With the Heat avenging their overtime loss in Orlando earlier in the week on Tuesday, the team stands at 33-11, second in the East, behind two and a half games of Chicago. So, confidently declare your allegiance for the South Beach super squad as they try to catch the top-seeded Bulls with the State Farm Nation, now live on Facebook if you want to represent LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh and friends as they prepare for the Playoffs!

The “State of Fandom” allows you to have customized Facebook cover photos, have friends or foes with fans of the Heat, or other teams in the NBA that you just love to hate.

You can also generate your NBA fan graph to see where your Facebook friends’ loyalties lie, and hopefully cheer them on as they look to extend their home winning streak to 14 games tomorrow night against the red-hot Phoenix Suns!

Insisting he meant no harm, Dwyane Wade revealed Tuesday that he has apologized to Lakers guard Kobe Bryant multiple times for a blood-drawing, nose-breaking foul during the All-Star game.

The first of those apologies, Wade said, came during the game when he saw Bryant’s face had been bloodied. Wade also said he sent the Lakers’ star a message after the game in Orlando, Fla. on Sunday night.

Wade said critics who questioned why he never offered an apology for the play — the likes of which seemed to be something not typical in an All-Star game setting — simply made incorrect assumptions.

“I don’t care what I’m portrayed as,” Wade said after Miami’s first practice following the league’s All-Star break. “It’s unfortunate, obviously. I don’t want to ever hurt anybody in this game, especially on a freak play like that. It’s unfortunate. I send my apologies. But it’s not intentional. If it’s something I did intentionally, it’d be a different story.”

A week ago, the Heat could make jokes about how they were out of the NBA spotlight, bumped by the meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin in New York.

Now it’s a different story.

Two plays seem to be generating the most attention from the All-Star game — Wade’s hard foul against Bryant and LeBron James’ ill-advised pass at the end of what became a three-point loss for the Eastern Conference.

“It’s an All-Star game. I mean, come on,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who couldn’t answer a question about what he thought of James’ play in the final seconds because he said he didn’t watch the game or see any replays of it since. “It’s a continuation of the theater of the absurd. I don’t even know if it’s going to motivate me to actually even look at it. I haven’t seen it.

“There’s nothing we can do about it, about the extreme exaggeration about everything that happens with our team,” Spoelstra continued. “All we can focus on is us. And at the end of the season, hopefully it ends the right way, and that’ll ultimately be the only way we can shut people up.”

Connecting on 16 of his 21 shots (35 points in 33 minutes) last night in Milwaukee, LeBron James has continued to show his progression in the post – 16 points came on post-up plays – putting to good use his off-season work with the legendary Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon.

According to Synergy Sports, LeBron James has the highest field goal percentage on post-ups in the NBA.

Among the 34 players this season with at least 75 post-up plays so far this season, LeBron tops them all with a 55.4 field goal percentage on the block.

Even better, LeBron and the Heat finally conquered the Bucks (lost two times this season) by winning 114-96 on Monday.

Lead Scorer: LeBron James – 23 points.

Game Notes: The NBA’s second-best scoring team (103.0 ppg) also locked down on the defensive end, holding the Hawks to 38.9% shooting from the field. Bosh led the team with 16 rebounds, an area where Miami outdid Atlanta 52-38. Only 28 points were allowed in the paint by the defense. The team also took care of the ball — just nine turnovers. Heat were up 61-43 at halftime.

Next: Tuesday at Indiana Pacers. 9-5 away from home on the season.

Next: Friday at Washington Wizards

0:53 Mark - Watch LeBron jump over Chicago’s John Lucas for the alley-oop dunk from Wade.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade has been out for two weeks now with a sprained right ankle, but no longer. The team has announced that Wade’s a go for tonight’s showdown with the New York Knicks.

Wade injured the ankle in a Jan. 13 loss to the Denver Nuggets — he attempted to block a shot midway through the fourth quarter but landed awkwardly and couldn’t get up.

The star shooting guard has missed nine games this season. Surprisingly, the Heat are just 5-4 with Wade in the lineup but 8-1 without him.

