Dwyane Wade Channeling Vintage 'Flash' and Thursday NBA Takeaways
It hasn't quite been the five stages of grief, but everyone in the NBA has dealt with the news of Kobe Bryant's retirement differently.
LeBron James was saddened to see the Mamba call it quits. Kevin Durant was peeved about how he thought the media had treated his idol and friend.
Dwyane Wade, meanwhile, has waxed nostalgic, in both word and deed—maybe because he was among the first to know. As TNT's Rachel Nichols detailed:
"This was last month, the night before the Heat hosted the Lakers here in Miami. Wade decided to stop by the arena and get in a soak in the cold tub. He goes through the Heat's locker room area, back over to the training room, and who is already just sitting there in the tub…Kobe Bryant. Wade told me in the 13 years he's played for the Heat, he's never ever seen Pat Riley let an opposing player into the inner sanctum like that, using the team's facilities, and that frankly, he was shocked. Of course, that's the respect that Kobe has earned, and the two old friends had a great, long talk. At the end of it, Kobe asked Dwyane if his sons were coming to the game the next night. Dwyane said no, as it was a school night, and Kobe said, 'you know what, bring them, I think it's going to be my last time here.' Dwyane brought the boys, they got a lifetime memory after the game taking pictures with Kobe, and the Wade family got a little sneak-preview of Kobe's retirement announcement before anyone else.
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That gave him plenty of time to prepare accordingly. On Monday, the day after Bryant's poem crashed The Players' Tribune website, Wade exploded for two of his six dunks of 2015-16—including a vintage reverse jam—amid a season-high 30 points in a loss to the Boston Celtics.
On Thursday, Wade registered Dunk No. 7—a wide-open slam off a Goran Dragic steal in crunchtime—to help the Miami Heat edge the Oklahoma City Thunder at American Airlines Arena, 97-95.
"My kids be on me because I don't dunk no more," Wade told TNT's Rachel Nichols after the game. "Every now and again, I try to show them or tell them to go watch some old YouTube to show them their pops can get up some time."
Or, they can just join their dad at his South Beach office. He's still capable of getting off the floor and dashing opponents' dreams in a flash, despite all the tread on his 33-year-old tires.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both relative young guns at 27, went for 25 points apiece and made some spectacular plays of their own.
But it was Wade who stole the show when it mattered most. He scored Miami's final eight points of the night on the way to a game-high 28, with four rebounds and four assists for good measure. He hit floaters and fancy layups throughout, all while getting his younger teammates involved.
"I like to see our young guys growing," Wade told Nichols. "That's what it's all about."
As well it should be, certainly for the sake of Wade and the Heat. As good as he still is and can be, he's long been vulnerable to Father Time's proclamations. Wade's never played a full 82-game season and won't this time around. In his four previous seasons, he missed nearly 20 games on average due to injuries and rest.
The more Hassan Whiteside (11 points, eight rebounds, two blocks) and Chris Bosh (16 points, eight boards) can do to hold down the frontcourt, the more Goran Dragic (14 points, seven assists) can do to rack up easy baskets in transition, the more Tyler Johnson (eight points, three assists, two steals) and Justise Winslow (four rebounds, three assists, two steals) can contribute off the bench, the better the Heat will be able to contend in the East and the less of a burden Wade has to carry from night to night.
And the more Wade can save what he has left in the tank for when Miami needs him the most, before passing the torch off to the Heat's younger stars.
Raptors Stumble Out of the Gate Again
Even seasoned NBA pros can fall victim to trap games. Just ask the Toronto Raptors.
With the undefeated Golden State Warriors streaking into town this weekend, the Raptors came out flat against the rebuilding Denver Nuggets and got "embarrassed," in the eyes of head coach Dwane Casey (h/t TSN's Josh Lewenberg). Toronto dug itself an 18-point hole in the first half and was never able to recover fully on the way to a 106-105 loss at the Air Canada Centre.
DeMar DeRozan did his best to bring the Raptors back, with a season-high 34 points, five rebounds and five assists. But his efforts were too little, too late alongside poor shooting nights for Kyle Lowry (4-of-16 from the field) and DeMarre Carroll (3-of-12).
As much as Toronto's players may have been looking ahead to Saturday's showdown with the defending champs, this team's early struggles were nothing new. According to NBA.com, only the Lakers, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers have been worse than the Raptors in first quarters this season.
Those problems could prompt Casey to trot out a new fivesome for the opening tip against the Warriors this weekend.
Oh Oh, It's Magic, You Know
In his latest column, ESPN's Zach Lowe offered a simple word of advice regarding the Orlando Magic: "Keep an eye on these guys."
