Pat Riley couldn't help but note the too-little, too-late irony.

"Without a doubt," he said with a smile.

As part of the new national television package to be put into place next season, the first round of the playoffs is expected to be extended from best-of-5 to best-of-7.

The Heat certainly would have welcomed the shift in 1998, when Alonzo Mourning's fifth-game suspension cost the Heat against the Knicks, or in 1999, when there was no room to recover from the last-second jumper New York's Allan Houston converted in Game 5 at Miami Arena.

"I think the best team in the league or the best team in the conference that works all year long to have the best record can get caught at home in that first game," Riley said Monday before the Heat faced the Cavaliers at Gund Arena. "You lose one of the first two, you got a lot of pressure on you. You've got to go up and get a split. You don't get a split and it's over with.

"I do think the best team, in a seven-game series, regardless of a fluke game here or there, should probably win the series. So I'm all for that rule."

Cleveland coach John Lucas, who has spent his entire career as the underdog, took a contrasting view.

"I like the five-game series," he said. "If you're the best team, you're going to win. I don't need to see all seven-game series."

Worst-case scenario

Plan B presumably remains tucked away in an office at AmericanAirlines Arena, likely in an envelope that reads, "Open only when all hope is lost."

That, General Manager Randy Pfund said, is the approach the Heat is taking with what could possibly be the franchise's first lottery pick since Kurt Thomas was taken with the No. 10 pick in the 1995 draft, two months before Riley's arrival as coach.

"I think certainly our hope is we get things headed in right direction," Pfund said. "If that doesn't happen, I'm sure there will be a time when we have that conversation, about maybe our draft pick being a lottery pick.

"To this point, we're doing everything we've always done."

Lottery position could come with far-flung implications. The top big man in the draft is expected to be 7-foot-6 Yao Ming of China, a player 76ers coach Larry Brown has compared to Bill Walton.

Pfund said the Heat has not directly scouted Yao but added, "we're involved with that." He said he recently spoke to agent Bill Duffy, who represents the center, about Yao's status.

All bad

Cleveland entered Monday's game on a nine-game losing streak, off an 0-6 western swing. Said Lucas: "I did see a pretty girl in L.A. I can't find any more positives after that." ...

Forward Chris Gatling said he apologized to teammate Eddie House for instigating the collision that left the guard sidelined with a deep thigh bruise. Gatling said he was looking for his man on the perimeter Saturday against Indiana when he turned into House. "I was running and looking the other way," Gatling said. "I told him I was sorry."