Sabrina B.

Now the truth can be told, thanks to the freedom and relief that comes with winning. Hell, yes, Udonis Haslem meant to foul Tyler Hansbrough like that. Would do it again, too, if given the chance. He revealed as much after practice Saturday, stitches still on his face, right eye still dark red with blood. And damn if that wounded eye didn’t sting a little bit on this big, tough man from Miami’s meanest streets as he tried to articulate exactly what Dwyane Wade means to him. Ol’ Udonis isn’t going weak, not by a long shot, but age tends to bring perspective and appreciation, and those things can soften even a man as hard as Haslem.

“I can’t imagine anything I wouldn’t do for Dwyane,” he says.

“Like having a big brother going with you to school,” Wade said Saturday. “No one is going to mess with you.”

Haslem’s thought as Wade landed at his feet?

“OK,” he says. “That’s how it is going to be tonight? OK. Let’s do that then.”

He laughs.

“It is all fun and games to beat up the Heat in the media, to say the Heat are soft,” he says. “But as soon as the Heat take a stand and hit back, it’s not funny anymore. Rabbit hunting is fun. But it ain’t funny when the rabbit has the gun.”

Hoopsworld via Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald