How are the Heat? Contused and confused. That covers it all as they finally trudge to the playoffs.

Contused, because when Shaquille O'Neal suffers a deep thigh bruise, as the Big Franchise did Sunday to miss the final week of the regular season, it's a contusion felt by the whole team. It's amazing Damon Jones, who says "100 percent" of his career rejuvenation is due to O'Neal, hasn't adopted a sympathy limp this week.

Confused, because without their lineup anchor, and in the mild throes of a mild downswing, it seems playoff panic has overtaken some outside the castle. They lost four straight recently? Couldn't close out middling playoff foes like Memphis, Boston and Philadelphia?

Isn't that the look of a team stumbling down the stretch, and a sign it will tumble early on out of the playoffs?

This is just the latest in a season-long string of over-reactions regarding the Heat, replacing the previous one that Alonzo Mourning would wreck the team chemistry. Seriously, that was a weeks-long debate in Heatland. No matter the cost to put Mourning in uniform was to take Wang Zhi-Zhi out of one.

And so let's put into a similar perspective this thought about the contused and confused Heat. Here it is: They'll play Cleveland or New Jersey in the opening series.

They are 3-0 against each this season.

Their second-round opponent would be Washington or Chicago.

Either would be delighted to make the second-round. That only adds to ease with which the Heat should have here. Miami is 4-0 against Washington and 3-1 against Chicago. The lone loss came in overtime, at Chicago, when Ben Gordon threw in a prayer at the regulation buzzer and O'Neal missed the game.

You see where this leads?

The Eastern Conference finals, for starters, before the Heat break a worthwhile sweat.

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