The Miami Heat have claimed the league's best record-as well as the winningest season in franchise history-and will look to avenge their historic winning streak loss Sunday in a rematch against their rivaled Chicago Bulls at 1 p.m. ET.
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Via ESPN:
While Miami (63-16) has wrapped up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, Chicago can take control of the Eastern Conference's No. 5 seed with a third victory in four meetings with the Heat. If the Bulls (43-36) finish in that spot -- they're a half-game behind Atlanta and won the season series tiebreaker -- they could face Miami in the second round of the playoffs.
Besides wanting to avoid losing this regular-season series for the second time in James' three-year tenure, Miami would like to avenge a 101-97 defeat at Chicago on March 27. Not only did that stop the Heat six victories shy of the longest win streak in NBA history, but James felt the Bulls unnecessarily roughed him up.
Kirk Hinrich seemed to pull James to the floor in the first quarter, and Taj Gibson appeared to make contact around the three-time MVP's neck in the fourth. Gibson was called for a flagrant foul before referees decided against it following a video review, and James would receive a flagrant-1 moments later for barreling through Carlos Boozer.
"First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground," James said. "And the last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground.
"Those are not basketball plays. And it's been happening all year."
James has averaged 29.3 points on 65.2 percent shooting in the season series, but Dwyane Wade has been held to 19.0 per game and Chris Bosh 15.7 with 4.3 rebounds.
Friday marked the return of Wade and Bosh as Miami beat Boston 109-101 for its 35th home win, matching the team record set in 2004-05.
"I've still got some work to do," said Wade, who had 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting after missing six games with an ankle injury.
