Go ahead and choose which one of these elements from Wednesday's game was most surprising, because this game was full of shockers.
--Udonis Haslem's performance: It wasn't so much that UD was able to score 13 points with five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot. It was the way he did it, and the timeliness of it. And that he managed to play 23 minutes in two long bursts. 
He single-handedly revived the Heat in the first half, and he helped the Heat maintain a lead while the Chicago crowd was about to explode.
Haslem had a facial dunk over Keith Bogans and another transition dunk on Derrick Rose. But it might have been his two jumpers -- two crucial jumpers -- that were most difficult. He hadn't hit one of those since before the foot injury, and to hit a pair in those spots in the second half was downright gutsy.
--The rest of the rotation: Erik Spoelstra spent the first half trying out players like women try on new shoes. But by the second half, he realized what was working. UD, of course. But also Mike Miller, who played 18 minutes, essentially in place of Mario Chalmers. Miller and Haslem, who weren't fully in the rotation until Wednesday, were the only Heat bench players to play more than five minutes. Meanwhile, Mike Bibby played 35 minutes. That's Mike Bibby, 35 minutes!
--The rebounding numbers: The Heat hadn't outrebounded the Bulls in four tries, and in the last game were embarrassed on the boards. This game, with Joel Anthony only playing 22 minutes and Jamaal Magloire playing five minutes, the Heat outrebounded the Bulls 45-41.
LeBron James had 10, Dwyane Wade nine, Chris Bosh eight and Miller had seven in his 18 minutes. The Bulls still managed 17 offensive rebounds, but that's because they missed 54 shots.
--The Heat defense: The Bulls shot 34 percent from the field and scored all of four points in the final 8:44 of the game. And here's how those four points were scored: Taj Gibson had his shot blocked going up for a dunk, and was hanging on the rim as it bounced off the backboard and back through the rim. So, technically, it shouldn't have counted.
The next two points were also Gibson, and again he had his shot blocked, but this time Anthony accidentally tapped it into the Bulls basket with the side of his hand. So if not for a missed call and an own-goal, the Bulls don't score at all in the final 8:44. What was Charles Barkley saying about the Bulls having the best defense he's ever seen?
This Heat defense is pretty good itself.

You gotta love the passionate discussions going on about the Heat-Bulls series. Down here, it feels like no on is giving the Bulls a chance because Derrick Rose is too much of a one-man show and the Bulls have struggled in games against the Pacers and Hawks. Elsewhere, there are those who believe the Bulls' defense and depth will be too much for the Bulls, and that the regular season record is significant and that Rose can dissect this defense even more thoroughly than his first two playoff opponents because of the holes at point guard and center.

Well, here's the thing about those arguments. No matter how passionately you feel about your position in this debate, the fact is, these are the Eastern Conference Finals. That means that there should be a debate. A very good debate, because these are the two best teams in the Eastern Conference. It shouldn't be easy to pick this series. If it is easy, then that would mean one of these two teams is far and away the best in the league. And that's just not true for either team.

So, let's look into some of the reasons people are picking Chicago. First, those siding with the Bulls are suddenly discrediting the Heat's five-games series win over the Celtics. They're looking at the 4-1 result and calling the Celtics old and injured and unworthy of challenging the Heat.

Losing Rajon Rondo was problematic for the Celtics, yes. He's one of their best defenders on and off the ball, and he's the team's engine on fastbreaks. But he was there and completely healthy for two of the Heat's four wins. And for the final four games of the series, Delonte West played terrific defense, particularly on Dwyane Wade, and actually coupled that with shot-making ability. So it's not as if the Celtics were playing with Carlos Arroyo out there. Were these the Celtics of 2007-08? No. But this was still an excellent defensive team with a balanced offense. It was a relatively short, five-game series, but every game was an intense battle, and the Celtics could've easily won two of those four games they lost.

And by the way, the Bulls enthusiasts who are questioning the quality of team the Heat has beaten in these playoffs should look at Chicago's opponents. What, the Hawks beat the Magic and all of a sudden they're better than the Celtics? No way. And it still took the Bulls six games to get past them.

