James delivers in fourth quarter

With his feet jammed into a hospital-gray tub of ice water and his knees wrapped with more ice, an impassive LeBron James twisted his torso to look at the television situated behind his left shoulder in the Miami locker room.

Was he so impressed with his virtuoso fourth-quarter performance that he wanted to relive it barely 15 minutes after knocking the Bulls out of the playoffs?

Not exactly.

James wanted to watch his Game 5 highlight reel in order to figure out how Miami rallied from 12 points down in the final 3:14 to move into the NBA Finals.

“Honestly, we still don’t know,” James said more than an hour after the Heat celebrated on the United Center floor. “We want to watch the last four minutes. We know there was some big plays that happened. We know we won the game. It went so fast.”

In case James didn’t have his DVR programmed at home, he can relax with the knowledge that he made up for his lack of success in the Bulls’ Game 1 victory.

He scored 12 of Miami’s 26 fourth-quarter points Thursday night. He handed out 2 assists that led to 6 points. He grabbed 3 rebounds. He earned 2 steals, including his leaping grab of a Derrick Rose pass that led to his go-ahead jumper with 29 seconds left.

And, as if all that weren’t enough, James towered over Rose and registered a blocked shot when the NBA MVP attempted a game-tying 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

“He’s as gifted as they come,” said Heat coach Eric Spoelstra.

Miami needed every bit of James’ 28 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists on a night when an ailing Dwyane Wade treated the ball as if it were a cube.

On Miami’s first possession of Game 5, Wade missed a 20-foot jumper. On its second possession, Wade had his pass stolen by Joakim Noah.

While that was a harsh start, things only got worse for Wade as he looked painfully uncomfortable whenever he had the ball in his hands during the first three quarters.

The cameras caught Wade sitting on the bench and trying to keep his left shoulder loosened up with a heat pack.

Wade finished with a whopping 9 turnovers — tying his playoff worst — but didn’t commit any miscues during his stellar fourth quarter.

“When I got back in the game,” Wade said, “for the first time, my mind was free.”

Wade scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, including his 4-point play with 1:30 left that pulled the Heat within 79-76.

“I’m a person that believes that other people give me confidence,” Wade said. “When LeBron threw me back the ball after me struggling so much, I said, ‘Well, I’ve gotta make something happen.’

“I got a little space and got to my step-back jumper and D-Rose hit me on my elbow and I just tried to finish it. That’s when momentum started to shift a little bit.”