Dwyane Wade Has Epic Chance to Remind Us of His Greatness in Game 7
With the Miami Heat's 2015-16 season hanging in the balance Friday night, there was zero doubt who would command control of their crunch-time offense. If Sunday's win-or-go-fishing Game 7 is similarly close, the story won't change.
Dwyane Wade is more than Miami's franchise face.
With Chris Bosh still sidelined and LeBron James back in Northeast Ohio, Wade is the club's undisputed leader in both stature and statistics. While he's perhaps a half-step behind the NBA's uber-elite in the court of public opinion, Wade could show everyone how much star power he still has with a(nother) dominant performance.
One Game
Of course, his heroic showing late in Game 6 may have already started that momentum. Miami's series-extending 97-90 win over the Charlotte Hornets featured a team-high 23 points from Wade (plus six rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals), including 10 during the fourth quarter and eight over the final three minutes, six seconds.
Whatever the Heat needed, their leader incredibly delivered: a pair of three-pointers—his first since mid-December—an incredible fadeaway jumper and a comeback-killing block on a fiery hot Kemba Walker, all in the closing minutes.
"I trust my teammates, and I love them, but if we were going to lose, I was going out shooting it," Wade said, per Heat.com's Couper Moorhead.
This was Wade's killer side, the one that both injuries and a far superior supporting cast to the one he's currently guiding have often hidden in recent years. He led the team in total points this season, but it was the first time he'd paced a playoff outfit in that category since 2009-10.
Not that Friday's heroics surprised anyone around him.
"I've seen Dwyane enough over the years that it just becomes winning plays, whatever those may be," Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra said, per Moorhead. "It's born out of great competition. It brings the absolute best out in him."
Former Heat sharpshooter Mike Miller chalked up Friday's late takeover to an all-time great doing all-time great things:
Considering Wade's prominent place in the NBA's all-time hierarchy—the 13-year veteran already holds top-50 ranks in career points (39th), steals (50th), player efficiency rating (10th) and win shares (49th)—maybe that should have been expected.
Still, it's imperative not to overlook the significance of what we could be witnessing.
One Big Picture
Wade, as you may recall, has had knee problems that were born more than a decade ago. The driver's seat he occupied alone at the start of his career has been shared with—or ceded to—both James and Bosh over the last handful of seasons.
But this year is unlike any Wade has experienced in a long time.
The cast of characters around him features only a struggling big-money point guard (Goran Dragic), former All-Stars (Luol Deng, Joe Johnson and Amar'e Stoudemire), still-developing prospects (Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson) and a handful of forgettable veterans.
With up-and-down production from that group, the Heat turned a 2-0 series lead into a 3-3 draw. Deng has proved reliable (19.7 points per game on 52.6 percent shooting), while the others have been anything but. Miami's inability to consistently shoot from range allowed Charlotte to overpack the paint and hound the Heat's slashers, cutters and interior scorers.
And yet here Miami stands, perhaps 48 minutes from its first non-Big Three trip beyond the opening round since the miraculous title run keyed by Wade in 2006. He's not doing all of the heavy lifting like he did back then—his 19 points per game in the regular season tied for his lowest average since his rookie season of 2003-04, and his 30.5 minutes per game marked a new career low—but he's clearly the key to the Heat's playoff success.
During his 193 minutes of floor time this series, Miami has outscored the Hornets by 13 points per 100 possessions. When Wade's taken a break, the Heat have been outscored by 8.7 points per 100 possessions. That's a 21.7-point difference, or virtually an identical on/off disparity to that of reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who was plus-22 for the Golden State Warriors this season.
"Clutch situation, that's my guy, man," Udonis Haslem said of Wade, per Ethan J. Skolnick of the Miami Herald. "I trust every decision that he makes and every shot that he takes."
Why wouldn't he—or anyone on the Heat for that matter?
Sure, Wade can get a little ball-dominant late in games and go for heroic plays that, if not converted, can stagnate the offense. But no one on the Miami roster approaches his proficiency in the clutch, and, frankly, few players around the league can match it.
Despite ranking just seventh on the Heat in fourth-quarter minutes this season, Wade still led the team in total points during the final frame. He was also one of only 21 players across the NBA to tally at least 100 points in clutch situations—the final five minutes of a game with a margin of five points or fewer—and recorded the second-highest field-goal percentage of that group (45.5).
Now, consider some of the major moments under the brightest lights he's had in the past:
- 23 points on 52.4 percent shooting, 10 rebounds in Game 7 win in 2013 NBA Finals
- 41 points on 68 percent shooting, 10 rebounds in Game 6 closeout win in 2012 conference semifinals
- 34 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals in Game 5 closeout win in 2011 second round
- 42 points, 13 rebounds in Game 3 win in 2006 NBA Finals with Miami in an 0-2 series hole
- 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals, three blocks in Game 6 closeout win in 2006 Finals
"I play this game for the postseason," Wade said before the start of Miami's playoff run, per Skolnick. "I don't play this game for regular-season success, because that means nothing at this point in my career. ... [W]hat you remember the most—what you're remembered for the most—is what you do in the postseason."
Blend the past version with the present, and it's obvious why the Heat want Wade to decide their fate.
The opportunity ahead of Miami is massive. Survive Sunday's Game 7, and it earns a ticket to a winnable second-round series. Awaiting the Heat would be either a Toronto Raptors team that once again seems fazed by the playoff pressure or the seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers, who struggle to find consistent scoring outside of All-Star Paul George.
Escape that matchup, and it's on to the Eastern Conference Finals, with a LeBron reunion perhaps on the docket.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There's still another game to be decided in this series, another chance for Wade to flex his superstar skills on the game's biggest stage.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