Regardless of that, though, the truth is every series takes on a personality of its own. So the previous series, how it was won or who the opponent was doesn't matter one lick once the next series starts. So those who are predicting Heat-Bulls based on the results of the previous series have little ground to stand on.

When you get to the actual matchups in this series, there are some interesting takes there also. All of a sudden, the duo of Keith Bogans and Luol Deng is supposed to be a good defensive pairing against Wade and LeBron James, respectively.

Let's go back in time, shall we? Wade used to toy with Bogans when he was with the Bobcats and Magic. His face would light up when he saw Bogans in front of him. And Deng? He's a fine defender. He's not Tony Allen. He's not even Shane Battier. He's just fine.

What makes that Bulls defense very good isn't the individual defenders, necessarily. It's the system. If any one player makes that defense especially strong, it's probably Joakim Noah, the same way Kevin Garnett is to Boston, because Noah is long and disruptive but can also move to spots quickly and is instinctive. And he can finish the play with a rebound. The Heat has just seen this Tom Thibodeau defense against Boston, because Thibodeau built that Boston defense as an assistant there. The Bulls have some different strengths based on personnel, of course, but the Heat's big trio should know where there shots are coming from based on the previous series.

The Bulls supporters will also harp on depth as an advantage. Well, the Bulls absolutely have the depth advantage. But here's the thing. They NEED depth to succeed. The Heat has proven time and again that if the large three are on their game, the rest of the rotation doesn't need to score at all. It's not often that the team requires even double-figures from anyone else. Only when one or more of the big three are off does the team require help from a James Jones or a Mario Chalmers in the scoring column. And that's when the Heat's success comes into question. Because no one's ever sure when one of those players will provide the necessary support.

And then there's the power forward angle. Of course, those leaning toward Chicago will remember Chris Bosh's 1-for-18 and Carlos Boozer's strong finale against the Hawks and say that it's at the very least a push in that department. But the truth is this: Boozer has had three good games in 11 tries for the Bulls. And the coach hasn't even trusted him late in games throughout the postseason thus far. Bosh, meanwhile, is averaging significantly better numbers than Boozer in every category except rebounds, where Bosh is only 0.1 rebounds better than Boozer (but still better).

Those supporting the Heat have holes in their theories, too. Rose might have had a few high-volume shooting games in these playoffs, but it's not as if the Heat will be able to force him into those types of games every time out. Rose did average 29 points on an OK 45 percent shooting in the three matchups this season. Granted, the Heat's rotation is quite different than it was in those meetings, but not so much better that the defense can say, with certainty, that it can limit Rose.

And those who believe Wade's gonna average 33.5 points in Chicago, the way he did in the regular season, forget that he has struggled more in Chicago than he has succeeded. There's certainly no guarantee he won't revisit those poor performances.

The truth is, there are plenty of arguments to be made for either side.

The ones that include idiotic reasons like "The Heat players celebrated too much after the Celtics so that means they'll take the Bulls lightly," or "the Bulls aren't supposed to reach the Finals because they haven't slain a longtime nemesis," are ridiculous and should, frankly, be ignored.

But ones that contain actual basketball reasoning, those can lean in either direction. As they should, because this is the NBA's final four. Anything less than a heated competition would be a disappointment.

That said, the call here is the popular, safe and boring pick: Heat in six.

Actually, that was the hardest thing to watch for an extended period.

Other than Dwyane Wade, there wasn't a whole lot working well for the Heat through the first 44 minutes or so. So James Jones made a three-pointer and turned the whole feel of the game. 

After that, though, it was an amazing display of talent and desire. Talent on the offensive end, as LeBron James made a pair of threes he'll never forget. Threes more memorable than even that buzzer-beater against Orlando a couple years ago, because that was just a desperate heave, and his Cavs lost that series anyway.

The desire came on the defensive end, as the Heat rattled the Celtics into misses and turnovers. Two plays that stand out were Jones' hard close on a wide-open Ray Allen. Ray still got off a good look, but that close may have disrupted his rhythm just enough. The second was the help Wade provided on the driving attempt from Jeff Green. It was perfectly timed and perfectly executed help from Wade.

And LeBron's steal and dunk to seal the win was both athleticism and desire rolled into one game-sealing highlight.

