in games and I won’t continue to do that.”

This isn’t just James’ fault, but what in the world is he thinking?  Beyond the idiotic twitter posts he leaves, maybe he should spend his time figuring out a way to get his teammates involved at the end of these games.  These awkward drives for bad shots with the game on the line thing just ain’t working.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  Or a rock scientist for that matter.

LeBron’s botched shot bounced off, sending it into the hands of the other stud, D-Wade, who clanked his own desperation shot, and another game the Heat could have won, was lost, sending the El Heat scurrying into their locker-room.

For three guys who were so beloved on their respective teams, maybe there just isn’t room for 3 giant sized names on one roster.  Maybe it’s not so easy to go from rockstar to Joker.  LeBron, Wade, and Bosh were kings when they had their own team, and they were the focal point.  Now they’re together and they don’t seem to know what the heck they’re doing.  And that whole, everyone hates you thing, has got to be wearing on them.

For a team 23 games above .500, it’s odd to hear this kind of criticism in the regular season, but it’s also warranted.  And the Heat aren’t just any other team.  They’re new age, the test tube subject of whether SuperFriends can mesh into a Super Team.  So far, no dice.  Miami lives on the perimeter and has no punch inside.  A guy like Amare would have been a far better fit, because teams would have had to worry about him.  Bosh isn’t a bruiser, and neither is LeBron or Wade.

On paper the Heat are spectacular.  A collection of 3 stars in their prime.  They should own the world.  But their glaring weaknesses continue to get exposed against teams that are good.  No one sits there in awe anymore.  The Heat are nothing but a good team.  With an entire sports world watching.

Joe Posnanski, one of my favorite columnists, wrote that LeBron has made the Heat fun to hate. Is this really what James wanted when he gave up his castle in Cleveland for a sand castle in Miami?  Is this what Bosh wanted when he left Canada to become the most scrutinized 3rd wheel in recent sports history?  Is this what Wade wanted when he re-upped with the team that he once led to a championship?

You know what that team had?  Roles.  Wade was the game-changer, Williams was the point guard, Shaq was the big man in the middle, and Alonzo Mourning was his awesome backup.  Surrounded by shooters and savy veterans thirsty for a ring, Miami had a gameplan each and every night.  Players knew their roles.  Even an aging Shaq gave way to the dynamic Wade, who carried Miami on his shoulders to an epic NBA Finals win over the Mavs.

Wade had the ball in the closing moments.  And if he didn’t, it was because he kicked it out.  Or he set a screen.  Or drove to the basket before making some kind of play.

What is this Heat team at the end of games?  They look lost, confused, unsure how to deal with the moment that has haunted them from the second this season tipped: the final moments.  Wade and LeBron are both great closers, but they’ve been horrible closers together. I don’t need to repeat the numbers, they’re all there.

Miami’s unconvential team looks stupid right now.  They need a point guard that can set guys up.  LeBron is no Magic Johnson.  The Heat need a guy that can find the open man.  He’s out there.  They need guys who can actually shoot!

And they need to get their confidence back.  There’s still plenty of basketball to be played, and a lot of tough teams to come.  Great teams don’t quit when the going gets tough.  They fight and they claw.  If this is the best Miami’s got than they’re not the team I thought they were.  If crying is their solution then they were fools to tie themselves to this experiment.

But if they really want this, they can make it work.  They can come together, figure out real plays that move the ball around, and they can shoot away their end of game demons.  Wade, Bosh, and LeBron aren’t just stars, they’re good players.

But great players make each other better, and right now that’s still a work in progress for Miami.

A big work in progress.

Photo: Getty

SCOTT JACOBS

Miami and Boston have been neck and neck in the Eastern conference standings, and aside from those surprisingly good Chicago Bulls, have clearly pulled away as the class of the Eastern conference.  And that’s not much of a surprise, considering that Boston is coming off Finals appearances in 2 of the last 3 years, and Miami has a Tri-nasty.

So when we asked you back in October to this very day, who do you look to claim what was once called the lesser conference (not any more) we expected a close race.  We just didn’t think it’d be dead even.

Boston may have won the season series, but your love for Miami and Boston is equal.  37.3% to 37.3%.  Doesn’t get any closer than a tie, now does it?  The Magic collected 16.4% of your vote, with the field garnering just 9.0%.  No love for Chicago eh sports world?

Considering we’re now at the All-Star break this seemed like as good a time as any to retire this poll and move onto a new one.

Some quick fun facts before we wrap this puppy up:

> The Heat got votes from Germany, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and India

> Who likes the field?  At least one person from Lima, Peru does.

> As for the Celtics, well they got some votes from Bangladesh, Taiwan, and even Australia.

> The Magic apparently haven’t quite developed that global presence yet, so maybe Dwight Howard isn’t quite Superman after all.

Photo: AP

SCOTT JACOBS

From the people who brought you The Bachelorette, Dancing with the Stars, and American Idol comes a special so big, it literally may stop the world.  Look out Truman Show, The LeBron show is coming to a city near you.  Live on the Worldwide Leader of O No they Didn’t Programming.

But yes they did.  And yes they can.  And yes they will.  ESPN has won the rights to broadcast a 1 hour special of the most mind blowingly over-hyped free agency decision since Moses managed to part the Red Sea. Yes, on Thursday July 8th (cue dramatic music, dim the lights), ESPN will bring you a show unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.  One man.  Basketball player by day.  Superhero by night. He has replaced Chuck Norris and that guy from the Dos Equis commercial as the most interesting annoying man in the world. He put the city of Akron on the map and high school basketball on national TV.  He co-authored a poorly written book with Buzz Bissinger, and has yet to win an NBA championship.  In one day he has more Twitter followers than you will ever have in your life.  Introducing number 23, errr… excuse me, introducing number 6 LeBron “I want to be a billionaire so freaking bad” James!

It will be drama unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Will he choose Cleveland?  Chicago?  Miami?  New Jersey?  New York?  Guadalajara, Mexico?  The Clippers?  The answer will be revealed.

How will he do it?  Will he don a hat with that team’s colors, prompting an exclusive NBA Free agency hat collection to further broaden his image?  Or will he put on that team’s jersey?  Will their be a patch to commemorate this historic moment? Will the announcement also be on Youtube, and shortly re-aired on ESPN Classic?  You can only find out if you tune in.

While other players get a press conference, we’re giving LeBron the whole world.  Wars will stop.  Babies will stay tucked in the womb.  Drive by shootings will cease for one hour.  The cure for cancer will be found.  We’re talking bigger than Titantic and World War II combined.  Israel and Palestine will rest peacefully as the King makes up his mind.  People will get out of their cars in the middle of the street to wait for the siren on which town was picked. All babies that were supposed to be born within the 1 hour exclusive special will be named Le-whatever.  It will truly be a day unlike anything man kind has ever witnessed.

The planets will stop orbiting.  Global warming (if you believe in that kind of stuff) will stop happening.  Tim Burton will cast a movie without (gasp) Johnny Depp.

The President will stop whatever he is doing to gather everyone in the Oval Office to watch his announcement.

David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Jon Stewart will be subsituted with the press and given 30 minutes to ask any ridiculous questions they want.  It will be must see Le-TV.

ESPN, like Dade County will change their name, only their’s won’t be Wade County.  It will be LESPN.

All website chatter will freeze, wth the planet’s communication lines stopped until mighty Le-Savior makes his mind.

So tune in on Thursday when one rich, spoiled, obnoxiously over-publicized soon to be billionaire gets richer and destroys the hopes and dreams of 5 other cities in the process.

Who will he choose?  The phone lines are open now.

Photo: AP