MIAMI, Feb. 5 (Ticker) -- With three starters in foul trouble, Dwyane Wade took it upon himself to preserve the Miami Heat's lead over the Chicago Bulls in the third quarter. All-Star Shaquille O'Neal returned to put away the game in the fourth.

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Wade scored 12 of his 25 points in the third and O'Neal posted 14 of his 26 in the fourth as the Heat won their sixth straight with 108-97 victory over the Bulls.

O'Neal reluctantly joined Eddie Jones and Udonis Haslem on the bench with his fourth foul with 6:29 left in the third quarter and the Bulls took advantage, using a 9-2 run over the next two minutes to slice their deficit to 63-60.

"I think he [Shaq] was upset [about the fouls]," Miami coach Stan Van Gundy said.

For much of the third Van Gundy went with a lineup of Doleac, Rasual Butler, Wade, Keyon Dooling and Wang Zhizhi.

"A frustrating quarter," Van Gundy said of the third. "But then we finished it up well."

Wade scored the next seven points for the Heat and 10 of their final 12 in the quarter as Miami held a 77-72 lead entering the final period.

"Every time Shaq goes out I feel like I have to pick it up," Wade said. "It wasn't any different today than any other day. We maintained [the lead]. That was good enough for when Shaq got back in ... until we got the lead back up to what was comfortable."

Sparked by the return of O'Neal, the Heat extended their lead to 90-73 with a 13-1 outburst over the first five-plus minutes of the quarter. Chicago was held without a basket over that stretch.

O'Neal, who grabbed 10 rebounds, scored six points during the run, including a thunderous dunk with 6:58 remaining to cap the spree.

"We went to Shaq down the stretch," Van Gundy said. "He definitely took over and put the game out of reach. You want to be able to go to him [Shaq] and ride him and ride him and ride him."

Michael Doleac scored a season-high 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting off the bench and Jones added 16, including three 3-pointers, as Miami scored over 100 points for the sixth straight game.

"I have the best backup in the world in Michael Doleac," O'Neal said. "While I was out, he hit open jumpers and spread the defense out a bit."

Chicago's Tyson Chandler agreed.

"That's what kills you," Chandler said. "When he's knocking down shots like that consistently, and you're trying to double team Shaq, it can kill you. He's scoring points that Shaq would be scoring, and when he's doing that there's nothing you can do about it."

Doleac credited his teammates with his strong performance.

"Guys were getting me the ball when I was wide open," Doleac said. "I was getting some space and [the shots] were going down too."

Ben Gordon scored 17 of his 25 points in the second half and fellow rookie Luol Deng added 18 and nine rebounds for the Bulls, who have lost three in a row for the first time since December 3-6.

"We are not concerned with wins and losses, we are concerned with how we play," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "And right now, we are not playing well enough to win."