Revived Dwyane Wade Trying to Lead Miami Heat Back to the Playoffs

MIAMI — It was simple once, and now is again. The Big Three broke into pieces, with LeBron James breaking away and Chris Bosh breaking down. So, when time is short and the score is tight, there is no longer any confusion or hesitation, any deliberation or debate.

There is no longer any choice.

"They just told me, 'Hey, take us home,'" Dwyane Wade said of his teammates.

They had to trust that he still knows the way.

"Quite frankly, in the fourth quarter, the best offense really was to get the ball to Dwyane and let him create some kind of action off the pick-and-roll with Hassan [Whiteside]," Erik Spoelstra said.

Just as the best offense once was Wade doing the same with Brian Grant, or Shaquille O'Neal, or Jermaine O'Neal, before a four-year stretch in which Wade often stepped aside. These are different days, with a less dominant team, and Wade has just one wish: that the Heat keep a contest within striking distance, to give him a fighter's chance to finish.

And against the lethal LaMarcus Aldridge, the contending Portland Trail Blazers and all the odds, Whiteside, Goran Dragic and Luol Deng had done exactly that, each playing their roles perfectly until Wade checked in with 17 points, 6:59 remaining and a three-point lead. He had missed several open floaters early, but knew he could get them again, knew he could use Whiteside screens, Dragic passes, fresh legs, elusiveness and craftiness to get to his spots, get to his shots.

It started when he raided the 2009 vault for a transition bank shot, plus the foul. Then he ran the slalom course before splashing a fallaway floater. Then a 16-foot pullup from his favorite spot on the left wing.

Then the two shots that mattered most.

First, he went right and then back left, streaking around a Whiteside screen, before shot-putting a 14-footer and sprawling to his left.

Tie.

"That was the toughest shot I hit all night," Wade said. "I just crossed back, and I just got to my spot. If you guys noticed, I looked back, because I knew Nicolas [Batum] was coming. He's very long. I had to get my shot up. I don't have a lot of arc on my shots. But when I released it, I was like, oh yeah, that's good."

So was his next.

Even though everyone watching, including someone sitting in a locker room in Cleveland after a Cavaliers victory, knew what was coming.

Still, the Trail Blazers couldn't stop it.

Couldn't stop the shot.

Couldn't stop the sneer.

That put the Heat ahead again, before Wade would seal the 108-104 win with two free throws, two of 15 points in the fourth for the league's leading scorer in that quarter.

Later, word of James' prediction put a smile on Wade's face.

"Oh, he knows," Wade said. "He knows. It ain't no secret. It ain't no secret. I got a couple moves, and that's a go-to. Yeah, because a lot of teams try to force me to my right. And they forced me to my right. Hassan set a good screen, so I was able to get a little space and come back to my left. But I'm more comfortable going right since I've been early in my career. So I would have had no problem if they had kept me to my right. I was shooting it. It was going up."

Suddenly, after wins against Cleveland and Portland, the Heat's hopes are headed skyward too. For sure, the inspired addition and easy assimilation of Dragic (averaging 20 points and 10 assists in the past two wins) has contributed greatly to the cause.

"He's been very important to my success in this month, as well as vice versa," Wade said.

They've found a comfortable flow, with their interchangeable skill sets.

"We're just reading situations," Dragic said. "Let's say we get a defensive rebound and who's closest the ball, if Hassan passes to him, I'm going to run to the opposite side and he's going to create. And if I get the ball, he's going to run. And of course, in some moments of the game, it depends who is guarding us. But we always want D to be aggressive, that's his best strength.

"It's so much easier for us, because everybody is so focused on him. If it's a pick-and-roll, you can't leave a big guy to play one-on-one with him, because he's always going to beat him. Then they need to help more, and that brings me more space, and open looks, not only me, everybody. It's good to have him."

This is how teammates, and opponents, used to speak about Wade, when he was scoring 25 regularly.

Now he is again.

He hit that number in 15 of his first 42 games this season, and now has done so in seven straight, his longest streak since early in the 2010-11 season, his first playing with James, when he strung together eight straight. He's carrying his team to the playoffs, in the weaker conference for sure, but still a surprise considering that squad's weakened state. He's the guy on the line again, when the game is.

"I welcome it," Wade said. "It's what I love to do, and I enjoy to do. This is the fun part of this game. Obviously the last couple of years, I had to do what I had to do for that team. But now for this team, I get to be a little bit back to my usual self of having the ball. I'm not going to do it right every time, but I like my chances most nights."

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

He likes them, because he loves how he feels. He has missed 18 games this season, mostly due to hamstring tweaks. But nothing of significance is bothering him now.

"I feel as good as I've felt in years," Wade said. "And you try not to question it. Why couldn't I feel like this the last two years? But it is what it is. It feels like this now, when I need it individually, to have more of a load to help this team. So I'm glad I feel as good as I do now, not having the team that we had the last couple years."

He laughed.

"Because if I felt that way now, it wouldn't be good," Wade said. "For me, or for our team. It is what it is."

He is where he is, even at age 33, because he always uses the doubts as fuel, rather than facts. It has been increasingly rare in recent years, however, for him to make mention of his detractors, even in the name of dismissing them.

So it was notable that, after Wednesday's victory, he conceded that "it feels good, man. I've taken a lot of criticism. And I've worked very hard on my body, to get to the point where fourth quarter, to me, that shows a lot that I'm top in the league. That means a lot to me. Because when everyone's tired, that's when I go up a notch. For an old guy, that's not bad at all, to have that extra level to go to, when I'm playing against so many talented young guys. It feels good, I can't say it doesn't, but I know the work that I need to put in to keep it going."

The extra work between games still comes under the supervision of the Heat training staff as well as longtime personal trainer Tim Grover, who has moved past maintenance to more progressive techniques, believing that Wade can handle the burden. But Wade said that he's also made a "slight tweak" to his game-day routine.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

"I've been on more of the Ray Allen getting in very early for the last 15 games or before, getting in real early, getting my body and my heart rate used to the moves," Wade said. "I've been working out with [Heat assistant] Juwan Howard a lot and he's been getting me used to length, because I know what people like to do to me, with the switching or whatever."

That work paid off Wednesday, especially against Batum. But there are 15 games left, five teams (including fading Milwaukee Bucks) clearly in the mix for the final three seeds and no guarantees.

"The mode of now," Wade calls it.

The goals now are more modest, with the Big Three again back to being the Big One. Just make the playoffs. Just make something of this turbulent, frustrating season. Just make a few more memories, and get some experience for Whiteside, repetitions with Dragic and team momentum going into next season.

"That would be great, especially a season like this, that it would have been very easy for things to really go bad," Wade said. "This is not great, but it could get worse. And you always got to understand that. So it's good that we got some life left in our lungs."

He has plenty in his legs too, more than most may have believed.

We're now well into the fourth quarter of the season. It's close. It's late. It's his town, his team, his time.

Time for Dwyane Wade to take the Heat home.