Dwyane Wade Injury: Will Flash's Nagging Foot Injury Cool Off Miami Heat?

The red-hot Miami Heat are about to cool off significantly.

Dwyane Wade, the undisputed leader of the team, is still dealing with a foot injury that will keep him out of Tuesday’s game against the Golden State Warriors according to Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group:

This is a big deal. Plantar fasciitis is a nagging injury that can take weeks to recover from. Putting constant pressure on it for, say, a 48-minute basketball game is only going to make things worse. South Florida Sun Sentinel beat reporter Ira Winderman isn’t optimistic:

The Heat have been able to fare just fine in the three games Wade has missed thus far. Then again, it wasn’t exactly murderers' row (Indiana, Atlanta, New Jersey), so Heat fans should be worried.

In the compressed season, Miami can’t afford to lose Wade for more than a week or two. Fans should be worried about the upcoming stretch beginning with the Warriors.

The West Coast swing starts with Golden State, then off to the LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets before home games against the Spurs and Lakers.

That’s a grueling five-game stretch over the next 10 days and without Wade, a 3-2 record would be ideal. With the slow progress of Wade’s foot, it’s highly unlikely that he would be available.

Right now the Heat are riding high with a 8-1 record. They lead the league in points per game (108.3) and assists (24.6). Nobody has jumped out of the gate better than the Heat.

Yet the Chicago Bulls are only one game behind them and now is not the time to take their foot off the gas pedal. Heat fans better hope D-Wade can come back soon because all it takes is a bad two-week stretch to lose a ton of ground in the crammed 66-game schedule.

With James Jones getting the bulk of Wade’s minutes (5.9 points, one rebound), “Flash” can’t come back soon enough.