LeBron James and Dwyane Wade must take over or find themselves watching the NBA Finals from home./AP

60.

That’s the magic number.

With Chris Bosh out with an abdominal injury that will take 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 weeks to heal depending on who you believe, the Miami Heat need their two superstars – LeBron James and Dwyane Wade – to average at least 60 points in order for the Heat to get past the Indiana Pacers and win it all.

Right now, James and Wade are averaging a combined 46.6 points in this Eastern Conference semifinals series that the Heat are trailing 2-1 heading into Sunday’s Game 4 in Indianapolis.

James is at 27.3 a game. Wade 19.3.

That’s not enough.

In desperate times, the superstars get it done.

Ten years ago, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant showed us all how.

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If the NBA stays in lockout mode for the entire season, I may miss the interviews more than the play and the players.

Having been in my share of NBA locker rooms and at my share of press conferences over the years, you have a good idea of what a player might say. Most use cliche lines like, “We played hard” or “We wanted to come out with great energy.”

But then there are those who throw caution to the wind and either say what pops in their head or what has been on their mind for so long that they can’t contain it anymore.

Now we’re going to get some real doozys if the lockout goes all season, but right now, check out some of the ones that have always left me either laughing, scratching my head or amazed.

Allen Iverson – “We talking about practice.”

I miss A.I.

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Just came across Charles Barkley welcoming Shaquille O’Neal to TNT to work with Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Chris Webber.

Still gonna need to clear some space on the desk for the Diesel, but Barkley basically told O’Neal he can’t upset Johnson, who is the host of the show.

“Second thing, pretty much nothing after that matters,” Barkley said. “Ernie is the man.”

With that being, we don’t want to see Barkley and O’Neal do this again. For those two to be athletes, they’ll never be mistaken for Muhammad Ali.

“The Fab Five ruined the program.” – Jim Nantz of CBS said during Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game in the Big Ten semifinals, suggesting that Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, Juwan Howard and Ray Jackson are the reason hasn’t been the same since they ended their career there. Led by the Fab Five, the Wolverines were the first team to reach the NCAA title game in 1992 with five freshmen starting.

With the Fab Five, fans either loved or hated them.

Got to disagree with Mr. Nantz.

What Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson did at Michigan in the 1990s was give players the freedom to be themselves, inspired the great players of today and made it cool for the top prep players to go to the same school.

Duke, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State and other programs have benefited big time from that last one.

They took the interest in college basketball to heights it hasn’t reached since and unfortunately for them, showed how corrupt big-time college basketball can be. So I can’t wait to check out the special on the whole thing at tonight at 9 on ESPN.

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I remember this guy when he was at Kentucky.

Just ballin’ out.

Big guy with handles. Could shoot the 3. Create of the dribble.

Antoine Walker was one of those new-age players when he came out of Kentucky after helping the Wildcats when a national title under Rick Pitino in 1996.

Tall guy with guard-like skills. Not the physical specimen of say Derrick Coleman or Chris Webber, but that type of multi-dimensional player.

Now he’s in the D-League?

Just doesn’t seem right, but when you look at Walker’s life of winding up in debt after making more than $100 million playing in the NBA, him being in the D-League isn’t that far fetched.

In his D-League debut, Walker had 13 points to help the Idaho Stampede beat the Dakota Wizards.

Idaho. Dakota. Walker. Doesn’t even look right. Neither did the free throw Walker shot that didn’t draw iron below.

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Charles Barkley is at it again Cleveland fans.

Charles Barkley said it.

Right after the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics on Sunday to win the Eastern Conference semifinal series in seven games, the Hall of Famer said the Magic will beat the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals, which begins Wednesday in Cleveland.

After getting ribbed by Kenny Smith and Chris Webber on the TNT set for making the prediction, Barkley said the only way Cleveland can win is if “LeBron James goes ballistic.”

Oh boy.

Oh Chuck.