For a while there -- before Jones' three and the that sick 16-0 run to close the series -- it looked like Erik Spoelstra was making all the wrong calls. The Celtics had just one big guy in there to start the fourth, Nenad Krstic, and yet the Heat was still playing with both Chris Bosh and Juwan Howard. And when that Celtics lead ballooned to seven, he finally took out Howard, but brought in Joel Anthony. The game appeared to be begging for Jones. When he did finally bring in Jones, it was for Mario Chalmers instead of Anthony, but by then Kevin Garnett was back in the game, and Anthony was the best defender against him, so that was the right choice.

And because of that 16-0 run to end it, the supporting cast's performance looked a lot better. Howard led the non-Big-Three with five points. Anthony played great late defense on Garnett. And Jones had the biggest shot of the game, kicking off that final run.

The Celtics are done, and even though it wasn't the healthiest, most complete version of the Celtics, it feels like a huge accomplishment for this team.

It should also provide quite a confidence boost throughout the rest of the playoffs. Because the Celtics were everyone's bullies. And now it's the Heat that every team left in is probably fearing.

As if the Heat hasn't already been labeled an emotionally fragile team, Chris Bosh took that whole concept a step further by admitting that the emotions of Saturday's game got the best of him and affected his performance.

Now, as much as that might really just be Bosh attempting to explain a bad performance -- a poor attempt at that -- the team's mentality certainly has to change for Game 4 if it's going to come back to Miami up 3-1. 

The Heat had Boston on the ropes late in the second quarter and then reverted to coast mode. It didn't help that the starting lineup was the same at the beginning of the third (more on that in a moment), but still, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James and Bosh needed to seize that moment and put away the Celtics rather than allow them life.

And that was part of the reason Pat Riley was at shootaround this morning speaking individually with both Wade and LeBron (possibly with Bosh as well, but we weren't there in time to see that). Riley was discussing his concern about the team's disposition in Game 3 and how he wanted that to change (by the way, how great is it to be Erik Spoelstra when you can just sit at the scorer's table chatting while one of the legends of the coaching profession is across the court motivating your players for you? That's one of the perks of coaching with this franchise).

Part of what could help that change would be a change in the starting lineup. Wade talked about Spoelstra telling the team that it's essentially a .500 team when it loses first quarters (not sure about the correctness of that stat). And Spoelstra said he's not making any comments about the starters until he speaks pregame. Now, that would appear to indicate that there will be a change, because if there was no change being made, there would be no comments necessary.

So if there's a new starter or two, that could very well help the Heat get off to a better start, which in turn will take some of the "emotion" out of the game that negatively affected Bosh.

If Mario Chalmers, who appeared to be in a conspicuously great mood at shootaround, is the starter, and Rajon Rondo does play, he'll need to make that one-armed man actually work. Not only force him to use his left hand, but attack his left side on offense. Heck, all screens set on Rondo should be on his left side, because that has to be a matchup the team exploits now. That entire fourth quarter, the Heat failed to expose a guy playing with one arm, and chances are that won't happen again.

Any or all of those things happen tonight, and people will no longer be talking about the Heat lacking a "killer instinct."

If there's an obvious area of improvement available for the Heat against the Celtics, it's the play of Dwyane Wade. His numbers, as we'll all know quite well by Sunday, against Boston this season include 12.8 points and 28.1 percent shooting in four games. Even in his "best" game against the C's, he was only 4 of 12 from the field and had eight assists.

Wade explains his lack of production by saying he has different responsibilities than he did against the Celtics last year, when he was asked to score as often as possible. He says he has to stick with Ray Allen more, which takes away from his offense. And that he has to be a facilitator rather than an attacker so he doesn't lose Ray in transition. And that he has to rebound more often.

Here's the problem with that explanation. Ray had 20 in the Heat's first meeting with Miami. Then he dropped 35 on Miami in the second meeting. If Wade was supposed to keep up with Ray, he certainly wasn't doing a great job with that.

Meanwhile, Dwyane averaged just 3.8 rebounds against Boston, which is less than his season average.

So as much as he wants to explain away his struggles against this team, it doesn't fully explain why he can't shoot a lick against Boston all of a sudden.

