"The Heat were running and dunking, having a grand old time against the Nets. So Terrence Williams took a stand and sent a message by taking out LeBron James with a hard foul.

The message was meant for the Nets. The message was received by LeBron.

"We play New Jersey again?" James asked, after hearing Williams felt LeBron put a little too much oomph into his fall into the first row after the third-quarter hard hit. "Just once? I'll be ready for it."

Oh, goody. The Nets already were dancing in a rattlesnake pit. So they shook up a hornet's nest on their way to their fourth straight defeat, a 101-89 Heat victory that James will remember when the clubs meet again April 3 in Newark.

To a man, the Nets felt Williams' foul, deemed flagrant by the refs, was not over the top.

"We disagreed with it [being flagrant]," coach Avery Johnson said.

"It was a good, hard foul -- he was just sending a message," said Anthony Morrow, who had 19 of his team-high 25 points in the first half.

"A good NBA foul. We need more of that," said Brook Lopez, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half.

Even LeBron felt it was fair.

"I don't think it was a dirty play," he said. "It was a little bit more than just a regular foul. I've been hit harder than that in my career."

If there was anything wrong with the play, with 32.5 seconds left in the third quarter, it was that it came too late. The Heat were splicing together a highlight reel of dunks and spectacular passes as Dwyane Wade (29 points), James (23) and Chris Bosh, all broke 20 together for the first time."