Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh have lost five of their last eight games. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Miami Heat have hit a rough patch in their title defense. LeBron James and Co. have lost five of their last eight games, the most recent one to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Despite leading by as much as 13 points, the Heat somehow let the Blazers hang around and eventually pull out a 92-90 come-from-behind win Thursday night in Portland.  Wesley Matthews made a 3-pointer to tie it at 88 with just under a minute to go, and after a Chris Bosh dunk Matthews hit another three to finally give the Blazers a 91-90 lead. LaMarcus Aldridge missed the first of two free throws with 10.4 seconds left for the final margin.

Nicolas Batum led the Blazers with 28 points, and Aldridge had 20 points and 15 rebounds. Matthews finished with 18 points. The Blazers held LeBron James to 15 points, snapping his 54-game streak with at least 20 points that dated back to last season.

Bosh had 29 points for the Eastern Conference-leading Heat, who dropped their second straight game.

The Heat went into the game ranked second-to-last in the NBA with an average of 39 rebounds a game. Against the Blazers they had 45. In the loss to Indiana in Jan. 8, Miami got outrebounded 55-36. And in a Jan. 4 loss to Chicago, Miami was outrebounded 48-28. Teams are beginning to figure that the best way to neutralize Miami’s explosive offense to keep them occupied on the boards. The one glaring weakness of the Heat is their lack of size up front. Bosh is a power forward playing center and James, who normally plays the wing, has dropped down to power forward for most of the season.

If Miami is going to repeat as NBA champs, the team must address its rebounding problems. To borrow a phrase from Pat Riley, “no rebounds, no rings.”

If Miami continues to struggle to rebound the ball, Alonzo Mourning may be forced to come out retirement.

The Heat are 0-2 on a current six-game road trip, and dropped to 7-8 overall away from American Airlines Arena. Portland was coming off a 125-119, overtime win over Orlando at the Rose Garden on Monday night.

Damian Lillard, the reigning repeat NBA Rookie of the Month, had 10 points and eight assists and became the first NBA player to make at least 75 3-pointers in his first 35 career games since Allen Iverson in 1996-97.

France’s Nicolas Batum lost his cool against Spain in the quarterfinals of men’s basketball at the London Olympics. (GETTY IMAGES)

For a country known for being good lovers instead of good fighters, France unleashed its dark side and took it out on Spain.

Nicolas Batum and Ronny Turiaf, two players who don’t have thuggish reputations in the NBA, lost their cool at the end of a heated quarterfinal men’s basketball game at the London Olympics won by Spain, 66-59.

The shenanigans started with 24 seconds left when Turiaf shoved Rudy Fernandez at midcourt. It was a hard foul, but because Fernandez definitely embellished the contact — as he is known to do in his career — the Spaniards thought an unsportsmanlike personal foul should have been called on Turiaf.

On the next in-bounds play, Batum gave the Spaniards something to really cry about as he took a swing at Juan Carlos Navarro and his schoolyard-like wild right punch landed on Navarro’s groin. Apparently, groin shots are becoming real popular in London (see Carmelo Anthony and Argentina).

Afterwards, Batum told Yahoo! Sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski he wanted to give Navarro “a good reason to flop.” The Spaniards’ dubious reputation for flopping has irked the Portland Trail Blazers forward and his French teammates.

Batum’s low blow capped off a very frustrating game for France. It led for much of the ballgame, but struggled to find the basket in the fourth quarter. Batum made a running shot with 6:50 left in the fourth to give France a 57-54 lead. That was France’s last field goal until Mickael Gelabale broke the 6:45 scoring drought with five seconds left in the game.

Pau Gasol ignited the 12-2 fourth-quarter run for the Spaniards when he rejected Nando Di Cola’s layup and that defensive play led to a dunk by Sergio Llull to give Spain the lead for good at 58-57. Spain’s defense was superb in the fourth quarter, holding France to just six points in the quarter and forcing 11 straight misses in the last six minutes. In one key possession, Tony Parker had his jump shot blocked by Fernandez and then Ronny Turiaf’s follow-up under the rim was stuffed by Pau. A great defensive stand by a team not known for lockdown defense.

Spain stretched the lead to 62-57 with 45 seconds left when Pau found his younger brother, Marc, under the basket for a layup that essentially cinched the victory and a trip to the semifinals. The Gasol brothers combined for 24 points and 19 rebounds. Parker led France with 15 points.

Nicolas Batum goes up for a shot against Canada. The Portland Trail Blazers forward is averaging 15 points per game for the French national team. (FIBA)

With Les Bleus still reeling from the debacle that occurred at the World Cup in South Africa, the French basketball team is doing its best to bring some much needed amour and dignite back to the country.

Through the first three games at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey, France is in first place with a perfect 3-0 record, including a stunning opening-day victory over heavily favored Spain.

More surprisingly, France is doing all this with its so-called “B” team.

With Tony Parker, Joakim Noah and Mickael Pietrus – arguably Les Bleus’ three best players – sitting out the World Championships and Boris Diaw looking overweight and out of shape (again!), France wasn’t considered contenders and expectations were low after getting destroyed by the United States during the Nike World Basketball Festival in New York.

But one game changed the entire outlook of the team.

In Saturday’s opener against defending world champ Spain, France pulled a 72-66 upset thanks to outstanding performances by Nicolas Batum (14), Alain Koffi (11), Mickael Gelabale (16) and Andrew Albicy (13).

Batum, who plays forward for the Portland Trail Blazers, has been France’s best player at the World Championship. He almost single-handedly lifted France to victory over Canada, 68-63, on Tuesday, scoring 24 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

“What was great was that we had the courage to stay in the game,” French coach Vincent Collet told FIBA.com. “We held them to seven points in the last quarter. That’s why we won the game, and Nico (Batum) had a great game.”

Batum was at his best during crunch time, as 17 of his points came in the second half. Canada’s Levon Kendall – who missed two wide open 3-pointers to tie the game deep in the fourth – finished with 15 points, while teenage sensation Kelly Olynyk finished with 13 points on 4-for-5 shooting.

The guard play has been a pleasant surprise for France, which was thought to be the team’s weakness without Parker. But point guards Yannick Bokolo and Andrew Albicy have been solid, and shooting guard Gelabale has played well on both ends. Bokolo, who plays for French club Gravelines Dunkerque, is a 6-foot-3 physical guard who, unlike Parker, is not a liability on defense. Albicy (5-10) doesn’t have a lot of size, but he brings a nice change of pace from Bokolo. Gelabale played three seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics before returning to Cholet.

And even though Diaw looks like he’s been hanging out at In-N-Out Burger too many times this offseason, the Charlotte Bobcats’ forward has been a big player on offense, mainly with his passing. Against Canada, Diaw had eight points, six rebounds and five assists.

Koffi and Ian Mahinmi have done a decent job in the middle. Koffi is averaging 11 points and five rebounds, while Mahinmi – who was traded to the Dallas Mavericks – is averaging seven points and four rebounds.

France is probably not going to win the gold medal in Turkey, but at least the basketball team is doing a lot better than the shamed soccer team.