After Pat Riley released in a statement that Danny Ainge "should shut the f--- up and manage his own team," Ainge maintained that LeBron James should not complain about the way he is being officiated.

Ainge had told a Boston radio station that James should be "embarrassed" for complaining about officiating.

"What did I say?" Ainge said. "I would say we're both right. LeBron should stop complaining. I complained as a player and I should manage my own team. We're both right."

Through a team spokesperson, Riley said: "He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him."

The Celtics will play the Miami Heat one more time in the regular season -- a road game on April 12.

Taj Gibson was surprised to hear LeBron James complain about hard fouls committed by the Chicago Bulls in their win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.

"I think he's too good of a player to do that," Gibson said on "The Carmen & Jurko Show" on ESPN 1000.

"You just play, two teams really going out there and play hard, going to the basket extremely hard and physical."

James mentioned fouls by Kirk Hinrich and Gibson as not being "basketball plays." He said Gibson collared him on a drive to the basket with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter.

"I didn't try to collar him," Gibson said. "I just fouled him. It wasn't intentionally.

"I just tried to make a play on the ball, but I fouled him. When he fell, it looked like I collared him. I was really trying to grab him, just not hold him up. Nobody was intentionally trying to hurt anybody out there. When he said those comments, I was really shocked. But it's part of the game, I guess."

The Chicago Bulls ended the Miami Heat's 27-game winning streak on Wednesday and also left LeBron James frustrated with their physical play.

James took exception to two fouls during Chicago's 101-97 win.

The first came just minutes into the game when Kirk Hinrich broke up a fast break by grabbing James with both arms and holding on as the players fell down. James also took exception to a hard foul in the fourth quarter by Taj Gibson, who swiped across James' neck and shoulder on a layup attempt.

"Let me calculate my thoughts real fast before I say (what I want to say)," James said. "I believe and I know that a lot of my fouls are not basketball plays. First of all, Kirk Hinrich in the first quarter basically grabbed me with two hands and brought me to the ground. The last one, Taj Gibson was able to collar me around my shoulder and bring me to the ground. Those are not defensive ... those are not basketball plays."

His frustration boiled over with 3:52 left, when he was called for his first flagrant foul of the season after driving his shoulder and arm into the chest of Carlos Boozer, who was attempting to set a screen.

"It's been happening all year, and I've been able to keep my cool and try to tell Spo, 'Let's not worry about it too much.' But it is getting to me a little bit because every time I try to defend myself, I got to face the consequences of a flagrant for me or a technical foul, whatever the case may be," James said. "It's tough. It's tough. It's very tough, and I'm not sitting here crying about anything because I play the game at a high level. I play with a lot of aggression, and I understand that some of the plays are on the borderline of a basketball play or not, but sometimes you just got to ... I don't know. It's frustrating."

Jerry West believed that the Miami Heat would at least tie the Los Angeles Lakers' all-time record with 33 straight wins.

West, who was an anchor on L.A.'s historic 1971-72 team and is now a consultant with the Golden State Warriors, reacted after Miami's streak was ended at 27 games on Wednesday night.

"I really thought they were going to do it," West said after the Chicago Bulls topped the Heat.

"It's a remarkable streak. I wasn't rooting against them at all. At halftime [of the Chicago game], I thought they were going to win the game. But all you need sometimes is a few things to go wrong.

"I think they're looking for bigger fish to fry. You know they're trying to win another championship, so I think this is just a blip in the road for them. But this [streak] was great for basketball. It was a great accomplishment. It creates incredible fan interest.

"People will talk about this forever."

LeBron James tried to convince Taj Gibson to sign with the Miami Heat.

James and Gibson spent together last summer as the U.S. Select Team prepared Team USA for the London Olympics.

“We talked about it a lot because I was coming up on my contract, possibly becoming a free agent,” Gibson said. ‘‘We were kicking it around, and [James] was saying: ‘Come to Miami. Come in, and we’ll treat you right there.’ I was like, ‘Nah, I’m cool with the Bulls.’ ’’

Gibson signed a four-year extension with the Bulls before the start of this season.

‘‘Very flattering,’’ Gibson said of James’ offer. ‘‘I mean, that shows that there is a sense of respect about your game. It means that there are other guys around the league watching you, other than just going up and down the court and banging bodies against each other.’’

The Miami Heat have made a five-point year-over-year improvement in points per 100 possessions relative to the NBA's general scoring output.

The Heat ranked eighth last season, which put them two points over the league's overall average. This season, the Heat rank first and are a full seven points over the NBA's league average.

Only 51 teams since the 53-54 season have made that big of a jump, with most of them were very bad in Year 1 with a big improvement in Year 2.

Four other teams have made a five-point jump after being above average in the previous season, with the 71-72 Lakers, 95-96 Bulls, 97-98 Lakers and 03-04 Kings comprising the list.

Dwyane Wade sat out for the second straight game with a sore right knee on Monday, a 108-94 win by the Miami Heat over the Orlando Magic.

Wade had a MRI that came back negative and he said that the pain is subsiding.

“It’s just a bruise,” Wade said. “It’s just about understanding when you have something lingering it can affect other parts of your body. You have to be smart about it.

“You have to understand what’s coming down for our team in the next few days. [Sunday] was a good day, and hopefully it will feel better by Wednesday so I can get back on the court."

“We want to be proactive and take care of it right now,” Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s been getting treatment and been feeling better each day.”

LeBron James and James Harden have been named the NBA's Players of the Week for games played Monday, March 18 through Sunday, March 24.

James averaged 30.8 points, 10.0 assists, 8.8 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.0 blocks, while shooting 59 percent from the field. He recorded his fourth triple-double of the season with 25 points (14 in the fourth quarter), 12 rebounds and 10 assists, as the Heat rallied from a 27-point deficit to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 20.

Harden led the Rockets to a 3-0 week with averages of 26.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists. He scored a game-high 29 points, connecting on 17-of-18 from the free throw line, in a win over Utah on March 20. 

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week were Atlanta's Al Horford, Brooklyn's Brook Lopez, New Orleans' Anthony Davis, New York's Carmelo Anthony and Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge.

Pat Riley is on the road scouting the NCAA tournament for potential prospects, despite the fact that the Miami Heat do not have a first or second round selection in the upcoming draft.

"Pat has actually been very busy," Erik Spoelstra said. "Every game you put on TV, if there's a college game going on, he's at it. I don't care, he can be three places at once, but he's there."

The Heat have committed to play in both the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues this summer, with the goal of finding inexpensive and undrafted talent to add to their roster.

"We invest so many of our resources in the draft, but we spend equal amount of resources on the free agents that either have been overlooked, passed aside as previous draft picks or non-drafted guys,” Spoelstra said. "So we want to use this summer to really take advantage of seeing if we can uncover somebody and develop, and we want to invest some time into [Jarvis Varnado]. Having both summer leagues makes sense."

The Miami Heat have signed Juwan Howard for the rest of the season, the team announced on Friday.

Howard had signed two 10-day contracts before staying for the remainder of the campaign.

"He's already filled the role that we've wanted and he does it as well as anybody," Erik Spoelstra said of Howard.