Once more — even if it’s the last time — NBA fans join together in that age-old prayer …

Thank heavens that’s over!

The season is so long that, even if you remember when the Miami Heat was loathed and feared, you may not have the slightest idea why.

And what a season it was!

TV ratings set new records at ABC, ESPN and TNT. Revenues were at an all-time high, approaching $4 billion … as owners and players girded for Apocalypse This Summer.

Not that the Heat had much to do with it, at least at first, quickly falling by the wayside.

At 9-8, ESPN’s “Heat Index” folded its daily updates on the team’s chances of winning 72 and LeBron James’ chances of averaging a triple-double, as their hype was eclipsed by two mere basketball teams, the Celtics and Bulls.

The Celtics became the NBA version of a buffalo stampede as Shaquille O’Neal joined Kevin Garnett, Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins.

The Bulls had presumptive MVP — in his third season — Derrick Rose, new coach Tom Thibodeau’s defense and Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, if only in 29 games together.

Overcoming their own 9-8 start, they overtook the Heat on March 6, winning in Miami to drop the home team to No. 3, four games behind Boston.

That was the “crybaby game” when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra’s offhand mention of tears made his players a laughingstock.

The Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony yukked it up. The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant said nobly he wouldn’t judge, but laughed when asked if he ever cried. The entire league said, “There’s no crying in basketball!” almost in unison.

Unfortunately, the Heat went back to winning and people turned to other laughingstocks, such as the Knicks, falling off a cliff with Melo.

All but unnoticed, only the Bulls (54-15) had a better record than the Heat (50-17) after Thanksgiving.

The regular season notwithstanding (a good name for it), the Lakers remain co-favorites with the Bulls at 5-2 to win the title.

Showing the season’s importance in the scheme of things … and/or disregarding the evidence of their eyes … the Lakers’ West rivals spent the final days trying to get out of their way.

Memphis benched Zach Randolph, tanking its last two losses with a tidal wave of a splash, as if dropping the 260-pound Z-Bo off a high board, diving to No. 8 to play the Spurs, instead.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, himself, sat his big three against the Lakers, helping them avoid a drop to No. 4, into San Antonio’s bracket.

Unfortunately, the Lakers kept losing, as if tanking to get away from themselves, until that next-to-last game against the Spurs.

Appropriately enough, they took it to the very end, blowing a 20-point fourth-quarter lead Wednesday in Sacramento.

Whether it turns out to be appropriate or not, Bryant’s three tied it with 4.8 seconds left and they won in overtime … or they’d be opening against the prickly Trail Blazers instead of the overmatched Hornets.

Now it’s time for the best-looking postseason in years.

The East’s glamour matchups start in the first round with Boston-New York, the winner — the Celtics, unless a lot of threes drop — looking at Miami in the second round.

The West’s first round is merely interesting, then, assuming both fading teams revive, the Lakers meeting the Mavericks in the second round.

Suggesting a dawning Age of the East, the Bulls and Heat are both young and in as good shape as they’re going to be.