Wade Makes It Happen for Heat

Dwyane Wade arrived at the arena Monday night with a freshly shaved head, a first for the dapper standout.

“It’s the playoffs,” Wade said of his new ‘do. “I don’t want to be worried about how I look.”

Whatever the reason, Wade looked wonderful again for the Miami Heat.

Playing despite a sore calf, Wade made a spinning jump shot with 1:04 left to halt a frantic Chicago rally, then blocked Ben Gordon’s layup 38 seconds later to help the Heat beat the Bulls, 115-108, to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.

Jason Williams and Shaquille O’Neal each scored 22 points for the Heat. Wade added 21 points, seven assists, five rebounds and four steals. Miami held a 20-point lead in the third quarter before it was trimmed to four with 1:15 left in the game, but Wade’s heroics down the stretch ensured the Heat wouldn’t collapse.

“We played at a real high level again,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “Tremendous amount of energy, spirit and ball movement, but we didn’t finish. That disturbs me, and it should disturb our players after working so hard and playing so well.”

Antoine Walker -- who played the first 40:20 without a rest, filling in for the suspended Udonis Haslem -- added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, which also got 12 points from James Posey and 11 from Gary Payton.

Andres Nocioni led all scorers with 30 points -- on 13-for-15 shooting -- for Chicago. Kirk Hinrich had 17 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter for the Bulls.

“We made it interesting again at the end,” Bull Coach Scott Skiles said, “but pretty much got dominated again from beginning to end.”