As the partying journalist of Paolo Sorrentino's "The Great Beauty," Toni Servillo was surveying Rome's colorful nightlife, but he might as well have been contemplating the Cannes Film Festival. The 66th edition of the Cote d'Azur extravaganza drew to a close Sunday, awarding the sensual, heartbreaking lesbian romance "Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele" the festival's top honor, the Palme d'Or.

The Cannes Film Festivale is a 12-day circus of perpetual red-carpet flashbulbs, beachside soirees and, yes, a feast of some of the finest, wildest movies the world has to offer. The most exotic creatures weren't the high-heeled ones parading the Croisette, they were the ones gracing Cannes' pristine movie screens.

This year, the festival was a particularly captivating coterie of rare birds. There was Tilda Swinton as a white-haired, centuries-old vampire (Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive"); Joaquin Phoenix as a 1920s pimp, sticking out his jaw like Marlon Brando (James Gray's "The Immigrant"); a sequin-covered Michael Douglas as Liberace (Steven Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra"); a battered and bloodied, but still cool Ryan Gosling (Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives"); and the disabled but acrobatic dancer Souleymane Deme (Mahamat-Saleh Harouns "Grigris").

There was literal wildlife, too, including a cat named Hercules (the Coen brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis"), a vanishing giraffe ("The Great Beauty") and an unfortunate pooch caught up in Mexico's brutal drug war (Amat Escalante's "Heli"). Cannes, alas, is a dog eat dog world.

A strong, deep slate of films in competition left some mystery before Steven Spielberg's jury named "The Life of Adele" tops of the festival. The three-hour coming-of-age tale, by Tunisian-born director Abdellatif Kechiche, emerged as a landmark film not for its lengthy, graphic sex scenes, but for its tender intimacy. It won the Palme on the same day thousands marched in Paris protesting France's recent legalization of gay marriage.

The global stage of Cannes immediately catapults Kechiche to greater international renown, inducting him into the prestigious group of Palme d'Or winners, from Francis Ford Coppola to Terrence Malick.

But this year's festival boasted many breakout stars, including the two daring actresses of "Life of Adele," Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, who, in a twist, also shared in the Palme d'Or. As a bitter, sarcastic 1960s folk singer in "Llewyn Davis," newcomer Oscar Isaac also shined in Cannes' spotlight.

Familiar faces turned in some of their best work including Berenice Bejo, as a single mother juggling a new man and an old one in Asghar Farhadi's shifting domestic drama "The Past"; Kristin Stewart Thomas, as Lady Macbeth meets Donatella Versace in the stylish Bangkok noir "Only God Forgives"; and Bruce Dern, as a gruff, aging father in Alexander Payne's black-and-white Midwest road trip "Nebraska."

Screenings at Cannes begin with the festival intro of red steps ascending from the sea up to the heavens, but for the first half of Cannes, it felt as though the festival was stuck underwater. Constant rains dampened the French Riviera atmosphere in the early days, and the films though full of intriguing entries didn't quite catch until the Coens premiered their melancholy story of a frustrated artist passed over by history.

Reality also threatened to overshadow the movies. On the same night as the premiere of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," a film about Los Angeles teenagers who rob the houses of celebrities, news broke that $1 million worth of jewelry had been stolen in a Cannes hotel. Never mind that its value turned out to be significantly less: The world had already conjured cinematic images of Cary Grant nimbly tiptoeing on Riviera rooftops.

Hollywood's noisiest intruder was "Catching Fire," the "Hunger Games" sequel that used Cannes' platform to stir up worldwide fervor for the next installment of the Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster.

American films including those by the Coens, Payne, Jarmusch, Soderbergh and Gray were among some of the best entries at the festival. "Inside Llewyn Davis," ''Nebraska" and perhaps the Ellis Island melodrama "The Immigrant" will likely be players in this fall's Oscar season.

Soderbergh's "Behind the Candelabra" marks the director's final film, at least for a time, as he's withdrawing from filmmaking. Soderbergh, whose film was broadcast on HBO, is planning to work more in television an arena many directors discussed in Cannes, claiming its quality and cultural relevance now equals or even surpasses movies.

