Vintage Dwyane Wade Keeping Miami Alive in Heat-Raptors Series

MIAMI — The Miami Heat were teetering on the brink of disaster, facing both a two-point deficit and potentially falling into a debilitating 3-1 series hole.

The shot clock was off. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had a timeout in his pocket, but he left it there. There was no need to diagram something that the capacity crowd at AmericanAirlines Arena could all see coming.

All four Heat players ran to the right side of the floor. Wade stayed on the left, with only Toronto Raptors swingman DeMarre Carroll separating Wade from a de facto season-saving basket. A slight hesitation gave Wade enough of a step to race around Carroll, and the helping Raptors' defenders couldn't stop the 34-year-old shooting guard from exploding to the basket and extending a game the Heat ultimately won 94-87 in overtime.

"You gotta give him credit. He made some tough shots," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "We tried to send help to him. ... At the end, he put his head down—iso play, there was nothing fancy about it—he just put his head down and went to the rim."

Wade has long carried the Heat and willed them to success, and the narrative hasn't changed during his 13th NBA season. He scored a game-high 30 points Monday night, passing Magic Johnson for 13th on the NBA's all-time postseason scoring list in the process.

"[Chris Bosh] kept coming up to me and kept saying, 'If we're gonna go out, I want to go out with you having the ball,'" Wade said. "He kept telling me to be aggressive."

Wade didn't have much of a choice.

Miami only had two other double-digit scorers: Goran Dragic and Joe Johnson, who combined for 30 points on 10-of-29 shooting. Miami's bench was outscored by Toronto's 35-19. The Heat misfired on all but one of their 15 three-point attempts.

Wade had to be the savior, and he attacked with controlled aggression. Several of his shots were heroic, but few came via the ball-pounding, hero-ball route. He took just 10 of Miami's 26 shots during the fourth quarter and overtime, capitalizing on the opportunities he had while not forcing the issue.

"I was trying to attack and be aggressive, of course, but this wasn't a do-all, will game for me where I was going to shoot every shot," Wade said after his second consecutive 30-plus-point performance. " ... All eyes was on me. I wasn't going to force anything."

Wade made the plays he had to make, but confidence in his supporting cast helped the others come through in the clutch.

"Yes, we were running the initial triggers with Dwyane, but I think he really trusted [his teammates] and was moving the ball and it wasn't just him having to make plays," Spoelstra said.

Well, it wasn't that all night. But it is painfully clear that the veteran shooting guard will have to do most of Miami's heavy lifting, particularly with Chris Bosh out and Hassan Whiteside sidelined indefinitely.

Wade's work in this series has been remarkable, particularly when remembering this playoff run followed a season where he played more games (74) than he had since 2010-11. Over these past four contests, he's paced the Heat in points (27.3 per game), shots (21.8), assists (3.3) and three-point percentage (60.0). He's tied for the team lead in three-point makes (1.5) and ranks second in rebounds (6.0).

For someone whose knees seemingly threatened to pull him from the elite ranks multiple times during the past few seasons, he's proving he remains a franchise leader.

"He's getting stronger," Spoelstra said. "It's the work that he's put in. You can't just turn it on at this time of year. He's put in a ton of work during the offseason. I think this is probably the hardest he's worked."

The fruits of that labor are easy to spot. Wade has more than 36,000 career minutes between the regular season and the playoffs on his body. And yet, he's still closing out postseason contests with above-the-rim finishes.

"I'm as confident as I've been all season right now," Wade said. " ... I love that every time I come out on the court, I feel just as good as I did the last game. It allows me to go out there and play the game that I love the way that I can."

The way the Heat need to stay alive.

With no Bosh or Whiteside, Miami doesn't have a consistent force outside of Wade. That's why the Heat have yet to put away a Raptors team that's seen its two best players (Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan) struggle mightily while their No. 3 man, center Jonas Valanciunas, has exited the series with an ankle injury.

Spoelstra has recently remarked often that the Heat don't look like themselves. Their offense, in particular, has lost 6.0 points per 100 possessions from what it posted after the All-Star break (103.0, down from 109.0).

But the one constant is the same one the organization has had for more than a decade. Wade looks a lot like his old superstar self, and the Heat are impossible to write off because of that fact.

"I worked my tail off this summer to to try to get my body to the point where I can go out here and play the game at an elite level and not worry about my age or anything," Wade said. "I know when I'm healthy, I can play this game as good as anybody."

All quotes obtained firsthand. Statistics used courtesy of NBA.com.

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