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 Red Zone Diaries - The Wonder of Wade
Tuesday night, in Miami’s 108-102, Game 2 win, Dwyane Wade was the wizard and led the HEAT to a 2-0 lead, in their Eastern Conference semi-final series against Washington. Wade controlled the game in a manner so complete that it was awe-inspiring and historic. It just may have been the greatest individual effort in Miami’s 70 game playoff history. He scored 31 points, set a HEAT playoff record with 15 assists, set another HEAT playoff record with 19 free throw attempts and added seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Dwyane Wade is carrying his team right now. There is no hotter player at the moment, in these playoffs, than him. In just his second NBA playoffs, he’s taking over, in a manner that belies greatness. On Tuesday, he became just the fifth player in NBA history and the first since 1989, to record 30+ points, 15+ assists and 5+ rebounds in a playoff game. The other four NBA players to do that, were all certified super-stars, who now reside in the basketball Hall-of-Fame; Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Walt Frazier and Oscar Robertson. I was at Madison Square Garden to see Walt Frazier’s 36 point-19 assist, masterpiece. It happened in New York’s Game 7 triumph in the 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. It was a championship performance for the ages, all ages. I was a 12 year-old kid, sitting next to my dad that night, 12 rows behind the basket, feeling like I was in basketball heaven. You never forget a game like that. Now we have witnessed that kind of playoff performance again, 35 years later.
“I came in with a different mind-set,” said Wade. “I really tried to be a playmaker. I really tried to attack and I know that if I attack, they will come to me and I’ll get the ball to my teammates. Everybody knew I was going to be looking for them.” Wade is the Michael Vick of the NBA, only he’s more consistent but just as spectacular, as the athletic, play-making quarterback of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. “You can’t just stop him with one or two guys when he starts his power drives,” said Wizards coach Eddie Jordan, before Game 2. “He’s quick, he’s powerful, he’s explosive and he’s strong. That combination, all in a half-second, is deadly.” Wizards guard, Gilbert Arenas is averaging 26.5 points a game in this series and like Wade, thrives with an attacking offensive style. He scored 25 points with 6 steals in Game 1. He added 28 points in Game 2. Add Arenas, to the ever-growing, Dwyane Wade fan club. “He drives and once he gets a step the rest of it is muscle,” said Arena’s between the first two games of this series. “He’s so athletic, but what helps him out is that he is so strong. Once he goes and he spins, he’s spinning with power. You can’t just bounce him off his route. You’re bouncing off him. He’s like a little tornado.”
In the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game, when the Wizards cut Miami’s 14- point lead down to five, Wade would not let them get any closer. He scored nine points in the period, making every big shot needed, keeping his HEAT unbeaten through their sixth straight playoff game. Washington’s Antawn Jamison, playing on a sore right-knee, scored his playoff career high, 32 points in 41 minutes. Along with Arenas and Larry Hughes, the Wizards “big three” combined for 75 points Tuesday but still came up short. The Wizards are a resilient bunch. They lost the first two games in Chicago, in the first round but rallied back and won the next four in a row. They became only the ninth team in NBA history, to win a seven game series after losing the first two. “We’re still confident,” says Jamison. “Our crowd will be crazy (Thursday) but we have to try to find a way to contain Dwyane Wade. He’s been killing us with his penetration.”
“Our guys battled,” said Eddie Jordan after Game 2 in Miami. “We gave ourselves a chance. We were on the brink but we gathered ourselves and fought to the last minute. If we play that hard and a little bit better, I think we’ll have a chance to win two games at our place.” Wade, has now exceeded 30 points three times in his last six playoff games. He has scored 20 points or better 12 times in his 19 playoff games and that ranks him tied for second in HEAT history with Tim Hardaway. And he’s only just begun. Wade knows that the HEAT’s hardest work in these playoffs is just beginning as well. “The Wizards won’t go away,” he said Tuesday night in the after glow. “They are a good basketball team. They’re in the second round for a reason.” Wade is here for a reason as well and on a mission. He is averaging 26 points on 50 percent shooting, 9.5 assists and 6.2 rebounds in the HEAT’s first six post-season games in 2005. He is quickly becoming one of the NBA’s greatest players right before our very eyes, under the glare of the playoff spotlight, where he seems so cool and so very much in control. Don’t miss a minute of this playoff ride. What you see now, you just may remember for a lifetime. Red Zone TV: Hope you will join us on Sun Sports tonight for Game 3 of this series. Along with “The Coach”, Tony Fiorentino and Jason Jackson, we will have the live, play-by-play coverage, beginning with the pre-game show at 7:30. |
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MIAMI, May 12 - He can beat you in so many ways.
In Tuesday’s game at the American Airlines Arena, Wade had a game plan and he followed it. He picked up six assists in the first quarter before taking his first shot.
Wade broke Anthony Carter’s HEAT playoff assist record with 2:25 left in the third quarter on a set up of an Alonzo Mourning slam-dunk. Carter’s 13- assist effort came in the 2000 first-round series against Detroit, and stood for five years.
The Wizards are not disheartened, down two games to none, with the next two set for the MCI Center in Washington, where they are 3-0 in these playoffs and winners of seven consecutive games overall.