Chances are Dwyane's going to return to more of his usual self in this series. He just needs to make sure that when he attacks the basket something good comes out of it -- either a high-perentage shot or a trip to the free throw line. That way Ray can't leak out in transition and burn the Heat. That's much easier said than done.

The other option for Dwyane is to work his mid-range game. That way even if he misses, it gives him time to recover defensively. And if you remember back to last year's playoffs against Boston, Dwyane's outside game was working quite well. He even nailed threes at a good rate (who can forget the moment he was talking to his hot hand?).

If the Heat's going to succeed in this series, the team's going to need a productive Wade. So he's going to have to find that balance: play aggressive offense while still keeping a mindful eye on Allen.

Wade can pretty much do anything he sets his mind to on a basketball court. So I fully expect him to find a way to put up his average offensive numbers while still doing a decent job on Ray Allen.

There's more than just Dwyane, of course. If we assume LeBron James can put up similar numbers to his regular season averages against Boston (28.8, 6.5, 6.5) and that Wade can recover, then the Heat might not need huge performances from Chris Bosh. But as the Celtics see it, Bosh is the difference between the Heat winning easily and forcing a close game. Kevin Garnett said when Bosh has a big game, the Heat blow out teams.

Well, Bosh hasn't had a huge game against the Celtics yet. His best was a 24 and 10 game on Feb. 10, which was a three-point Heat loss. But Bosh has been efficient shooting the ball against Boston. Despite his 3 of 11 showing on opening night, Bosh has shot 55 percent against KG and the Celtics. The Heat might want to see if Bosh can keep that up and feed him early and often against Garnett and Glen Davis.

Garnett and Davis are probably the Celtics' best help defenders, along with Rajon Rondo. So if you face up Bosh against one of them, it keeps them from being that effective help defender. If Bosh can put up 24 and 10 in any game in this series, chances are the Heat's winning that game, because this team is playing differently than it was on Feb. 10.

Erik Spoelstra says he's sticking with the starting lineup that includes Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mike Bibby. While those two were problematic against the Sixers, it might not be that much of an issue in this series. For starters, the threat of Bibby's three-pointer is what's important. Let's assume his shooting won't stay as bad as it was against Philly. If he hits his first shot or two, it'll force Rondo to stay home rather than play center field and help his teammates defensively. That's ALL Rondo did when Carlos Arroyo was in there for Miami early in the season. And chances are he won't truly respect Mario Chalmers unless he's hot from outside. Bibby might be Miami's best chance to force Rondo to stay home.

Of course, that means Bibby's going to have to defend Rondo on the other end. But given that the Heat usually play off Rondo, it means Bibby's not going to have to actually "stick" to Rondo.

As for Big Z, as long as Jermaine O'Neal is out on the floor, Z is perfectly capable of making an impact. Jermaine isn't quick or explosive anymore, so that's not a mismatch in Boston's favor. And Z can work the offensive boards as well.

Finally, there's the Shaquille O'Neal factor. No one knows what kind of condition he'll be in if he does play. But if I'm Miami, I'd want Shaq to try to play. He'll be out of rhythm offensively, and he'll be a liability defensively.

What he'll do best is be a screener for Allen and Pierce, and he's obviously tough to get around. And Shaq will also be the beneficiary of Rondo's penetration, because he'll get some easy baskets. But there's still a good chance Shaq will be entirely out of rhythm, and there's always the chance he'll hurt himself again. Doubtful he'll be a big factor if he does even play.

Oh, and here's guessing you won't see Mike Miller at all unless the new rotation fails miserably. As for Udonis Haslem, if he does come back in this series, it'll probably be late in the series. Otherwise, the Heat might need to get past Boston for Haslem to get back into the fold.

It's human nature to base your feelings about a team on the last thing you've seen from that team. But there are a couple of reasons not to assume you'll see Wednesday night's version of the Heat against the Celtics.

First, every series takes on an identity of its own. You can't assume the Heat will play the same way against the Celtics as it did against Philly. Nor can you assume that the Celtics, who played against the defenseless Knicks, are as good as they looked in that series.

There's a real good chance the Heat was playing the toughest opponent of the top seeds in the East. The Knicks were clearly the worst. The Pacers looked good by sticking with the Bulls, but the Sixers were the most disciplined team, had a terrific defensive game plan and had a few legitimate scoring threats.

