Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

The day began with LeBron James making a playoff analogy out of breakfast, his way of saying the Miami Heat were focused on the first postseason challenge presented by the Philadelphia 76ers and nothing else.

Clear the table.

“Now,” James said about 12 hours later, “we’re preparing for lunch.”

So this much is obvious: There will be some hunger Sunday afternoon when Boston visits to open a series both teams wanted.

Dwyane Wade scored 26 points,Chris Bosh added 22 points and 11 rebounds, and the Heat advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals by topping Philadelphia 97-91 on Wednesday night and ousting the 76ers in five games, four of them of the grueling variety, perhaps none more nailbiting than the finale.

“We’re going to be ready,” Wade said. “Philly got us ready.”

Mario Chalmers scored 20 points off the bench and James finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for Miami. Joel Anthony — who played 39 minutes without a single field-goal attempt — made a pair of critical free throws with 16.8 seconds left for the Heat.

Winners of a playoff series for the first time since the 2006 NBA Finals, the Heat have little time to savor the winning flavor. Boston took three of four in the regular season, plus ended both Miami’s season and James’ stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2010 playoffs.

“We understand where we are in this league and where the Celtics are,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They’ve proven themselves. They were the Eastern Conference champions last year. If we want to get to anywhere where we want to go, and the goals that we set for ourselves early in training camp, we have to go through them. And it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t play them.”

Boston punched its ticket to the second round on Sunday, and the Heat insisted they were not looking ahead to the Celtics.

Good thing, because Philadelphia was far from a pushover.

WRITTEN BY STATS LLC and The Associated Press & FULL STORY HERE