If you heeded Lowe's advice, you've since seen the Magic extend their current win streak to five games—their longest of the post-Dwight Howard era. To do so, Orlando took down another up-and-coming squad (i.e., the Utah Jazz) by a score of 103-94.
Orlando's spurt has coincided with Victor Oladipo's move to the bench. The former No. 2 pick was one of six Magicians (?) in double figures, with 14 points and seven rebounds in 24 minutes.
The Magic benefited handsomely from the absence of Rudy Gobert, Utah's suffocating rim protector. With Gobert sidelined indefinitely by a sprained knee, Orlando scored twice as many points in the paint (44-22) as the Jazz, who've allowed the fewest such scores per game.
Scott Skiles' squad will have another opportunity to pick on a banged-up opponent on Saturday. The Magic are set to face the Los Angeles Clippers, who could be without their starting backcourt of Chris Paul and J.J. Redick.
Kawhi Goes Ka-Razy From Deep
If you were an alien who, for whatever reason, had decided to drop into the FedEx Forum in Memphis on Thursday, you'd probably think that Kawhi Leonard was supremely skilled at throwing a spheroid into a net from 23 feet and nine inches away.
And, well, you'd be right. Leonard came into the San Antonio Spurs' latest meeting with the Memphis Grizzlies having hit 46.4 percent of his three-pointers—the fourth-best mark in the NBA. He left the game as the league leader, at an even 50 percent, after hitting a career-high seven triples to propel the Spurs to a 103-83 win.
That's a remarkable feat for any extraterrestrial to witness, even more so in light of where Leonard came from. As Kirk Goldsberry recalled for Grantland in 2014, Leonard came out of San Diego State as anything but a sharpshooter:
"As DraftExpress noted before the 2011 lottery, virtually every one of Leonard's shooting metrics from his time at San Diego State were abysmal. Among the 17 wing prospects the site evaluated before the draft, Leonard was 15th in points per possession, 16th in points per shot on jumpers, 15th in points per possession on isolations, and dead last in adjusted field goal percentage. He shot just 32 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers and 28 percent on pull-ups.
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With a little help from Spurs shooting coach Chip Engelland and a lot of hard work, Leonard has turned himself into the supercharged successor to longtime Spurs "3-and-D" specialist Bruce Bowen.
And, for the time being, the game's most accurate marksman.
C's Return to Familiar Ground
Forget, for a moment, about all the drama surrounding the Sacramento Kings. On the other side of their 17-point loss in Mexico City was a plucky Boston Celtics squad that just won't quit.
Boston played its brand of egalitarian basketball to near perfection in its 114-97 win over Sacramento. Four C's (Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk) scored 20 or more points. As a team, Boston hit 42.4 percent of its threes and assisted on 34 of its 40 baskets overall.
And defensively, the Celtics pestered DeMarcus Cousins into a season-worst 4-of-17 shooting showing.
But beyond the result itself, this game put Beantown in a spot, in terms of its win-loss record, that it hasn't been in nearly three years.
That may not seem like much for a franchise with 17 championship banners hanging in its home rafters. But for this team, one that's been rebuilding in earnest since the summer of 2013, it's a milestone nonetheless.
Pacers Stumble in Rip City
Few NBA scheduling quirks are tougher than playing the second night of a back-to-back set in the Pacific Northwest. Even in a down year for the Portland Trail Blazers, that combination of travel and fatigue can be brutal.
The Indiana Pacers had their problems overcoming those obstacles in a 12-point defeat. Their defense, one of the league's stingiest, surrendered a season-high 123 points to Portland, with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum scoring 20 points apiece for the sixth time in 2015-16. Paul George, fresh off of four straight games of 30 points or more, managed a season-low 11 on 4-of-17 shooting.
"It's just rough coming in late and trying to get your sleeping schedule right," George lamented afterward (via the Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner). "That's not an excuse. I've got to do better."
Chances are, he and the Pacers will.
Just not without rest in Portland, with a six-game winning streak now snapped.
Kobe Opens Up
To cap off an unusually eventful Thursday in the NBA, TNT's Ernie Johnson sat down with Kobe Bryant to discuss the Lakers star's retirement, his favorite of the five championships he's won, the greatest regrets from his 20-year pro career and more.
As has been the case with the Mamba in recent years, he was honest, candid and forthcoming—refreshingly so for an athlete of his stature. If Bryant's able to perform on the court anywhere near as well as he does in interviews, the Lakers may yet make something memorable of his farewell tour.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
