Dwyane Wade Is the Only One Who Can Stop the Oklahoma City Thunder

Even with LeBron James on the team, it has always been clear that the Miami Heat go as Dwyane Wade goes. 

James is going to give you his 30-odd points and some form of double-double a game. Bosh will do his Bosh things, which lately seem to look like timid 2-guard things, and everyone else pretty much shoots open shots.

It is Wade who brings this team to its full next-level ability with his hectic, beautiful-chaos style of play, and Wade alone. There is no amount of increased play from the likes of Battier, Chalmers or even Bosh that can elevate this team past the Thunder.

The only way that the Heat could beat Oklahoma City in any game of this series with Wade playing as he recently has been is through a legendary performance from LeBron James. Expecting that four times, though, is simply unreasonable. 

Wade really has not been playing that poorly, but it's undeniable that the little something extra that separates him from star-level wings in the game has gone missing. The occasional circus-shot layups still pop up from time to time, but the barrage of normal layups and runners that he bases his offensive game off of are definitely not as frequent as they need to be.

It could be his knee that is keeping him from his controlled chaos, because Wade has never shown a past tendency to back off and allow LeBron to carry the load.

The knee would help explain his 19 points on 19 shots in Game 1. That poor shooting was a huge factor in the loss, and not just because of the extra points a few more conversions could have granted them. 

Scotty Brooks is a great young coach. With that comes the Thunder's ability to adjust incredibly well defensively. Durant asking to check LeBron is great. It shows his leadership and all that wonderful stuff.

But for the first three quarters, James hung the Durantula out to dry. He went 9-of-15 in the three quarters that Durant checked him. Wade went 4-of-14 in those same quarters with Thabo Sefolosha on him.

Sefolosha is so valuable to Coach Brooks as a stopper that he continues to start over Harden, and either saps playing time from the beard or forces Brooks into smaller lineups to keep him on the floor.

His job is to stop Wade and thereby stop the barrage of amazing moments that can come from having two athletic superstars heating up at the same time. Brooks realizes that those sequences are what the Heat rely on to break opposing defenses, throwing them into a helpless sense of defeat.

By doing that job perfectly for three quarters, Sefolosha allowed Brooks the option of creativity. 

There is a generally correct sentiment that superstars can only be limited and never truly stopped, but by coming very close to the "stopped" end of that spectrum for three whole quarters, Brooks was given the flexibility to throw his ace defender at LeBron for the fourth quarter.

He shot 2-of-5 in that quarter.

Wade, free of Sefolosha, shot 3-of-5.

While Dwyane was able to start heating up and had more of an impact, the rolling James was slowed down enough to stop the "hot" star from catching supernova and allowing the Heat to make a strong run.

If Wade had been able to shoot better and had played with a more focused aggression for the first three-fourths of the game, that defensive adjustment could have never been made. 

Of course we're speaking in hypotheticals now, but if the game had continued as it was with Sefolosha still on Wade, LeBron would have been much freer to go about with the silencing of his doubters.

The presence of Sefolosha doubles the effects of Wade's play. When it is poor, as it was on Tuesday, the team is doomed to fall into the Orlando Magic or James-era Cleveland Cavaliers pitfalls that kept them from winning a championship—star-watching and living at the mercy of threes from role-players.

It also allows James to be guarded by the only man on the Thunder who has any chance of stopping him in Thabo Sefolosha. 

If he plays well, it will give the Heat their unique ability to dominate back. It will also allow LeBron James to play with a much greater offensive potency and wear down Durant by forcing him to guard James. 

That is why Wade has to rebound. He probably will, because that's what the great players do. He has to turn around and give everything he has to this series.

In his post-game comments from Game 1, he said "I've still got something left in me."

Exactly what that is and how much of it is left will determine which franchise takes home an NBA championship this year.