Be afraid, be very afraid -- Heat downright scary

When the Miami Heat play like this -- with LeBron James running the point and shutting down the MVP, Derrick Rose, and with Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem playing just as big a role as Dwyane Wade -- this is a frightening team. Very few things can shake up Rose, but he looked humbled Tuesday night.

You would, too. Anybody would.

"It's extremely hard when a 6-8 guy can easily guard you," Rose said after the Heat took a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals with a 101-93 victory over the Bulls. "Really, it was my fault tonight."

"That lineup that we talked about last summer -- myself, D-Wade, Chris [Bosh], Udonis and Mike Miller -- is something that we always envisioned," James said. "And it's coming together at the right time."

Ten months. It took that long for the Heat's pieces to fall into place the way Pat Riley intended. Obviously, the Big Three were not just going to roll the ball out there and win a championship, the way Riley rolled his championship rings across the table when he recruited LeBron at the IMG building in Cleveland so many months ago. But lo and behold, there they were -- playing the fourth quarter and overtime with the lineup that is every opponent's worst nightmare, putting the most freakish and versatile defender in the league on D-Rose and saying, "Go stop him."

"I didn't even ask," coach Erik Spoelstra said.

He didn't have to. Behold James' answer to my question the day after Game 1, when Rose slashed the Heat defense to ribbons and started an avalanche of offensive rebounds and second-chance points that won the game: "Whatever it takes for us to win. If it means guarding Rose from the start and playing more point guard, I'm up to the task."

No arguments here after watching James extinguish Rose's fire and effectiveness on the Bulls' final two possessions of regulation, when he settled for jumpers because James -- with all that length and quickness -- denied him a path to the rim.

"I just tried to get a good look, take the clock all the way down," Rose said of the last one, a 17-footer that traveled only 15 feet. "LeBron played good defense, it was on line. It was just a little bit too short."

"I take pride defensively," James said. "It doesn't matter who it is -- Derrick Rose or starting off on Luol [Deng]. It's whatever it takes for myself and for our team. If that means playing extensive minutes guarding D-Rose, I'll do it. I play both sides of the floor. I love defense much more than I do offense."