If there was some lingering animosity between the Bulls and Heat, it sure as heck wasn’t going to be on display this weekend with (Tom) Thibodeau coaching the East All-Stars.

Oh, but wait.

“We can all come together and put the weapons down for a weekend,’’ (Chris) Bosh said when asked about the collision course the Heat and Bulls appear headed for. “After [All-Star Weekend], it will go back to being just like it was — we won’t like each other.’’

And that’s a good thing. Exactly what the NBA needs.

How it got to this point isn’t rocket science. Forget that the Bulls and Heat are really the only two bullies on the Eastern Conference block this season. This is about bad feelings from last year carrying over and only being fed along the way.

The Bulls finished 2010-11 with the best regular-season record, owned the Heat in their head-to-heads and earned homecourt advantage throughout only to lose to Miami in five games in the Eastern Conference finals.

It was after that Game 5 loss that Bulls big man Joakim Noah called Miami “a hell of a team,’’ but he also said it was “Hollywood as hell.’’

via Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times