Wade is averaging 19.6 points per game this season, his lowest figure since his rookie season, along with 5.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

D-Wade has missed Miami’s past six games with a sprained ankle and has sat out nine overall this season. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Wade has been able to do a number of on-court workouts in recent days, including one Friday morning.

Wade went through shootaround Friday and originally was listed as a game-time decision. Spoelstra and LeBron James both said Wade was “very close.”

Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade will miss his fifth straight game of the season because of a sprained ankle, as he will sit out tonight’s home contest against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Wade sprained his right ankle during a Jan. 14 game against the Denver Nuggets.

Without the 2006 NBA Finals MVP this season, the Heat are 6-1.

Wade, 30, is averaging 19.6 points, 5.4 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.7 blocks in 35.1 minutes per game this season.

First half, all San Antonio.

Second half, all Miami — and then some.

LeBron James had 33 points and 10 assists, Chris Bosh scored 30 points — the 6-foot-11 forward going coast-to-coast for a dunk to punctuate his effort — and the Heat used a historic third-quarter turnaround to erase what was a 17-point deficit and beat the Spurs 120-98 on Tuesday night, snapping a three-game slide in an most unpredictable manner.

“We have a great luxury with three players who can do special things when you need it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

And one of them was in street clothes. Dwyane Wade sat out his fourth game of the season, this time because of a sprained right ankle. No matter: Miami shot 68 percent in the second half, outscoring the Spurs 71-35 after halftime.

“We should be embarrassed,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

For the first 24 minutes, it was the Spurs doing all the embarrassing. San Antonio connected on 12 of its first 15 shots, led 52-35 with 3 minutes to go in the first half, and had Danny Green hit a pair of buzzer-beaters — the first from the top of the key to end the first quarter, the second from near midcourt to beat the halftime horn — to take a 63-49 lead into intermission.

What happened next left both sides befuddled.

“Can’t explain it,” Bosh said.

Offered Spurs guard Tony Parker: “That’s basketball.”

Miami outscored San Antonio 39-12 in the third quarter — matching the second-largest differential for any quarter in Heat history, and matching the second-worst differential for a period in Spurs history, according to STATS LLC. James was 7 for 9 in the third quarter. The Spurs — combined — were 4 for 19. James hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put Miami up 72-68, and the Heat simply never stopped rolling from there.

James finished 12 for 21 from the floor, almost erasing any memory of him missing his first four shots. He was battling a cold, but offered no excuse afterward.

“Hopefully I can get over this in the next couple days where I can get back to myself,” James said. “I just tried to push through it in the third quarter. My teammates did a great job of finding me and stepping up defensively. We all did that.”

Mike Miller made his season debut for Miami after continuing to recover from hernia surgery and shot 6 for 6 on 3-pointers, finishing with 18 points and matching his most makes beyond the arc since joining the Heat. Spoelstra said the plan was to ease Miller back, playing him for “five or six” minutes. Miller played 15.

“Every once in a while you get going when you’re a shooter,” Miller said. “I just happened to do that.”

Green scored 20 points for the Spurs, who got 18 from Tony Parker, 13 from DeJuan Blair and 12 from Kawhi Leonard and Gary Neal. Mario Chalmers scored 13 for Miami.

The Heat are now 4-0 without Wade this season, 8-1 since early last season without the 2006 NBA finals MVP. And unquestionably, this was the most improbable of those victories.

The comeback from down 17 matched the NBA’s fifth-largest this season.

Before the game, Popovich summed his team’s all-or-nothing record — 9-0 at home, now 0-5 on the road — with his usual dry wit. “We’re really good at home and on the road, we (stink). That’s the biggest difference,” Popovich said.

He was half-serious, and it certainly didn’t apply to the way the Spurs started Tuesday.

San Antonio just attacked the basket with little resistance in the early going, eight of its first 12 makes coming from no more than 11 feet and most of them directly at the rim. James was terrible at the start, missing everything from layups to free throws, and the Spurs led 35-26 after the opening quarter.

Everything was going San Antonio’s way.

And then, well, nothing went the Spurs’ way — especially after James found his stride.

“There’s not much you can do,” Parker said. “He was on fire in the third quarter. He’s coming in fast breaks and he’s shooting threes. There is no defense against that.”