While that may be true in many parts of the world, it isn't in Cannes. At the annual glamour fest, the big screen and all its varied vitality still reigns supreme.

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

The first two years of my college experience was spent at a community college. My tuition was covered, but I took out a loan for $20,000 to cover living expenses. Upon transferring to a costly four-year university I received a hefty scholarship, which covered most of my expenses. Still, my loans were at $11,500 per year. The day of my graduation, I received the coveted diploma and a not-so-coveted array of bills for my student loans.

However, the difference between other students and myself was the large sum of money lingering my savings account that I started four years prior. Let me explain how I managed to pay off my bills on the same day that I graduated from college:

Federal Loans Only

The first goal during my college career was to stay away from private student loans because they are nightmares. Trust me, I know. I took out a $5,000 private student loan in my first year of college and watched it as it was passed around from lender to lender and the interest rate jumped around, ranging from 8% to 20%. Not to mention the compounding of interest that increased the loan nearly $1,500 in eight months. Needless to say, I paid that off with every dime that I had to give to it by taking on a job. Please, if you can avoid them, do not take out alternative loans.

The government offers student loans at wonderful interest rates and the government will pay the interest of the loan while you are pursuing your education.

Monthly Payments While in School

Let's evaluate my loans. During years one and two, I took out $7,500 for each year. My plan was to get a job that I could take the money that I would need to pay off the loan in one year and pay it into a high-interest savings account. That meant that for years one and two, I paid $625 into my savings account each month. During years three and four, I took out $11,500 per year, which meant that I had to contribute $960 each month to the savings account. This may seem like a lot of money, but at the time I was single and still didn't have my daughter (until the fourth year), so it was easy to have all of my expenses paid, get a job on the side and contribute all of that money into a savings account.

At the end of the four years, I had contributed $43,000 to my savings account and earned about $1,000 in interest on the money.

On the day of my graduation I was able to pay off my student loans and never had to pay a cent of interest. If you are financially capable to do this, then I suggest that you do it. All it takes is finding extra income through a part time job or funding. You will save thousands of dollars in interest if you can manage this. If you cannot afford to pay the monthly payment, then pay half of it or pay what the interest would be on the loan. That way you can make a lump sum payment at the end of your college education.

LONDON (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd should not have been allowed to become embedded in Britain's critical communications network infrastructure without the knowledge and scrutiny of ministers, parliamentarians said on Thursday.

The Chinese company, the world's No.2 telecoms gear maker, has a multi-billion pound deal to supply equipment to BT Group Plc, Britain's largest telecoms operator, stretching back to 2005. It also supplies O2 (part of Spain's Telefonica SA), EE (owned by France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG) and TalkTalk.

BT told government officials of Huawei's interest in the contract two years before it was awarded, but the officials did not inform ministers until 2006, a decision that "shocked" parliamentarians, a report from the parliamentary intelligence and security committee said.

"Such a sensitive decision, with potentially damaging ramifications, should have been put in the hands of ministers," the committee said. "The failure ... to consult ministers seems to indicate a complacency which was extraordinary given the seriousness of the issue," it added, describing the lapse as "unacceptable".

It said a lack of clarity around procedures, responsibility and powers relating to the awarding of contracts meant national security issues risked being overlooked.

The report comes amid mounting concerns on both sides of the Atlantic over the potential security threat stemming from Huawei's access to communication infrastructure. Huawei, founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, a former People's Liberation Army officer, has raised security concerns from countries including the United States and Australia about alleged links between the company and the Chinese state.

ALLEGED LINKS

"China is suspected of being one of the main perpetrators of state-sponsored attacks ... focused on espionage and the acquisition of information," the report said. "In this context, the alleged links between Huawei and the Chinese state are concerning, as they generate suspicion as to whether Huawei's intentions are strictly commercial or are more political."

The company has denied it has links with the Chinese government or military and has said it receives no financial support from the Chinese government, the report noted.

