You can have questions about O'Neal's health, about the Heat's finish, about the supporting cast (worth questioning), free-throw percentage (67.1 percent) and occasional defensive lapses (sometimes more than occasional).

That's how they're going to go down, if in fact the East's top seed does.

But short of a stone and a slingshot on a Biblical plain, they won't be going down before meeting Detroit or Indiana in the conference finals.

Everything has simply broken their way, right down to the way not only their playoff bracket lines up but their top opponents as well.

Indiana is the one team that has caused the Heat fits all year. Detroit is the defending champ. And that they should have to play each other in what will be a charged series before the Eastern finals is one of those intangibles pointing the Heat's way.

O'Neal's thigh will be fine by then, of course. If this week doesn't allow it to heal, the first series should. The real point to ponder for the Heat is that O'Neal has missed five of the final eight games. First it was a virus, then the thigh bruise.

"Just as he was getting back from the virus, he goes down again,'' Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said.

That all added to the April swoon. Not that it should matter one bit.

Remember, this is a Heat team that had essentially gained the No. 1 seed by mid-March. There was nothing to play for, no one to compete against, nothing much to do but wait for the playoffs to start.

So they lost in the end at Philadelphia and Boston? So what?

If anything, that was a healthy hiccup in that it said the sleep-walking should be over.

"It's time for everyone to pick it up, me included,'' O'Neal said.

After a month of waiting, after a season of wondering and now after an April that has brought a series of questions, all that's left for the Heat is getting their first playoff opponent. New Jersey would be a nice first-round story, going through all they did, from losing Mourning to gaining Vince Carter. Cleveland would celebrate LeBron James' first playoff ride.

But let's not have any confusion about contusions.

Either would be stuck to Shaq's shoe by series' end.

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