Second, the Heat we saw in that Game 5 against the Sixers just doesn't show up very often. The 30 three-point attempts wasn't so much the Heat just giving in to the Sixers defensive game plan. It just happened that Mario Chalmers was confident in his shot, and it was one of those games where both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade decided to jack up a few to see if they were feeling it. Toss in James Jones' threes and the fact that Eddie House played a handful of minutes, next thing you know you're up to 30 three-pointers (not to mention that one Chris Bosh threw up late in the shot clock).

Against the Celtics for the season, the Heat averaged 17.5 threes a game. The problem was the Heat only hit 28.6 percent of those shots against Boston. To counter that, the Heat did get to the free throw line almost 29 free throws a game against the C's in the regular season, which would indicate that Miami can get to the rim against this defense.

Here's the problem when it comes to Boston. The Celtics execute so well offensively that they attempt less threes but at a much better rate. The Celtics shot 15 threes a game in four games against Miami, hitting a ridiculous 45 percent against the Heat. That more than made up for the fact the C's got to the line six less times a game than Miami.

Two players the Heat hasn't really unleashed on the Celtics are Joel Anthony and Chalmers. Anthony averaged about 20 minutes against Boston, which is about 10 less than he's playing these days. And Anthony is just a different player now than he was earlier in the season. I mean, he not only looked to shoot the game's most important shot, but then he made the two free throws after he was fouled Wednesday. 

And Chalmers only had one game against Boston where he played more than 13 minutes. And that was just 20 minutes on April 10. Chalmers can be, at the very least, disruptive against Rajon Rondo and the Celtics offense. He probably should stay away from guarding Ray Allen because Chalmers has a tendency of either getting caught up in screens or just trying to cheat around them and getting burned. But he can play center field well (play off Rondo while bothering the rest of the Celtics players), which is what the Heat will ask of anyone that's guarding Rondo.

If you include significantly better shooting performances from Wade in this series than he had against Boston in the regular season -- and a possible appearance from Udonis Haslem, and you're looking at a matchup that should be nothing like the regular season games between these two teams.

Still say the Heat win it in seven games.

Erik Spoelstra will say no, and of course one road playoff game isn't enough to judge, but the Heat was essentially limited to six players Sunday, with James Jones, Mario Chalmers and Joel Anthony joining the Big Three in significant minutes.   

Mike Bibby went 0 of 6 from the floor and struggled defensively, and Zyrdunas Ilgauskas played token starter's minutes and didn't produce. With Mike Miller out of the rotation, for the time being at least, it limited the team's options and forced all member of the Big Three to play more than 40 minutes.

The idea, of course, was that it was OK to wear out those guys as long as it meant a win and a week to recover. Instead, it resulted in a loss and another game Wednesday while the older Celtics get their much needed rest after sweeping the Knicks.

The reason for the loss also had to do with trust, as Chris Bosh will explain.

“Sometimes you get a little tight,” Bosh said in regard to the Heat's lack of offensive execution. “It is tougher to execute down the stretch. When the attention is focused on the last minute of the game, it’s tough to execute your offense. It’s easy to trust when you’re up 2-0, 3-0.

“We’re gonna have to trust each other.”

Chances are that's just a minor slip-up. Chances are that Bibby will shoot his usual percentage and Big Z will hit the offensive boards again and Dwyane Wade and LeBron James won't resort to hero basketball again when games get tight.

But this game was just a reminder that it still can happen to this group, even when it looks like everything was going in its favor.

.... Oh, and feel free to go off about LeBron taking and missing the Heat's final shot. That topic had been dormant for some time now anyway.

Quick correction from the previous entry... When Doug Collins was complaining about one foul being called in 120 minutes, it was in reference to Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, who combined to play about 120 minutes Thursday and were called for one foul combined.

On to Friday, there really wasn't much to it, other than Erik Spoelstra holding a light practice so his team could "smell the gym."

Spoelstra said he expects Mike Miller's role to be the same as it was Thursday, which means he won't play for the second straight game. He's totalled six minutes in the series, though Spoelstra insists the team will still need Miller as the playoffs go on. We'll see about that.