"We will continue to communicate on this issue with the UK government and related parties and we will thank them for the support they have given us for the past 12 years," Huawei CEO Guo Ping told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of a business conference in Chengdu in southwestern China.

"We will, to the best of our ability, continue to expand our investment in the UK," he added.

The Joint Intelligence Committee - the UK's senior intelligence watchdog - also warned that in the event of a cyber attack, it "would be very difficult to detect or prevent and could enable the Chinese to intercept covertly or disrupt traffic passing through Huawei-supplied networks".

In a response to the report, ministers expressed strong support for inward investment from China, calling Huawei a "long-term valued investor in the UK."

"It is a personal priority of mine to increase trade links between the UK and China, and I cannot emphasise enough that the UK is open to Chinese investment," said Chancellor George Osborne.

In an earlier statement, Huawei that prior to BT's selection of the company in 2005, it was subject to a comprehensive 2-year audit. "Since then, BT has continued to conduct a thorough annual evaluation of Huawei," a spokesman for Huawei said.

"We believe the report will prompt governments and the communications industry to require ever-higher standards on this important global topic to further reduce the security risks and enable better and safer networks for consumers," he added.

A BT spokesman said the report recognised BT had taken measures to ensure its infrastructure was secure. "Security is at the heart of BT and it will continue to be so in the future," he said.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee in Chengdu, China; Editing by David Holmes, David Goodman and Ian Geoghegan)

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Rising exports helped rouse the Canadian economy from a sluggish second half of 2012 to grow at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, the fastest pace in six quarters, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.

The real growth rate was well above the Bank of Canada's forecast in April of 1.5 percent, topped the median projection of 2.3 percent in a Reuters survey and outpaced U.S. growth of 2.4 percent for the quarter. Statscan also revised up fourth-quarter growth to 0.9 percent from 0.6 percent.

The mediocre performance in the second half of last year had been partially due to temporary factors, particularly in the oil and gas sector in the third quarter, but a rebound in mining, oil and gas extraction became the main source of industrial growth in the first three months of 2013.

"It does suggest what we saw in the second half last year was more of a pause than the start of a new trend. With the monthly numbers continuing to grow through the quarter, it sets us up for a decent second quarter as well," said Royal Bank of Canada chief economist Craig Wright.

The Canadian dollar strengthened to C$1.0304 to the greenback, or 97.05 U.S. cents from C$1.0333 just before the data.

Exports of goods and services overwhelmingly made the biggest contribution to overall growth in the quarter. On a non-annualized basis, gross domestic product grew by 0.6 percent; the growth in final domestic demand was only 0.1 percent, the weakest showing in four years.

Consumer spending grew slightly, current spending by governments also rose, and businesses added to their inventories. Investment, however, fell, with a decline in business investment in housing helping to outweigh investment in plant and equipment. Government fixed capital investment also fell.

Wright said the data pointed to the rotation in sources of growth that policymakers had said was needed for Canada's growth to be sustainable

"As consumers moderate, government pulls back, we need exports to contribute more to growth and investment. It looks like exports have contributed growth for the second consecutive quarter," he said.

Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter said the data might cause the market to price in a slightly greater chance of the Bank of Canada raising interest rates earlier next year than originally thought but it should not change the outlook dramatically.

"I think what it will do is quiet some of the talk about the possibility of the bank considering easing - there are always some voices out there saying that," he said.

(Additional reporting by Andrea Hopkins, Alastair Sharp and John Tilak in Toronto; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

Grumpy Cat, whose real name is Tarder Sauce, went viral last year after the brother of owner Tabatha Bundesen posted a photo of the cat on the user-submitted social news site Reddit.

The film will be produced by Broken Road Productions, which has been behind such films as the Kevin James' 2009 comedy "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," and Adam Sandler's 2011 comedy "Jack and Jill."

Photos of Grumpy Cat, whose scowl Bundesen said was caused by feline dwarfism, gained a following with ironic user-generated captions, like "I had fun once ... it was awful" and "Of all the nine lives I've lived ... this is the worst."

