Standing outside their posh hotel in a tony suburb, with waterfalls sparkling in the Sunday afternoon sunshine and a breeze rustling palm trees, the Chicago Bulls couldn’t have looked more relaxed.

A few miles up the road, the Miami Heat were a team with plenty on their collective minds.

Sure, the Heat escaped Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series with an 111-106 victory over the Bulls on Saturday night, with Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal combining for 57 points, 20 rebounds, 12 assists and seven blocked shots.

But with Game 2 set for Monday, it’s the Heat — not the trailing Bulls — facing a litany of questions.

Will the cramps that sent Wade hobbling painfully away with 8.6 seconds left still be an issue? Will Udonis Haslem, ejected Saturday for throwing his mouthpiece toward referee Joey Crawford, be suspended by the NBA? And if so, is Alonzo Mourning healthy enough to help what would be a depleted front line?

No one could answer any of those on Sunday with any certainty.

“This is about an experienced, savvy, talented team which I believe we have taking advantage of the opportunities out there,” Heat coach Pat Riley said. “But one thing they cannot neglect is just how hard (Chicago) is going to play and the kind of effort they’re going to have to make to stay with them.”

The teams huddled for video sessions on Sunday, and while some adjustments are certainly going to be made on both sides, neither club is expected to deviate greatly from the plans taken into Game 1.

“I don’t know what they thought before the series started,” said Bulls guard Ben Gordon, who had a game-high 35 points on Saturday — but made his last field goal with 9:55 left. “Now they definitely have to know we’re not going to back down.”

Miami’s main mission will be minimizing Chicago’s open looks from the perimeter; the Bulls’ drive-and-kick game helped them shoot 13-for-26 from 3-point range on Saturday, and that kind of long-range effectiveness opened paths for the Bulls to attack the rim as well.

And the Bulls, well, they’ll focus on Wade and O’Neal again, of course.

Wade was at the Heat facility around 9 a.m. Sunday, getting a massage on his cramp-sore calf and drinking plenty of Gatorade and water. Sadly for Chicago, there’s no similar elixir they can use to have anybody match up better against the 7-foot-1, 319-pound O’Neal — who started 9-for-10 and finished 11-for-16 from the floor.

“Dominance, man. I think this is the best he’s played in a long time,” Wade said. “Last night was one of his better games in a while, so it’s good to see him back into the form of being Shaquille.”

O’Neal also had 16 rebounds, and feasted on seeing large amounts of one-on-one coverage.

“It’s exhausting. You only have to guard a person like him one time, and that’s when we face them,” Bulls center Tyson Chandler said. “It takes a lot of energy away, but you’ve got to keep on pounding at it and try to get him tired before you do.”

That approach wasn’t totally in vain.

It worked on Wade, at least until the latter minutes.

Wade had 14 of his 30 points in the final quarter on Saturday, including six straight that dug Miami out of its only deficit of the night and put the Heat ahead to stay.

“As a team, I think we did a pretty good job,” Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich said. “We just have to do a little bit better.”

Take away O’Neal’s 11-for-16 night, and the Bulls held the rest of Miami to 42.6 percent shooting — exactly what Chicago allowed during the regular-season, when it led the NBA in field-goal percentage defense.

“But you can’t take away Shaq’s 11-for-16,” Bulls coach Scott Skiles said, somewhat glumly.

It’s not really Chicago’s style to double-team incessantly, so it’s possible that the Bulls could resort to anything — including the Hack-a-Shaq, where teams send Miami’s notoriously poor free-throw shooter to the line at every opportunity.

Skiles didn’t rule any approach out, saying “everything’s on the table right now.”

“Fouling him and putting him on the line makes him theoretically shoot less field goals and puts him on the line, but it also puts their team in the penalty earlier every quarter,” Skiles said. “And then other guys are going to the line. ... So if we’re just fouling Shaq sort of indiscriminately, it can be a long night.”

The Miami Heats’ Pat Riley and Phoenix Suns’ Mike D’Antoni today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in February.

Riley led the Heat to an 8-2 month concluding with a six-game winning streak. Miami shot a league-high (.516) from the field (.516) while holding opponents to .439 (8th). Miami recorded a key 100-98 victory over the visiting Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons on Feb. 12. They also defeated Cleveland 101-73 on Feb. 2 as Dwyane Wade led the team with 24 points. Five of the team’s eight wins were by double-digits.

D’Antoni has the Suns on an NBA leading seven-game winning streak, capturing their latest victory after a 12-point deficit to the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Feb. 27. Other key games included a 118-101 win over Chicago on Feb. 4 as the team was 17-of-39 (.435) from three-point range and a 116-101 win oat Denver on Feb. 15 when the team recorded 33 assists and was 14-of-25 (.560) from three-point range.

Other nominees for the Coach of the Month award were Dallas’ Avery Johnson, Detroit’s Flip Saunders, Houston’s Jeff Van Gundy and Washington’s Eddie Jordan.

The Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and the Phoenix Suns’ Shawn Marion today were named Eastern Conference and Western Conference Players of the Month, respectively, for games played in February.

For the month, Wade extended his streak of consecutive games scoring in double figures to a career-high 58 averaging 29.8 points on .557 shooting, the highest month average in Heat history. He also averaged 6.5 assists, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. The two-time All-Star led his team to an 8-2 record and hit the game-winning field goal against Detroit in a 100-98 victory (Feb. 12).

Three-time All-Star Marion is the second player in Suns franchise history (Charles Barkley) to score 30 or more points and grab 15 or more rebounds in three consecutive games. For the month, Marion recorded nine double-doubles and averaged 24.2 points on .538 shooting and 13.9 rebounds leading Phoenix to a 9-1 record. He tallied a total of 25 steals and 15 blocks and had career-high performances in scoring (44 points vs. Boston, Feb. 22) and rebounding (24 rebounds vs. Charlotte, Feb. 25).

Here is a recap of the month for Wade and Marion:

Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat
Feb. 6 vs. Boston: Recorded 34 points while adding eight assists, eight rebounds, two steals and one block in a 114-98 win over the Celtics.
Feb. 12 vs Detroit: Set a franchise record for consecutive points scoring the final 17 points including the game-winner in the Heat’s 100-98 win over the Pistons. He totaled 37 points, eight rebounds, four assists and one block.
Feb. 14 vs. Orlando: Tallied 38 points, five rebounds and three assists in a 107-93 victory over the Magic.
Feb. 15 @ Orlando: Posted 36 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, one block and one steal as the Heat defeated the Magic 110-100.

Shawn Marion, Phoenix Suns
Feb. 4 vs. Chicago: Had 26 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, one assist and one block in a 118-101 win over the Bulls.
Feb. 22 vs. Boston: Posted a career-high 44 points, 15 rebounds, four steals and three blocks in a 103-94 victory.
Feb. 25 vs. Charlotte: Recorded 31 points, a career-high 24 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal as the Suns defeated the Bobcats 136-121.
Feb. 27 @ Houston: Tallied 30 points, 18 rebounds, three assists and three steals in a 111-94 win over the Rockets.

Other nominees for the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Boston’s Paul Pierce, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Detroit’s Chauncey Billups, Houston’s Yao Ming, Los Angeles Clippers’ Elton Brand and Washington’s Gilbert Arenas.