"Finally, something more than Detroit's Austin Daye tossing up eight 3-point prayers against the Heat and then every single Knicks player seemingly doing the same a game later.

Heat-Bulls on Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena delivers a genuine basketball challenge, not the circus of the past two games.

But does it deliver legitimate rivalry?

That takes more than one playoff series.

Last season, was a start, but this is nothing like Heat-Knicks during the Hardaway-Mourning days, or even Heat-Pistons during the start of the Wade era.

Some of that has to do with the lack of identity when it comes to the opposition, with Scott Skiles then Vinny Del Negro and now Tom Thibodeau the sideline face of the opposition.

But when it comes to Eastern motivation, this not only stands as the most significant matchup for the Heat, but perhaps the only one with regular-season meaning."