Grumpy Cat is no stranger to cameras, having already appeared on U.S. morning show "Good Morning America" and CNN's Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, "Anderson Live."

Grumpy Cat will join the ranks of Hollywood's other four-legged furry A-listers such as Uggie the dog from Oscar-winning film "The Artist" and Buddy the basketball-playing Golden Retriever from 1997's "Air Bud."

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Andrew Hay)

We have been through a lot, including my struggle with various health issues. Throughout this he has become an insensitive person who treats me like garbage. There has been a lot of emotional abuse happening, and it has taken me quite a while to be able to see it.

The other night I was about to break up with him. Then he suddenly changed his tune. He said: "I'm listening. You're right. I need to change. I love you."

Abby, at this point I really don't care, but I gave him another chance. Was I wrong to do that? He has changed for now -- quite drastically -- but I know he could easily go back.

I no longer love him. I also no longer find him attractive, and I actually think he's immensely annoying. He's trying to get me to fall back in love with him, but I really don't want to. So do I stay or do I go? -- WAVERING IN CANADA

DEAR WAVERING: Re-read the last paragraph of your letter, and you will see in your own words why it's time for you to go. He may be trying, but frankly, it is too late. Pack your bags. There's nothing deader than a dead romance.

DEAR ABBY: A friend recently shared some great advice. Her mom is 86 and in poor health, so my friend put together an emergency information briefcase for the trunk of her car and another one by the front door.

If anyone needs to take her mother to the ER, all her important information is in two places. This includes medications, doctors, insurance cards, Living Will, power of attorney and family emergency numbers.

I took my friend's advice, and it turned out to be a godsend when I had to take my 79-year-old mother to the ER after a serious fall. The admitting clerks said they wished everyone would do this. (I also included $100 in cash in a small envelope.) I hope you think her idea is worth sharing. -- GLAD I DID IN ALABAMA

DEAR GLAD: If the admitting clerks said they wished everyone would do this, then it's worth a mention in my column. Readers, advance planning such as this could save precious minutes in an emergency.

DEAR ABBY: Due to an accident I had as a teenager, I can't father a child. How far into a relationship should I wait to tell a woman this? While I wouldn't mention it on the first date, I don't want someone to feel betrayed if she wasn't informed.

There's also the issue of finding a woman who's OK with it. So far, the ones I have dated ended the relationship because they couldn't accept being childless or adopting. -- GUY WHO NEEDS AN ANSWER

DEAR GUY: Mention it when the subject of children comes up. Not every woman wants children. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

P.S. If you include the fact that you can't father a child on your dating profile, it will filter out those women who do. I'm advising you to prepare for an avalanche.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers in California, critical of Congress' failure to pass significant gun control legislation after mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut last year, advanced a package of bills on Wednesday that would tighten a ban on semi-automatic firearms and further regulate ammunition sales.

The bills, which passed the state Senate mostly along party lines, would outlaw all new sales of semi-automatic weapons with removable magazines, ban ammunition clips that can fire more than 10 rounds, and make it illegal for people convicted of drug and alcohol felonies to own a gun for 10 years.

The package of seven bills would also require people who want to buy ammunition in the state to undergo background checks and get a permit.

But top officials in both houses say privately that some of the measures could be removed from the package in the state Assembly to assuage concerns of moderate Democrats before the bills reach the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

The bills are the latest in a nationwide effort by Democrats to enact tough gun control laws at the state level, an acknowledgement of the political difficulty that lawmakers at the national level have had in reaching compromise on the issue.

Last month, the U.S. Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks for gun buyers despite a major lobbying campaign by President Barack Obama. States including Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland and New York have passed their own gun control laws in response to the two massacres, while Arkansas, Wyoming and South Dakota loosened gun restrictions.

"The action is with the states," said California Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. "In the absence of national policy, we feel that we have the responsibility to do something."

California gun laws are already among the toughest in the nation, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The state has banned most assault weapons, requires sales be made by a licensed dealer, including at gun shows, and imposes a 10-day waiting period, among other regulations.

