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The first two rounds of the 2011 NBA Playoffs are down for the Miami HEAT, and this team has been easily the most dominant team over the course of a parity-riddled postseason. While the San Antonio Spurs were being knocked out in the first round, the Los Angeles Lakers were busy getting crushed in the second and the Chicago Bulls have been struggling to hold leads; Miami has been the lone of the top-seeded teams to cruise through the playoffs.

Not surprisingly, it’s been the evolved play of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James that has led the HEAT to eight wins in Miami’s first 10 playoff games.

"To have this success so far in the postseason with one of your friends, it means a lot," James told Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald after the game.

After handling the up-and-coming Philadelphia 76ers in five games to open the postseason, the HEAT closed out the Conference Semifinals in dominant fashion last night, ending the Boston Celtics’ season with a 16-0 run to close Game Five. 

James scored the final 10 points of the contest, and the dynamic duo of James and Wade has been next to impossible for opposing teams to stop this postseason.

"Miami’s a terrific team, by the way," Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers said after Game Five. "Those three guys are tough, but those two guys are monsters and when their making shots it makes it very difficult."

Wade dropped 34 and James scored 33 as the two combined to produce 69 percent of the HEAT’s 97 total points  It’s the second straight contest in which the duo has combined to score over 60 percent of Miami’s total points, and the fourth time this series against the Celtics.

The HEAT won each of those games.

"When you have dual threats on the court," James said, "it gives the defense no time to relax."

These staggering numbers are a direct result of Wade and James’ steadily evolving cohesion that has taken place over the course of the regular season and now into the playoffs.

With a 9-8 record through the first 17 games of the regular season, the pairing of Wade and James got off to a rocky start. Two players that needed to ball in their hands to play at their highest level looked lost playing next to one another, and critics sensed a disaster brewing in South Beach.

The HEAT have gone 57-18 since that point (including the playoffs), and the evolution of the two-man game between LeBron and Wade has made Miami a dominant ballclub.

"Both of them can be effective without the ball and they can be effective with each other in the two-man game," HEAT coach Erik Spoelstra  said. "They can be effective doing the great things that they’ve already done for eight years in this league."

Time will only tell if a team can rely on two players as heavily as Miami has, and make it though the Finals without a team finding a way to shut down one or both of them. Until then, the HEAT are enjoying the ride and will have plenty of rest by the time the Eastern Conference Finals start this weekend or early next week.

Celtics’ Believe Rivers Will Stay

Although they’ve just been knocked out of the playoffs by a superior team in the HEAT, Boston Celtics’ players, and coach Doc Rivers, still think this team has another run left in them.

"I don’t believe we’re done," Rivers told Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com.

The HEAT were going to be difficult for any team to stop, but most thought the Celtics — with their defensive foundation and steady, veteran core — had the best shot at dethroning James, Wade and Miami. Now the C’s are faced with a myriad of questions heading into the offseason, starting with whether or not Coach Rivers is going to be at the helm next season.

"I’m going to put this on the record," Celtics’ point guard Rajon Rondo told ESPNBoston. "Doc already committed that he was coming back with me so he can’t go back against his word. … We just signed a contract about 10 minutes ago."

Rondo wasn’t alone in showing optimism that his coach would return, as Rivers himself made a proclamation for next season at the podium postgame.

"I’m leaning heavily towards coming back," Rivers told ESPNBoston. I haven’t made that decision. But I can tell you that I probably will. I’ve kind of come to that over the last couple of weeks. I’m a Celtic and I love our guys. I want to win again here. I do. And I’m competitive as hell. I have a competitive group, and so we’ll see.

{AUTHOR_BOX}"But I can tell you that’s where I’m at today. Tomorrow, I may change my mind, but that’s where I’m at today."

Boston looked like a beaten, beleaguered and, frankly, an old team in getting closed out in Game Five.

Does this team just need a tune up and some offseason rest to get back to their championship ways next season? Or do the Celtics need to start looking ahead to the future with each of the team’s top-three players (Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce) all 33 or older?

This is something HOOPSWORLD definitely will be covering all aspects of in the weeks and months to come.

Could Mike Brown Upstage Vogel In Indy?

With numerous teams browsing the market for a new head coach, current ESPN analyst and former Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coach Mike Brown is on the short list for a few teams with current coaching vacancies.

Two of the most attractive coaching opportunities for Brown would have to be either the Golden State Warriors or Indiana Pacers. The Pacers, with up-and-coming coach Frank Vogel, would seem like a long shot considering how in-demand Vogel is on the coaching market, but I’m not so sure.

Brown, a former assistant coach with the Pacers before getting his shot as head coach in Cleveland, is believed to be one of the few, if not the only candidate with the coaching chops to unseat coach Frank Vogel in Indy.

Vogel has already interviewed with the Houston Rockets, but Houston seems to have passed on Vogel, and the team might have more interest in Dallas Mavericks’ assistant coach Dwane Casey.

Golden State is also actively looking for its next head coach after firing Keith Smart following just one year at the helm. The Warriors increased their win total by 10 games with Smart as head coach, but that wasn’t enough to keep him on the bench.

Both the Pacers and Golden State field teams have young, talented rosters that seem poised to take their play to the next level in the future. The Warriors (with Stephen Curry,  Monte Ellis and David Lee) and the Pacers (with Danny Granger, Tyler Hansborough and Roy Hibbert at the forefront) each have the talent to be playoff contenders over the course of the next few seasons.

What separates the two could be the conference they play in.

While the Warriors went 36-46 in a razor-sharp Western Conference and missed the playoffs, Indiana went 37-45 in a watered-down Eastern Conference and still made the playoffs as the eighth seed.

If Brown has his choice, and as of this afternoon he currently hasn’t interviewed with either Indiana or Golden State,  it would be hard to turn down the opportunity to not only coach an up-and-coming squad in the Pacers, but one with the opportunity to make the playoffs right now in the East.

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