With a chance to extend their lead over a conference rival Thursday night, the Miami Heat came up short against the Chicago Bulls, losing 93-89.

Strong performances from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade (scoring 29 and 34 points, respectively) were not enough to defeat the third place team in the Eastern Conference.

While Wade and James combined to shoot 53 percent from the field, the third king, Chris Bosh, could not find his shot, finishing with 7 points on a putrid 1-of-18 shooting.

Although that could have actually been Bosh on the floor in Chicago, we suspect he was kidnapped and replaced with a lookalike bent on sabotage.

As bad as Bosh was offensively Thursday, the Heat bench was worse, only scoring 2 points on 1-of-8 shooting.

Miami was in control early, taking a 53-44 point lead into halftime in front of newly-elected Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel in his finest dad jeans.

Miami held a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter, but the Bulls went on a 15-2 run to take the lead.

Down nine in the fourth quarter, the Heat scored 13 unanswered points to jump back into the game. But in a game of runs, the Bulls countered with a 9-0 run to take a 5-point lead with a minute left to play.

After a quick bucket and a defensive stop, James completed a three-point play to tie the game, being fouled by Derrick Rose while driving to the basket for a layup.

But then Bulls forward Luol Deng hit a three-pointer to reclaim the lead with 16 seconds left in the game, giving the Bulls the lead for good.

The Heat have a game against the Wizards on Friday then a day off on Saturday to address Thursday's offensive breakdown. Then they face the Knicks and recently-acquired Carmelo Anthony at home on Sunday. If the Heat lose two in a row to conference rivals, they may see their bandwagon get noticeably lighter. 

David Hill is a Miami native and former owner of a youth replica Rony Seikaly jersey.