O’Neal returns but can’t stop Heat’s slide

MIAMI -- Even the return of Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t help the hapless Heat.

Ben Gordon scored 24 points, Joe Smith added 23 and the Chicago Bulls handed Miami its 11th straight loss, beating the Heat, 126-96, on Wednesday night.

O’Neal had 24 points and 10 rebounds in playing for the first time since Dec. 26, when he aggravated a previous hip injury -- missing eight games. O’Neal fouled out for the sixth time.

“It’s the same old thing, we just need to get it together,” O’Neal said. “Offense is not a problem. We need to stop somebody.”

After making only two of his first nine shots, the Heat’s Dwyane Wade finished with 24 points.

“That was as complete a loss as you can have,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “The team didn’t quit, it’s just bad . . . When you give up 126 points defensively at home and you’ve already lost 10 in a row, it’s bad. I have now, tonight, at this moment, no answers for it.”

Around the league

New York Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury was scheduled for an MRI exam today that he is convinced will show that he needs surgery for a bone spur in his left ankle. . . . Chicago Bulls rookie Joakim Noah, suspended recently for two games over a confrontation with assistant coach Ron Adams, had a testy exchange with teammate Ben Wallace during Tuesday’s loss at Orlando, but Coach Jim Boylan downplayed it as just “words between teammates.”