On a more positive note, Spoelstra was very complimentary of his centers, who were a huge part of Thursday's win. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had eight rebounds, all offensive, while Joel Anthony got plenty of credit for shutting down Thaddeus Young as well as for spearheading the Heat's defensive effort.

"I enjoy looking at his boxscore after every single game and seeing how unremarkable it looks," Spo said of Joel. "His energy is contagious. Hustle is a talent. It’s a skill."

As for the point guard play, which was less than stellar against the Sixers, to the point where the Heat finished the game without a point guard on the floor, Spoelstra said it shouldn't be a signal of things to come.

"I’m not too worried about it," he said. "That doesn’t affect my trust level about either one of them."

Mario Chalmers spent most of Thursday's game listening to Wade and LeBron yell at him for missed defensive assignments or poor offensive decisions. And he sat and talked with Pat Riley for a few minutes after practice was over Friday. He followed up his strong Game 1 with a pair of semi-stinkers in Games 2 and 3. Here's guessing he's due to finish out the series strong. At the very least, he'll want Dwyane and LeBron to stop yelling at him.

Not exactly sure where to start on this one, but why not Chris Bosh, because that's where most people will go with their complaints.

He has to be better than that in a game without Dwyane Wade. It's as if someone needs to replay that  speech he gave a few weeks back just to remind him what he was upset about in the first place. Shooting 6 of 15 isn't good enough, getting to the foul line just eight times -- especially when Wade is out and LeBron James isn't getting to the foul line double-figure times either -- isn't good enough. And as much as it can be dismissed as a somewhat unimportant game, it was pretty important. Now the Heat needs to rely on the Celtics losing a game and still winning the rest of its game, including one against the Celtics.

But it wasn't all on Bosh. Mike Bibby had an unusual game, which must've been a result of Wade being out and him needing to do more ball-handling/creating. Those six turnovers were way more than he should ever have. Heck, it's about half as many as the total he had since getting here.

Then there was 1 of 9 from Mario Chalmers, and not enough from James Jones considering he played 33 minutes, which usually translates into pretty good numbers for him. LeBron needed to be more aggressive getting to the rim, especially after he spent the opening portion of the game softening up the defense by being a distributor. And as much as Mike Miller's rebounding is a good thing to have from the small forward position, should he really be leading this team in rebounding? That's got to come from Bosh or someone else up front.

On top of that, there's word less than 12 hours after the loss that LeBron's mother was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in Miami Beach. That just can't be good for his state of mind heading into the postseason. And it's another PR mess he and the team has to face at a bad time.

Overall, a pretty awful 24 hours for the Heat

Seemed like everybody was coming back to action on Sunday. Mike Miller was back in action, which was promising because there seemed to be some concern surrounding his knee injury. Mario Chalmers came back a little earlier than expected from his sprained knee. And even in Boston, Shaquille O'Neal came back, at least temporarily, for the Celtics.

Against the Nets, Chalmers played significant minutes, and Eddie House went back to playing none. Guessing that's going to be Erik Spoelstra's full-time plan for Mario, leaving Mike Bibby as the starter, which makes sense given that he's shooting almost 50 percent from three and committing less than a turnover a game since coming to Miami.

As for Shaq, he went out after a few minutes against the Pistons in Boston, and it didn't look good. He was running, stumbled, then looked back to see if he tripped over something. There was nothing there. He then limped off the court, into the tunnel, where he collapsed onto the team trainer. It looked like an Achilles injury, but the Celtics broadcast called it a strained calf. It looked way more serious than that. Even if it is a "strain," the chances of him coming back in good shape for the playoffs appear slim. And that would leave Jermaine O'Neal as the only healthy center they have (btw, the Heat hasn't gotten the best of the Tory Murphy-Mike Bibby decisions so far). Jermaine looks out of shape, and that team won't be the same without something better in the middle. It'll be a Glen Davis-Kevin Garnett-heavy frontcourt should those circumstances stay the same. More offense, but less defense.

As for the Heat, it's encouraging to see the team really attacking the basket, especially LeBron James, who isn't settling for jumpers much of late. He certainly wasn't against the Nets. And it appears James Jones has found his stroke again, which can make for a deadly combo when he and Bibby are on the floor together.