Inability to execute the details cost Heat against Bulls

	Playing through shoulder and knee injuries, Dwyane Wade wasn't the same player during the series against the Bulls. Eliot J. Schechter/Getty Images
	MAILBAG Ian Thomsen will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

MIAMI -- Faith in the defending champions was based on the premise that the East stinks this season. Because of that stench, it was thought, the Miami Heat could overcome their own distracted start to this season as well as subsequent injuries to Shaquille O'Neal, coach Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade.

The truth can now be revealed, and its evangelist is Riley. The young Chicago Bulls are suddenly creating hope in an otherwise tired conference that had been aging fast. "They are a great team,'' said Riley after the Bulls' 92-79 win finished off their four-game sweep of the Heat Sunday. "They can go a long way if they continue to play the way they're playing.''

The East may not be quite so feeble as its regular-season winning percentages indicated, and Chicago may be making its run at the championship a year ahead of schedule, as the performances of every Bull from Luol Deng (22 points, 12 rebounds on Sunday) to Ben Gordon (24 points) to Ben Wallace (7-for-8 from the line) affirmed. Along the way, they became the first challenger ever to execute a four-game sweep of the defending champion in the first round; the only other titleist that failed to win a playoff game was the 1957 Philadelphia Warriors, who lost both games of their opening series to the Syracuse Nationals.

As for the Heat, they are not so hot anymore. No doubt their ice packs cooled them down.

By the end the Heat were trying to browbeat the young Bulls with talk of not only winning Game 4 but then watching Chicago wither to the pressure of closing out their first series victory since Michael Jordan's concluding championship in 1998. The Bulls must have been paying attention, because they finished off this win as if it were a Game 7. They didn't want to give Miami any hope of establishing the kind of momentum that last year overturned the 2-0 lead of Dallas into a concluding four-game sweep of the NBA Finals.

Wade's shoulder and knee injuries combined with his extended late-season absence to make him look like a good young player who still has a lot to learn. We all know he's better than that, but on Sunday his 24 points and 10 assists were offset by his seven turnovers.

The Bulls' lead was a vulnerable three points entering the final four minutes when Deng intercepted a Wade frontcourt lateral and ran it back like a Chicago Bears safety. "We were having problems scoring the last three or four possessions down the floor, so that was huge for us,'' said Bulls coach Scott Skiles. "[Deng] is a big-time player. He was great on defense, he shot the ball well and moved around the floor well, he handled and rebounded the ball well. I don't know if there was anything else he could do.'' For the series, Deng shot 57.9 percent while averaging 26.3 points and 9.0 rebounds.