Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1 win, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looked the NBA's MVP in the eye and said, "You cannot get tired." Normally, LeBron James starts the final quarter on the bench, but the coach decided the game was too close, Chris Bosh was out with an injury and, as Spoelstra put it, "We needed him." James did not get tired. He had 16 points in the fourth quarter alone to help his team run away from the Pacers. The newly minted MVP was unstoppable down the stretch. But why did it even come to this? Game 1 was surprisingly close throughout, and the Heat didn't take control until the final minutes. James scored only six points in the first half. He attempted two free throws. It seemed like every play was James hustling the ball up court, slamming on the brakes, peeling back and then throwing it to someone else. That's even what happened leading up to Bosh's injury: James was close enough to the basket to finish or draw a foul, but he deferred and Bosh got hurt underneath the glass. This isn't to say James is responsible for a teammate's injury – he wasn't – but a bull in a china shop shouldn't be so hesitant to, you know, break some things. That's what's so maddening about James. He's an MVP who isn't always MVP-ish. Even Wade said Sunday, "Sometimes he starts out aggressive, sometimes he don't." Why? Lebron James totaled 32 points and 15 rebounds in the Heat's Game 1 victory over the Pacers. (Getty Images)We all know the answer: James wants to be the consummate teammate. But Wade, who is a consummate teammate, is almost always ferocious. "Flash" bolted for the basket from the beginning of Game 1 like a dad who saw his infant about to fall down the stairs. He went to the line 14 times and made 13 of his tries. There's no reason James shouldn't do the same. The calls that went for Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the first round went against him Sunday, so it's not like the referees aren't going to give him the benefit of the doubt. James himself calls the Heat "an attack team," and it shouldn't take a close playoff game and an injury to a teammate for him to attack. Go to the rack, go to the stripe, go to the Finals. Period. The Pacers deserve credit for hanging so tough. But the Heat had leads of 35 points or more in their first two games against Indiana this season. The Pacers were playing in their first ABC game since 2006. In a home game, after an MVP ceremony which the visitors were forced to watch, the Pacers should have been bulldozed. James should have had plenty of time to "get tired" in the fourth quarter. Bosh's injury put the Heat in a spot, but Miami was losing the entire time the starting center was in the game. Hibbert said it best of LeBron: "He's like a freight train coming. You can't second-guess. You have to get between him and the basket. You're going to get called for the foul or you're going to get dunked on." When an All-Star center faces that kind of prisoner's dilemma, the game should be impossible for him. And in the end, it was. James was phenomenal in a fourth quarter that traditionally hasn't belonged to him. He never had to make a clutch shot, which is what everyone is waiting to see in these playoffs, but he was dominant. His defense was suffocating. Danny Granger was held to seven points and didn't seem like he was anywhere on the floor. It just seems strange that James' surge took so long. Even at the end of the third quarter, with the game going back and forth, James false-started on a drive, faded away and shot an airball. The home crowd, all decked out in white MVP headbands to cheer their superstar like 19,000 John McEnroe worshippers, groaned in frustration.

The MVP didn't care, not after he and the Miami Heat struck the first blow against the Indiana Pacers. James accepted his third MVP trophy from Commissioner David Stern before the game, then scored 26 of his game-high 32 points while playing every second of the second half — adding a season-high 15 rebounds as well — as the Heat survived some rough stretches to beat the Pacers 95-86 on Sunday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series. ''I just looked at him straight in the eyes and said, `You can flat-out not get tired, period,''' Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ''And he made MVP plays on both ends of the court.'' Dwyane Wade scored 29 points for the Heat, who won the game but lost Chris Bosh for the second half and possibly longer. Bosh scored 13 points before leaving late in the first half with a lower abdominal strain, with the team saying he was being scheduled for an MRI exam to determine the severity. ''Hopefully (Monday) we get good news,'' Wade said. ''We all just want to make sure Chris is healthy. So that's all we know right now. Our brother is going to go (Monday) to see if he can get back out there and play with us. If not, then we've got to have someone step up very big. You can't fill Chris Bosh's shoes, but you can have a few guys step up. So we'll see.'' David West and Roy Hibbert each scored 17 points and combined for 23 rebounds for the Pacers, who got 10 points each from Darren Collison and George Hill. Indiana controlled long stretches of the first half and didn't trail by more than two points at any time until the fourth quarter, when it was outscored 25-16. Indiana shot 50 percent in the first half, 30 percent in the second. ''We started to get defensive stops,'' James said. ''We started getting things rolling.'' Game 2 is Tuesday in Miami. ''We're not just here to play. We're here to win,'' Hibbert said. ''We need to win Game 2 and come back strong.'' Playing one star down, James and Wade raised their games accordingly after halftime. They combined for 42 points in the third and fourth quarters, four more than the entire Indiana roster. The Pacers scored 16 in the fourth, and James had that many alone. Stay up to date with all the matchups at Playoff Central. ''We definitely let this one get away,'' Indiana's Paul George said. ''It seemed like we weren't supposed to win this one. Everybody in this room knew we had this game.'' Everything was undecided until the final moments. Hill made a 3-pointer with 4:51 left, getting Indiana within 86-85. But the Pacers missed their final nine shots of the game, James had a dunk in transition to make it 90-85 with 4:10 left, and his jumper with 31.8 seconds remaining wrapped up the Heat win. ''It's a battle and we know, regardless of being at home, being away, who we're playing, what round, it's tough to win in the playoffs and you have to fight for every single possession,'' Spoelstra said. ''And that's what it was.'' From his seat a few rows above the court, it was like Stern knew what was coming long before it happened.READ MORE

Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were only a few miles away from Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, participating in the NBA All-Star Game on the night the unarmed black teenager wearing a hooded sweatshirt was shot to death by a neighborhood crime-watch volunteer.

They never knew the teenager, but on Friday they decided it was time to speak out.

Wade posted a photo of himself from a previous photo shoot wearing a hooded sweatshirt, otherwise known as a hoodie, to his Twitter and Facebook pages on Friday morning.

A couple hours later, James posted another photo -- this one of the Heat team, all wearing hoodies, their heads bowed, their hands stuffed into their pockets. The photo was taken at the team hotel, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called it "a powerful move."

Among the hashtags James linked to the photo: "WeWantJustice."

"As a father, this hits home," said Wade, who has 10- and 4-year-old sons.

Martin was killed in Sanford, Fla., as he was returning to a gated community, carrying candy and iced tea. A neighborhood crime-watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, said he acted in self-defense and has not been arrested, though state and federal authorities are investigating.

"It really is a tragic story," Spoelstra said. "And the more you learn about it, the more confused you get."

The Heat released a statement, saying: "Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Trayvon Martin for their loss and for everyone involved in this terrible tragedy.

"We support our players and join them in hoping that their images and our logo can be part of the national dialogue and can help in our nation's healing."

Protests have popped up nationwide in recent days, with thousands of people -- many of them wearing hoodies -- calling for action.

James told confidants that when Wade's girlfriend, Gabrielle Union, called Wade's and James' attention to the issue, the two NBA stars spent several days talking about the case, gathering information and deciding how to make a statement.

According to his confidants, James and Wade decided a team-wide message would make a stronger statement and organized the photo taken at the team's hotel in Detroit. Mike Miller, the team's only white player, was not in the photo because he was not with the team on its road trip because of injury.

"This situation hit home for me because last Christmas, all my oldest son wanted as a gift was hoodies," Wade told The Associated Press Friday from Auburn Hills, Mich., where the Heat were to play the Detroit Pistons. "So when I heard about this a week ago, I thought of my sons. I'm speaking up because I feel it's necessary that we get past the stereotype of young, black men and especially with our youth."

Several Heat players, including Wade and James, took the floor Friday night with messages such as "RIP Trayvon Martin" and "We want justice" scrawled on their sneakers.

"I couldn't imagine if my son went to a store just to get some Skittles and a pop or iced tea and they didn't come home," Heat forward Udonis Haslem said. "We've been following the story, individually, very closely. It's just unfortunate. We just feel like something needed to be done about it. It's only right. It's only fair. ... I think it's at least a start in the right direction."

Jeremy Lin collided with LeBron James shortly after tip-off, stumbling backward.

With that, the tone was set.

And Lin's rise from unknown to stardom hit its first major snag.

Chris Bosh scored 25 points, Dwyane Wade added 22 and James put up 20 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, five steals and two blocks – the first such stat line in the NBA since James himself had a night like that four years ago – as the league-leading Miami Heat stopped Lin and the New York Knicks 102-88 on Thursday night.

It was Miami's eighth straight win, all coming by at least 12 points.

"A learning experience," Lin said afterward, before heading to Orlando for his role in All-Star weekend. "A tough one."

Lin's final line: 1 for 11 from the field, eight points, three assists and eight turnovers – a long way from the 23.9 points and 9.2 assists he had been averaging over his first 11 games in the Knicks' rotation, when he breathed immeasurable life into a team that was floundering.

Not this time. Lin paid the Heat a great compliment, saying their defense made it tough to even dribble.

"First of all, he deserves all of the credit he's been given," Wade said. "We knew it was going to be a tough task guarding him. ... He's a good player, but we put a lot of pressure on him and it was a success."

The scene was electric, and for much of the night, the game matched the hype.

Spike Lee, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Chad Ochocinco all sat within seven seats of each other on one sideline, Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison of the Miami Marlins were on another sideline, and members of the New York Mets' front office reportedly jumped aboard a helicopter for the quick trip from the team's spring-training home in Port St. Lucie down to Miami.

Even the First Fan took note of the hubbub surrounding the game.

"In another life, I would be staying for the Knicks-Heat game tonight, then going up to Orlando for NBA All-Star weekend," President Barack Obama told cheering students at the University of Miami earlier in the day. "But these days, I've got a few other things on my plate. Just a few."

When Air Force One was headed to Orlando for a Thursday night fundraiser, yes, there were televisions tuned to Heat-Knicks on board.