SWING DISTRICTS

But the state Assembly, despite its many liberal members and where Democrats enjoy a supermajority, has moved toward the center on gun issues, with Democrats last year winning seats in districts in suburban and rural areas where voters are more likely to own guns.

"The Assembly Democratic Caucus is more moderate on this issue because it has members from rural and swing districts," said Steven Maviglio, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Democrat.

Perez himself is a gun owner, Maviglio said.

"It's the same issue the Democrats face nationally," said David Mark, who edits the California-based policy website Politix. "Not all the members represent super-liberal areas."

The Assembly on Wednesday passed its own gun control measure with Perez's support that would ban kits used to convert single-fire guns into semi-automatics. That measure would also increase to five years the length of time mental health patients who threaten violence are banned from owning firearms. Currently, they must wait six months.

But Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, who authored that bill, said the assembly was less likely to support measures that go beyond closing loopholes in existing laws.

"In the assembly you've got a really large number of new members," Skinner said. "If they represent an area that has high gun-ownership numbers they're nervous about that."

Even in the Senate, four Democrats opposed at least some of the measures in the package.

"Fewer than one percent of the people killed with guns in the U.S. are killed with assault weapons," said Democrat Roderick Wright of Inglewood, who voted against five of the seven bills and abstained on another.

Republican state Senator Jim Nielsen said mental health issues, not guns with large magazines, were behind mass killings.

"These mass murderers have one thing in common," he said. "It's not magazines allowing multiple shots. It's mental health problems."

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)

"Sometimes if you ... get the record company involved, then people have ambition rather than starting to play, so we started to play," Costello said in a recent interview.

"We did it without a label or deadline pressure," said Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson as he sat next to Costello. "This absolutely was a passion project."

They began recording "Wise Up Ghost," which will be released Sept. 17, two years ago. It's a moody, 12-track album that features both new songs and others borrowed from Costello's catalog, including the drum-filled "Sugar Won't Work," which samples from "You Left Me in the Dark," and the soft and simple "Tripwire," which takes from "Satellite."

The Roots first collaborated with Costello on NBC's "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," where the hip-hop group is the house band. They also worked with the 58-year-old British rocker at a Prince tribute concert in March.

"This is like our dream that's all I can say," a smiling Questlove said. "This is the first project at 'Fallon' where I'm making my musical dreams come true."

Longtime Roots collaborator Steven Mandel co-produced "Wise Up Ghost" with Questlove and Costello.

"The thing I like most of all, the drums are really loud," Costello said. "I'm singing quite close, not having to yell to get it over."

The Roots released a collaborative album with John Legend in 2010. A year later, they released an album with Betty Wright.

Questlove says working alongside Costello, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was scary.

"I was worried in case it didn't work. I knew I'd be the bad guy," he said.

____

Online:

http://www.elviscostello.com

http://www.theroots.com

____

Follow Mesfin Fekadu at http://www.twitter.com/MusicMesfin

BERLIN (Reuters) - A new novel about a neo-Nazi plot to assassinate Germany's first Jewish candidate for Chancellor has shed a timely light on the right-wing extremist violence that has plagued the country since 1990 and was swept under the carpet for years.

Political thriller "The Jewish Candidate" by British journalist David Crossland has been published just as Germany's September election campaign is heating up and at the start of a trial of a neo-Nazi cell blamed for a spate of racist murders that went undetected for more than a decade.

Built upon the intriguing notion of a Jewish politician named Rudolf Gutman running for Chancellor as the candidate for the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the fast-paced thriller is told through the eyes of a reporter for a fictional London newspaper who stumbles upon a neo-Nazi plot to kill Gutman.

Set in modern Germany, "The Jewish Candidate" focuses on the surge in far-right violence since reunification in 1990 and on the country's failure to contain it.

Some estimates say almost 200 people have been killed in acts of far-right violence since 1990 that have often been directed at dark-skinned foreigners. Those killings were often downplayed by authorities and German society as isolated acts of random violence mainly in formerly communist eastern Germany.

That complacency was shattered in late 2011 when police accidentally stumbled upon a neo-Nazi cell, the National Socialist Underground (NSU), whose members killed eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman execution-style between 2000-2007 and carried out two bombings in immigrant quarters in Cologne.

