Wade takes the 'Heat' with James out

Dwyane Wade took one for his team Saturday.

A sellout crowd at the United Center was juiced for the first appearance this season of the Miami Heat's vaunted Power Trio.

But the league's newest villain, LeBron James, decided to sit this one out to rest the sprained left ankle he suffered Wednesday in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

That meant Wade had to accept the loudest boos of the night in his hometown.

“I don't think it's any indication of how the city of Chicago feels about Dwyane as a person,” said Heat coach Eric Spoelstra. “But everywhere we've been, that's been the reaction.”

The arena was energized, no doubt, but there was nothing out of the ordinary from Bulls fans. This wasn't going to be a full-strength test, anyway, since the Bulls are missing center Joakim Noah with a thumb injury.

In the 24 hours before the game, Wade sent Twitter messages that he enjoyed sleeping in his own bed and had dinner Friday with rapper Common.

Following Miami's morning shootaround at the United Center, Wade tried buttering up Bulls fans with nice words about their team.

“The Bulls are right there,” Wade said. “They might not be the headlines of ESPN every night. But they have exactly what you need to be a championship-contending team, the two star players in (Carlos) Boozer and D-Rose … as well as a great coach and deep bench.”

Since the Bulls played Friday at Indiana, they held their shootaround late Saturday afternoon. Inside the locker room, Derrick Rose stayed low-key about the highly-anticipated matchup with the Heat. Big surprise.

“The ticket demand has been crazy, but other than that we're just trying to say it's a regular game and just play well,” Rose said.

The Bulls' biggest star said he'd prefer if James did play. By the end of the night, Miami was down two stars, since Chris Bosh went to the locker room late in the third quarter after getting his left ankle rolled by Omer Asik in a battle for loose ball.

“You always want the best players to play on a team,” Rose said. “You don't want nobody saying they won because a certain player didn't play.”

Equally unsurprising was Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau downplaying the potential raucousness of the crowd. There is little room in Thibodeau's workday for anything but game-planning.

“I like being home. We have great fans,” Thibodeau said. “But the important thing for us is to play well. If we play well, it becomes more of a factor.”