With Miami's Game 4 loss to Chicago, they became the first team in 50 years to be the NBA Champions one season, and then be swept in the opening round of the playoffs the next.

The 1957 Philadelphia Warriors were the last defending champion to be swept in a first-round playoff series, losing to the Syracuse Nationals.  However, back then, the series was best-of-three, not the best-of-seven that it is today.

Chicago also became the first team to oust a defending champion in the first round since Phoenix did it to San Antonio in 2000.

The Bulls swept the defending NBA champion Heat out of the playoffs, winning a postseason series for the first time since the Michael Jordan era.

Ben Gordon scored 24 points, Luol Deng had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Chicago beat Miami 92-79 Sunday in Game 4 to finish off their first-round Eastern Conference series. The games biggest surprise, though, was Ben Wallace, who went 7-8 from the free throw line despite having the worst free throw shooting percentage in NBA history.

The Bulls, who will face Detroit in the second round, became the first team to oust a defending champion in the opening playoff series since Phoenix did it to San Antonio in 2000.

Heat coach Pat Riley stood in the center circle of his team's locker room Saturday morning, the space that features a rendering of the NBA championship trophy in the carpet, and challenged his players to join him for a sparring session.

''He came in the locker room [Saturday] jumping around, ready to spar,'' Dwyane Wade said of his 62-year-old coach. ``Nobody wanted to get in the circle with him to spar. He was in the middle. Udonis [Haslem] punked out, Dorell [Wright] punked out, [Gary Payton] punked out. They didn't want none. He's got the old man strength, too, so you can't let him grab you or it's over.''

Of course, Riley's message wasn't about fighting to the end. It was about fighting to avoid it.

The Chicago Bulls are one win from sending the defending NBA champions home for the summer -- in stunning style.

Ben Gordon scored 27 points, Luol Deng added 24 points and 11 rebounds and Chicago used a 15-2 fourth-quarter run to seize control of a 104-96 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series Friday night.

Ben Gordon scored 27 points and Luol Deng added 26 to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 107-89 victory Tuesday night and a 2-0 lead over the defending champions in this first-round series.

"I have been around a long time and I've been in all these situations before," Heat center Shaquille O'Neal said. "Basically, the Bulls did what they're supposed to do and protect their home court. We have to play smarter basketball. We got to come with a lot more energy and play with a lot more effort and a lot more passion."

O'Neal and Dwyane Wade had subpar performances again after struggling through foul trouble in the opener, finishing with 17 and 21 points, respectively. O'Neal was just 6-for-14 from the floor with eight rebounds. Wade, who led a late charge in Game 1, never really got going, hitting 9-of-19. And both had seven turnovers.

"We really can't make any excuses tonight," O'Neal said. "It was a well played game. They just outplayed us. I had way too many turnovers. They shot the ball extremely well."

Kirk Hinrich of the Chicago Bulls has been fined $25,000 for throwing his mouthpiece into the stands, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President Basketball Operations.

The incident occurred with 11:01 remaining in the third period of the Bulls? 96-91 win over the Miami Heat on April 21 at United Center in Chicago.

But with another full day until Tuesday's Game 2, Luol Deng expects the Heat to make a defensive adjustment about as subtle as a James Posey forearm.

"They're going to be more physical," Deng said after Sunday's practice. "I know they're going to come with a different look.

"I just have to read what they're doing because when we don't move the ball, they're very physical and hard to beat. But when we move the ball, we have them running all over the floor and it's less physical."

The Heat endured a difficult regular season. Defending their championship won't be easy, either.

Luol Deng scored 33 points, and Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni each hit two free throws in the final 19 seconds as the Bulls held off the Heat 96-91 Saturday in Game 1 of their opening-round rematch.

Heat guard Dwyane Wade is a Chicago guy, someone still in love with his hometown. But the Chicago Bulls rarely give him a warm reception.

Bulls forward Andres Nocioni pushed Wade in the back and sent him sprawling after a play two years ago, then delivered more hard hits on him during last year's Miami-Chicago series, won by the Heat in six games. This season, Kirk Hinrich tugged the Miami star's arm so hard that Wade sprained a wrist.

And the Heat expect more ruggedness from the Bulls starting Saturday, when the teams open an Eastern Conference first-round rematch in Chicago.

"Am I concerned? Yeah. Knowing Scott Skiles, yeah,'' Heat center Shaquille O'Neal said, referring to the Bulls' head coach. "He'll be saying foul him, foul him hard.''

In an interview for a forthcoming book, Harold Katz, the former Sixers owner, revealed something that he offered Julius Erving, the Hall of Fame forward, to Chicago on the eve of the 1984 draft for the third overall pick, which the Bulls used to select Michael Jordan.

"I thought I had a deal with Jonathan Kovler (then the principal owner) of the Bulls for the third pick," Katz told Pat Williams, once the Sixers' general manager, in an interview for "Pat Williams' Tales of the 1982-83 76ers."

Ultimately, Katz said, "Rod Thorn [then the Bulls' general manager] killed that one and took Michael Jordan. I would have made that deal."

Thorn, now the president of the New Jersey Nets, confirmed to Williams that Kovler approached him about such a deal, and that he rejected it.