"I started writing it back in 2007 before anyone had heard about the NSU," said Crossland, a freelance writer and former Reuters correspondent.

"I was reporting about neo-Nazi violence and was surprised at how lightly the authorities and the general public were taking it despite warnings that parts of the east were 'no-go' areas for anyone who doesn't look German."

The trial of a surviving member of the NSU, Beate Zschaepe, began in Munich on May 6 after two men who founded the NSU in the late 1990s committed suicide following a botched bank robbery in November 2011.

Germans have been closely following the trial and parliament is conducting its own investigation into the failure of police and security services, who neglected the far-right threat and suspected other immigrants were responsible for the killings.

The parallels between the real-life NSU and the fictional neo-Nazi assassins in "The Jewish Candidate" are striking but coincidental. The novel, set in the run-up to an election, includes descriptions of clandestine torchlit neo-Nazi meetings and of their links with the security services.

The novel also raises the interesting question of whether Germany might one day have a Jewish chancellor. It had a Jewish population of 670,000 before the Nazi regime and Holocaust. There was a vestigial community of 29,000 in 1990. Germany prides itself on its growing Jewish population of over 200,000.

Crossland, 46, who has lived in Germany since 1992, said Germany may be ready to elect a Jewish leader.

"But it's an unlikely prospect for now due to a lack of Jewish politicians," he said. "It's clear, though, that neo-Nazis are better armed and better organised than the authorities believed until the NSU came to light."

(Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum, editing by Paul Casciato)

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Indiana Pacers fell just short in the Eastern Conference finals opener but their gritty display pumped life into the NBA playoffs and let the defending champion Miami Heat know they have a battle on their hands.

The ease with which the top-seeded Heat have brushed aside opponents during the regular season and playoffs has given an air of inevitability to this year's postseason, resulting in falling television ratings and plummeting interest.

But those hoping for tighter games with the chance of an upset would have been encouraged by the way the Pacers gave a timely warning to the Heat that they will need to draw on all their talent to reach a third straight final.

"It doesn't matter if you win by one or if you win by 30 or whatever the case may be. You just want to win. We have to be better Friday if we want to win again," LeBron James said after powering Miami to a 103-102 overtime victory on Wednesday.

Indiana have struggled on the road this year, losing 21 of 40 games in the regular season, but in a scrappy, foul-ridden game that came alive spectacularly in the closing stages, the Pacers showed their mettle.

"It was a terrific basketball game. Two great teams throwing punch for punch. Our spirit is very high and very confident. And we know we can play with this basketball team," said Indiana coach Frank Vogel.

A layup from James as time expired gave Miami the win after Paul George's heroics looked to have earned the Pacers a shock victory in the opening game of the best-of-seven series that will send the winner to the NBA Finals.

George drained a long-range three-pointer to force overtime and then, in the final stages of the extra period, kept calm to put away three free throws after he was fouled by Dwyane Wade.

But, with just 2.2 seconds left on the clock, it was George who allowed James the space to drive the left of the lane and grab the win for a relieved Heat.

"We have got to feel good about how we played," said George, who nonetheless engaged in some self-criticism.

"At this point every possession counts and that's what we've got to understand. Myself included. We had a couple of turnovers that I wish we could take back I could take back. But the margin of error is so small at this level, so going into Game Two, we have just got to improve off that."

The Heat will look to recapture the intelligent and fast ball movement that has characterized their best displays this year but, after a six-day layoff following their 4-1 series win over Chicago, was not quite there on Wednesday.

But it was significant there was little discussion of style or flow from the Heat after the game with the overarching feeling being one simply of relief.

"In the end it just came down to finding a way, even if it wasn't pretty. And it took an overtime to get it done. We're glad to get that one," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

The Eastern Conference representative will face the winner of the Western Conference finals, which the San Antonio Spurs lead 2-0 over the Memphis Grizzlies, to determine the National Basketball Association (NBA) champion.

(Editing by Frank Pingue)