By Ira Winderman
South Florida Sun Sentinel
MIAMI— The pushback came in the second quarter Wednesday against the Oklahoma City.
The question now is whether that moment endures for the Miami Heat, reignites the fire that seemingly had lost its, well, heat these past six uneven weeks.
If Kendrick Perkins' shove against Dwyane Wade and Russell Westbrook's takedown of LeBron James created straight-up animus, the Heat and Thunder will have to wait until June 10, the earliest possible start date for the NBA Finals, to personally address such issues.
But if a game the first week of April can make a statement, then the Heat potentially move forward not only with revived hope of yet securing the league's best overall record, but also of rekindling the franchise's image of tough as well as talented.
The morning after the 98-93 victory still had the Heat fired up.
"I think we definitely turned it up a little bit," forward Udonis Haslem said during a morning appearance on WQAM. "We were a little frustrated. We got two pretty hard fouls coming from those guys on that end."
While both James and Haslem downplayed Westbrook's foul as one of exuberance in the heat of the moment, Haslem pointedly took umbrage to Perkins' shove against Wade.
Recall, earlier this season Perkins derided James for drawing attention to Blake Griffin's highlight-of-the-season dunk on Perkins. Perkins also has a push-come-to-shove history with the Heat dating to his tenure with the Boston Celtics.
That had Haslem firing back on his radio appearance.
"I think sometimes people just use the TVs and the cameras and the crowd, you know, to put on a show," Haslem said of Perkins. "I don't think he's all that he shows out there on the court.
"I think anybody can be a tough guy with a thousand people watching on TV and referees who call fouls and stop the game and different things like that. I don't seeing him being any tough guy that he puts on the show to be, at all."
Haslem didn't stop there.
"If we were playing at the park, I don't think he'd be doing all that," Haslem said.
While the Heat did not retaliate physically against the Thunder, Haslem spent the balance of the night giving Perkins an earful.
"I voiced my opinion a little bit," Haslem said. "Not entitled to say what I said last night, but I got a little bit off my chest.
"Where I'm from, all the talking and playing like that, if some point it comes to a situation where you've got to back it up, he's never had to back it up, because obviously referees always step in."
Soon the league may step in. Wednesday's technical foul was Perkins' 12th of the season. A player is suspended for a game once he reaches 13.
Physical play figures to become more common as the April 28 start of the playoffs draws closer.
"You never want to come into a game expecting somebody to make a dirty play," Haslem said. "You never want to come into the game expecting that type of play from somebody. But I think Dwyane and LeBron, being the big attackers they are, they definitely have to be conscious of protecting themselves every time they attack the basket."
Wade took it a step further, rounding up his teammates, in his role as co-captain with Haslem, amid Wednesday's second-quarter tension.
"I said, 'Look what they're doing to us, look at what they're doing to our guys,' " Wade said following Wednesday's game, with the Heat given Thursday off in advance of Friday's visit by the Memphis Grizzlies. "When it's time for these kind of games, we have guys who can step up and do it."
He then offered a most curious choice of words, considering that last season Thunder forward Kevin Durant called Heat forward Chris Bosh one of the league's "fake tough guys."
"We're not fake tough guys, we're not TV thugs," Wade continued. "We go out and play basketball. When it's time to get into the fight, we have a lot of guys who can get into it."
Or, in this case, perhaps use it for season-turning motivation.
"Everybody else has a truth about our team," coach Erik Spoelstra said, "but we're not afraid of these type of games."
iwinderman@tribune.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat
Well spoken! Now if somebody had posterized him, it would have been better but oh well, I'll wait another day for the poster. Stupid Porkins.
*Mods, you can move this to a more appropriate thread if you find the need*
